162 of 1001 Movies: Downfall (2004)

Downfall is perhaps one of the most well acted movies I've had the chance of seeing. It deals with people and topics that aren't easy to depict on screen because it does leave almost no one for the viewer to connect with in a movie, but somehow the director pulls it off and somehow really shows us what it would have been like to be around Hitler in his final days. Oliver Hirschbiegel bases his story on a memoir, and researches the story of Hitler's final months very well. He leaves almost no angle undiscovered, and if there are multiple views to how something happened he weaves it all in, such as the contradicting perceptions of how Hitler died.

Summary: Traudl Jung travels to Berlin, Germany in 1945 to be Hitler's secretary only months before he will commit suicide. Through her eyes you see his growing paranoia, and acceptance that he has lost as the Soviet Armies moves in on Berlin where he resides. Traudl also comes in contact with Hitler's wife, Eva,who marries him only a day before they kill themselves. Hitler though doesn't end the war with his death though, and the remaining military officers must figure out how to stop the Battle of Berlin against the Soviets.


Acting: The acting is some of the best you'll see in this movie. Bruno Ganz stars as Adolf Hitler, and seems to have really pulled himself into the mad reign that the dictator was. You can feel his loyalty to the comrades closest to him in the bunker that he had resolved to hiding out in, and his absolute terrible hate to those he deemed unworthy of being in the new world he wanted to establish. He seemed to be a psychopath. Ganz doesn't hold back though, and conveys it all with realness. Alexandra Maria Lara is Traudl, and does the balance well  of never becoming the main character of the film, but plays it with a delicacy of just being the eyes. Of course, her views and her explanations of how she began working with the Nazis is explained by her, but only she can that it was a result of her naive youth, and that she had idea of the notorious things occurring outside of Berlin at the time. The cast is quite huge though, and there isn't a weak spot with Christian Berkel as Prof Schenck and Juliane Kohler as Eva Braun.

Filming: The filming is quite simple, but the mood is well set. The war atmosphere has reduced the film to mostly being gray. They are trapped in a dim bunker, the lights flicker often, and the city is basically rubble at this point.  The shots when cast are walking around are sometimes very straight on, and I think it helps with the direct vibe of the film as well.

Plot: The plot centers around a secretary, working for Hitler's, perspective of him and the final days. It's quite intense despite the fact we never see much fighting considering we are mostly inside with the Nazis stowing away from the Soviets descending on the city of Berlin. Who you most fear for in this film though are the innocent civilians and children who were sadly drug into the destruction of the city. Some people were so committed to Hitler's ideas they killed their whole families and selves to keep from living after his death. Then the people who resided in Berlin were gruesomely murdered in Berlin out of anger from the Nazis. I think the director does a good job of providing insight into the history of Germany many people don't know about, and that is that ended up being turned on by their own. The director also weaves in the multiple speculations of just how some events occurred like Hitler's death. No one knows for certain whether he poisoned himself or shot himself, though people living with him at that time say they heard a gunshot. The director weaves it in that both would have been plausible things for him to do even at the same time.

Downfall isn't an easy movie to watch as many movies discussing World War 2 aren't. It shows the victims of the war that we often don't think about when discussing the history of that time. If there is anything this movie does uphold that we were very aware of is that Hitler and the Nazis were terrible and brutal people who really did believe that compassion and mercy were not called for, and their ideas are a sad look into a world without that for a short time, but was thankfully overpowered in the end.

Rating 8 of 10.