Downfall (1 Disc Edition) [DVD]

This masterpiece is the ultimate depiction of Adolf Hitler and his last days in the Berlin bunker. Superbly acted with an excellent cast which truly takes you back to his last days in 1945. The outrage scene which became an International meme aside, this is one of the best films covering World War 2.5/5 ratingOutstanding film!

"Downfall" is an electrifying and captivating war drama covering the final ten days of Adolf Hitler's rule in Berlin in 1945. The film begins and ends with a real-life interview from Traudl Junge - a young secretary who fell under the spell of Hitler and the Nazis during the war. She reveals how easy it was for Germans to be swept along by the imagery and rhetoric of Hitler, and states that she now realises that German people should have questioned Hitler more to prevent the horrors which unfolded.Spoken in the German language, this version of "Downfall" has a very clear picture quality and is easy to understand with very accurate English subtitles.Bruno Ganz convincingly portrays the shaking and haggard Hitler, realising that all his dreams of world domination are over. At times he is menacing and frightening, and at other times cuts a lonely and pathetic figure. Ganz's uncanny physical similarity to Hitler makes his performance all the more terrifying. Hitler continually gazes at his pristine white model of a new Berlin as the capital of the world - a dream that never occurred.Alexandra Maria Lara engagingly portrays the young secretary Traudl Junge, showing how she was in awe of Hitler at the start, but quickly realising he had an incredibly dark and sinister side to his nature. Juliane Köhler energetically depicts Eva Braun, illustrating that she was full of life and spirit almost right up to the end. How much of this was a show of loyalty to Hitler or whether she genuinely shared the overflowing hubris of her partner is debatable. And, Christian Berkel wonderfully plays Prof. Ernst-Günther Schenck - a well-meaning doctor who refuses to leave for safety so he can save as many lives of Berlin's civilians as he can.The disintegration of the Nazi war machine is vividly represented, and Hitler realises that most of his leading soldiers are either incompetent or disloyal. Many soldiers and their families choose to commit suicide rather than fall into the hands of the invading Russians. The most harrowing episodes are when Ernst-Robert Grawitz kills his family with grenades and Magda Goebbels murders her six young children with cyanide capsules.After testing his own cyanide capsule on his beloved dog Blondi, Hitler dramatically organises the murder and suicide of himself and Braun, ordering his body to be burnt so the Russians do not capture his corpse.Although the last days of Hitler is a relatively well-known story, "Downfall" brings a terror and immediacy to the end of the Nazis, showing that when soldiers and their families realised Germany had lost the war, they were quick to make the decision to kill themselves, or attempt to completely disconnect themselves from Hitler.

This is a near flawless movie, well deserving of a wide audience. The fact that it is a German movie which required watching subtitles, may put some people off - but the reality is that the German actors give this much more resonance than any Hollywood version could have.Much has been said about the fantastic performance of Bruno Ganz as Hitler. This is his movie, no doubt. It should also be mentioned, however, that all of the performances are so spot on that we are removed from a theatrical overview of events, and truly become part of life in the bunker. So many movies of this period show either the two dimensional Nazi bad guys and Hitler as a raving lunatic and nothing else, or a dispassionate overview of the tactics of the battle for Berlin. This movie achieves something rare - a real personal insight into the characters and how they informed the battle tactics and actions of individuals.Our view into this world is through the young and naive private secretary Traudl Junge, who wrote one of the books on which the movie is based. Thus, historical accuracy is very high. But what we see is an insight into the humanity of Hitler - in one moment warm and compassionate, the next brutal and vulgar. We can understand through Ganz' portrayal the charisma the man must have had to attract such loyal devotion.Do not be fooled into thinking that a movie about life in the bunker will be small scale low budget sets.. the movie ventures outside and we get glimpses of some terrible battle scenes. Those with DTS capability for surround sound will be richly rewarded. The scenes of a war ravaged Berlin are incredibly real - in fact, shot in Saint Petersburg.Towards the end the scenes become more and more disturbing as the veneer of normality is stripped away as the war looms closer. Scenes of suicides and murders are truly disturbing - not least the scene where Magda Goebbels, having sworn her children should not survive in a world without National Socialism, calmly murders them in their sleep, one at a time, before calmly sitting down to a game of cards.At once compelling in the drama of a city at war, and engrossing for its insight into characters normally cinema is too scared to show as humanity, this is perhaps one of the most insightful movies into the horror of National Socialism in WW II and the man who created it. The movie is bookended by the real Traudl Junge speaking in a 2001 documentary, adding an entirely appropriate coda to the movie showing its relevance to all of us.Thoroughly and unreservedly recommended.