Downfall [DVD]
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Movie Reviews of Downfall [DVD]
Movie Review: An extraordinary, highly nuanced motion picture
Summary: 5 Stars
Downfall impressed me greatly on a number of different levels. It can't be easy to make a movie showing your country's destruction and acknowledging the atrocities your own countrymen committed. The fact that Germany won't allow publication or importing of Mein Kampf even as an historical document has always suggested to me a national desire to just pretend the events of the past never happened. For obvious reasons, I was exceedingly interested in watching this film. How would Hitler be portrayed? Would there be any mention of the Holocaust? I had these and many other questions. All those questions were answered with a surprisingly nuanced film of great complexity and depth.
Downfall chronicles not only Hitler's last days inside the bunker but the immediate aftermath of his death and Germany's surrender. To a significant degree, that story is reflected through the eyes of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's personal secretaries. Video clips of an interview with the elderly Junge from Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary (2002) frame the presentation (ringing rather hollow, if you ask me - but that's really neither here nor there). In the claustrophobic confines of Hitler's bunker, we witness the final days of the already broken Fuhrer, the individual dramas of those in Hitler's inner circle as they wrestle with the decision to leave or stay, and the total destruction of German society along with National Socialism.
The treatment of Hitler is, to my mind, exceedingly well done. Hitler was a much more complicated man than many give him credit for. His personal demons came to consume him, but there was a human side to the man, as well - and this film brings that out in a very nuanced way. This is not to say that Downfall makes of Hitler a sympathetic character - not in the slightest. His hate and venom are never far from the forefront, but this actually stands to reinforce his exceedingly human weaknesses. His mood swings are severe, especially as the end draws near - and he's not always rational. Betrayal drives him into a fury, especially the ultimate betrayal by Himmler. Yet he remains lucid enough to plan his death in an effort to keep his remains out of the hands of the Russians.
Almost as fascinating as Hitler himself, in both history as well as this film, are the Goebbels. Joseph Goebbels himself remained loyal to the very end, and it can be said that his wife Magda was even more dedicated to Hitler and National Socialism than he was. She, after all, killed all six of her children rather than let them grow up in a world without National Socialism - and that scene proves to be the most riveting of the entire film. Eva Braun is an almost extraordinary character in the film; maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think the filmmakers gave an accurate picture of her at all.
Then there are the military leaders who watch Hitler give orders their decimated armies cannot possibly follow. Loyalty is a powerful force in these men's lives - but their loyalty is to Germany rather than Hitler himself. For this reason, they are the ones asking Hitler to spare the German people and to think about ending the war. For some, though, the distaste of Germany's surrender from World War I overrides everything else in their determination to fight to the death - and I think that was a most telling point for the film to make. The only real problem I had with the film was the fact that I was hard pressed to identify several of the most prominent characters. All of the actors were made to resemble the men they played, but - even though I'm familiar with most of the historical figures - I really couldn't figure out the identities of several characters over the course of the film.
You may be wondering if the film actually shows Hitler's suicide on the screen - I wondered that myself. Unfortunately, I'm not going to tell you how the scene plays out. You will find a significant number of fairly graphic scenes in the film, though. It truly is a realistic presentation of Germany's darkest days, with the increasingly devastating destruction of Berlin going hand in hand with the physical and mental breakdown of the man ultimately responsible for it all. Honestly, I never expected any German filmmaker to produce such an honest, complex, awe-inspiring motion picture about their most infamous national leader. Downfall is a must-see.
Movie Review: Gripping portayal of the last days of Hitler and the Third Reich
Summary: 5 Stars
Der Untergang is based on the memoirs of Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, Until The Final Hour, and Joachim Fest's Inside The Bunker, and chronicles the last days of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, beginning from his 56th birthday to the surrender of Germany to the Russians. However, there is a brief aside in the beginning, in November 1942, chronicling the scene where young doe-eyed Traudl Humpts is hired as der Fuhrer's secretary.
The Third Reich is on the verge of collapse throughout this film. Certain bigshots are positioning themselves, whether to remain in Berlin, loyal to the end (Goebbels, Martin Bormann) or to flee (Heinrich Himmler). Hitler himself is told by his architect Albert Speer that he must be on the stage when the curtain falls. And acts of desperation also take effect on that stage. Josef Goebbels has recruited defenders of the city, many of them in their early teens, who are impressionable enough to want to become heroes. Sadly, most of them end up as shell fodder for the Russians.
As for the Fuhrer, he is out of touch with reality, the divisions on his map existing only in his imagination. He still believes that two divisions can regroup and take the Russians from behind, but alas. And when things don't go his way or he hears reports of lines having fallen, he blames the generals and soldiers, even going out of his way to insult them. It's ironic how his ideology placed the Germans as the superior race, but when the end is near, he dismisses them of being unworthy of survival and deserving to die. Quite an about-face there...
Traudl aside, there are others of honourable mention. Professor Dr. Schenke is concerned with the fate of the civilians during this critical time and is one of the more humane characters involved, as he risks going into Russian held territory to get medical supplies for the wounded. And as for the wounded, the scene of the limbs being dumped into plates, saws used to amputate, and the sight of the injured are pretty grim, but then again, Germany was up the creek without a paddle, so to say.
Eva Braun's life of the party personality boosts flagging morale during those last days, in the impromptu parties she stages, leading to dancing and drinking. She even befriends Traudl, confiding in her at one point how she hated Blondi, Hitler's dog and even kicked it when the dictator wasn't looking.
One debit for Nazi history buffs is the where certain major players aren't clearly identified. Only later in the epilogue, do we realize, "oh, that was supposed to be Goering, Jodl, Martin Bormann etc."
I marveled at Bruno Ganz's performance as the angel Damiel in Himmel Uber Berlin, and he outdoes himself as Hitler in this movie, getting the dictator's nervous twitch in his left hand to a tee. He exhibits bouts of madness, outright callousness, and a man totally out of touch with the reality of the situation. Yet, he is shown to be gentle and caring to certain individuals, such as his secretary and to Eva Braun. When one of his trusted henchmen Albert Speer announces his decision to flee, Hitler is saddened, even heartbroken at this desertion. Ulrich Matthes's portrayal as Josef Goebbels is amazing, as when comparing him to photos of the propaganda minister, there is a striking resemblance.
Alexandra Maria Lara (Traudl) is the other great performer that boosts Der Untergang. Not even a strong National Socialist, she still remains loyal to the Fuhrer, believing in him till it becomes apparent that Germany's defeat is certain. With the real Traudl Junge bookending the movie in two scenes, I have to say she is hard on herself for not realizing the atrocities that went on during the Reich, even though she wasn't an avid Nazi.
But it's Corinna Harfouch as Magda Goebbels, she who believed that there was no future in a world without National Socialism, and coldly poisoned her offspring, making her with someone with more backbone than her husband. The actual scene when she poisons her children is also quite disturbing.
One of the best movies on Hitler, with the best ever portrayal of him in a movie. To accompany this, I also recommend the documentary Death In The Bunker, whose events parallel that of Fest's book and this movie.
Movie Review: This film shows all and explains nothing
Summary: 5 Stars
The Downfall describes the ten days leading up to Hitler's bunker suicide on April 30th, 1945. The tattered German Army surrendered a week later. It is the first significant film about Hitler made by a German film company. That Germans had to wait 60 years to confront their leader's demise is an indication of the enduring corrosiveness of the Hitler legend.
This is at least the third movie made of Trevor Roper's 1947 book The Last Days of Hitler, which started as a sensational British intelligence assessment of what happened to the Nazi leader. As soon as the Soviets captured Berlin, they quickly spirited away the bodies of the bunker suicide group. An extensive interrogation of all captured witnesses, captured dental records and an autopsy led to assurances that the Führer had not escaped.
The producers of The Downfall made a number of brilliant editorial decisions. The film explains nothing. It shows in historically accurate detail what happened. The viewer is witness to the many surreal vignettes played out in the charnel pit of Berlin in final days of WW-II. With this essentially neutral portrayal of a man who alternates between being a kindly uncle and a raving lunatic, the usual cadre of critics who feel they alone own Hitler (it is much more than a cottage industry) are left speechless.
To add further complexity, one of the quiet heroes of the film is an SS medical officer. This nuance will clash against the shibboleth that all SS men were only sadistic concentration camp guards instead of also the Swiss Guard of Hitler's megalomaniacal rule. Heavily indoctrinated, they were also the best-trained and fiercest combat troops of the European war--and often the most cruel.
The supporting women are expertly cast, particularly Eva Braun-more of a party girl than one imagines (and with a subtle nod to her possible affair with General Fegelein)--as well as Magda Goebbels. Frau Goebbels is an icy beauty, as fascinating as the stare of a cobra. Her methodical poisoning of their six children is one of the most sickening moments in film.
One criticism that can be made against the film is that too many of Hitler's generals are portrayed as reasonable men--professional soldiers, yet still honor-bound to a madman's captivating aura. Yes, the German General Staff was comprised of classically educated men of a caliber that will never again lead a nation's military. But surely they were not all so resolutely noble, regal and handsome. OK, there were two fatties--Göring and Bormann--but they were mere window-dressing in this film and clearly as evil as they were corpulent. Also, the bunker is depicted as being larger than the cramped, smelly redoubt it actually was. Dynamited by the Soviets a few years after the war it is now flooded and buried without any plaque noting its location.
Watching this gruesome story unfold is like traveling back to the Hitler bunker in a time machine. It is shocking to witness the catastrophic violence of the death throes of Berlin. Death in the camps was a smoothly humming assembly line; death in Berlin was sudden and always capricious-a deafening cacophony of artillery shells, tank fire, collapsing buildings and the whistle and thud of small arms bullets. Fresh body parts litter this urban moonscape.
In the end, The Downfall comes closer than any film or book in portraying convincingly the dissolution of Hitler, the genius psychopath who was able to lead a nation-and himself--down a path of utter destruction. Scenes of officer suicide in the face of Russian advances are realistically portrayed (and evoke echoes of Masada). And yet, still, Hitler's hold on the psyche of a nation is not fully understandable. We see what happened; that his followers thought him truly a god. But how--really--did that happen? Could it happen to us? Extraordinary as the film is in depicting the dying days of a once brilliant madman expiring in his lair, yet something more is needed to make us understand the "why" of it. Perhaps, like all religious conversions, the reason for such a captivating thrall can never be understood. It can only be experienced. Lord save us from more of that.
Movie Review: If you are shocked at what happened, then explore the issue further
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie deserves all of the accolades it has received both from the film industry and the reviewers who have written about it here. It's interesting, however, that people are so shocked at how Hitler and his henchmen managed to take over Germany and lead the world into a war that included the ultimate atrocity of the Holocaust. While anyone who is familiar with German history knows that the country was especially vulnerable to a charismatic, if obviously megalomaniacal, leader like Hitler, there were many other countries who followed such leaders in the twentieth century; Hitler simply managed to take his schemes to theretofore unreached heights before his (and Germany's) inevitable "Downfall."
As has been mentioned by other reviewers, Hitler is accurately portrayed as a human being in this film rather than as a stereotyped demonic figure. Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Goering, and their ilk were indeed human, and they were also products of a society that had come to embrace social Darwinism and Nietzschean nihilism. Only the strong should survive and those strong survivors would then become gods. When one follows such a line of thinking and believes that, as Nietzsche wrote, "God is dead," then no evil is out of the realm of possibility.
Once the influence of such schools of thought resulted in God's 'death' to most of the European (not only German) population, a man like Hitler had an easy task of promoting his agenda of a race of supermen. The German masses went along with him as he restored both their national pride and economy (even if it was accomplished primarily through military build-up). Once he appeared as though he was the people's savior, he had them swear their allegiance to him (as though he were indeed their Lord and savior). Of course, by this time Hitler's power was established and anyone who didn't pledge their allegiance to him was eliminated or, at best, imprisoned. All of the suicides that viewers witness in this film were committed by fanatical followers who obviously thought of Hitler as their Messiah and didn't know what to do now that he had been revealed as being false. Other blind followers, like Traudl Junge, didn't have any ideas with which to arm themselves other than those implanted in them by Nazi brainwashers such as Goebbels.
Most of the German church stood idly by, although there were a very few noted figures - such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer - who did resist Hitler, because most of the German people had long ago lost interest in God. Even most of those who attended church did so out of custom rather than faith; they were firm nationalists and nominal Christians only.
I'm sure that a review such as this one, which approaches the situation from a Christian perspective, will be lambasted by many as being simplistic. I am also aware of the atrocities that have been, and continue to be, perpetrated in the name of both Christianity and other religions. I can't vouch for the other religions, but the atrocities committed in the name of Christianity have not come at the hands of true followers of the Christian faith.
For anyone who is interested in exploring these issues further, I recommend the following works as a starting point: 1) for a look at how Hitler actually exploited, and later subdued, the German church, read Erwin W. Lutzer's book titled "Hitler's Cross"; 2) for a look at the foremost Church resistance leader, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the dilemmas of faith and ethics which he had to confront under Hitler's regime, watch the DVD titled "Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace"; 3) for a good sampler of Nietzschean nihilism, try "Thus Spake Zarathustra," "The Anti-Christ," or "Beyond Good and Evil" (Hitler did twist some of Nietzsche's ideas a bit, but he didn't have to overexert himself in this process); and 4) for the answer to how a Hitler could have arisen in the first place (and why so many other brutal dictators ruled during the twentieth century and continue to arise in the twenty-first century), read Ravi Zacharias's excellent book titled "Can Man Live Without God?" (all are available on Amazon).
Movie Review: A Realistic Depiction of Hitler's and NAZI Berlin's Last Days
Summary: 5 Stars
"Downfall" (Der Untergang) does what few war movies do: it depicts war not as merely a series of historical developments or an inexplicable "fog" of horrors, but as a complex interweaving of psychology, inhumanity, depravity, and ultimately the strength of the human will and hope. The underlying historical events are well known: Hitler, surrounded by the Red Army in his bunker in Berlin in the last weeks of April 1945, ultimately commits suicide by gunshot, just after having married his long-time companion Eva Braun, whom herself commits suicide by a cyanide capsule. As many know, the last days of Berlin were very bloody ones, with German civilians, German and Soviet soldiers suffering heavy casualties for very little yet very precious ground. Most sad of all, with much of the German Wermacht significantly killed, the NAZI apapratus began to recruit younger and younger "soldiers".
"Downfall" starkly and graphically depicts the suffering of Germany's civilians, who ultimately were the biggest victims of Hitler's inhumanity (both Jewish and non-Jewish alike). The NAZIs did not spare their evil even from their own family members, many of whom were unwillingly murdered before the Red Army captured Hitler's last refuge.
I have read some reviews that critize that "Downfall" depicts Hilter and the NAZI high apparatus as almost "human", and thus might elicit sympathy for the regime. While "Downfall" does depict some moments of seeming humanity (it was documented, for example, that Hitler could be kind to his secretaries and workers, and was very caring towards his German Shepherd "Blondi"), these punctuated moments of humanity do not take away from the ultimate complexity and human tragedy that defined Hitler. If anything, "Downfall" offers a very important lesson: Hitler, far from being some unimaginable monster, was all too human. And if Hitler was really human, then Hitler's own personal "downfall" is one that is not impossible to imagine in ourselves. The real take-home message is that we are all capable of evil, perhaps not of the same level as Hitler of course, but evil nonetheless.
Bruno Ganz does a remarkable job recreating not only Hitler's mannerisms and hand twitches (it is now suspected Hitler may have had early Parkinson's Disease), but also the inflections and intonations of his voice. While there is little recorded evidence depicting Hitler's voice outside of the infamous Munich rallies (where ultimately Hitler was yelling more than conversationally speaking), the one existing recording of Hitler speaking in a conversational voice is said to have been carefully studied by Ganz in preparation for his role. Ganz looks, sounds, and acts almost so convincingly that at times you almost feel you are witnessing Hitler himself.
The horrors of war ultimately cannot be "whitewashed". Some war movies paint the war in glorious, patriotic brush strokes (especially the war movies of the time). Others ridicule and dehmanize NAZIs to the point where they become almost caricatures. "Downfall" does neither: it depicts what most likely happened in Hitler's bunker those last ten days of April 1945. We see between moments of abject horror and despair short glimpses of humanity and hope, especially from the point of view of Hitler's secretaries, who were some of the few to survive. The extent to which individuals like these, farther extended from Hitler's inner circle, were complicit in his crimes is uncertain. But it is evident that to whatever extent they believed in the mythology of NAZIsm and Aryanism, it was devastatingly demolished in the last days of Hitler's Reich.
There are no heroes in "Downfall". And while the villains were always obvious, the real fact is that war leaves no one sinless. To show otherwise is to polemicize or romanticize, something that objective historical drama should not do, and which "Downfall" luckily does not do itself.