Downfall
(2004)
Sony
Cast:
Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthas, Corinna
Harfouch.
Rating:
NR.
Run
time: 155 mins
Genre:
Foreign.
Verdict:
Brilliant
(see rating
system)
This
German movie is the best film ever made about Nazi dictator
Adolf Hitler, featuring a superb performance by Swiss actor
Bruno Ganz as the Fuehrer..
Based
on the recollections of Hitler's last secretary Traudl Junge
in her book Until The Final Hour, the film oozes authenticity
as it tells of the final days of the Third Reich in 1945.
With the Russians closing in from the east and the Allied
armies approaching from the west, Hitler retreated to his
massive underground bunker in Berlin.
Here
he ranted about the betrayals of his generals, cynically dismissed
the fate of the war weary German people and continued to issue
orders for imaginary armies long since wiped out. Sycophantic
followers like propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels continued
to the last to peddle the illusion Germany could still win
the war.
Others
pleaded for Hitler to escape the closing trap and continue
the war from a mountain fortress. But as the air raids grew
heavier and Russian artillery shells exploded day and night
amid the Berlin ruins above, above, Hitler vowed to stay.
His final act was to marry long-time companion Eva Braun before
they both committed suicide.
Junge,
who died in 2002, witnessed it all as a 25-year-old and her
story makes for a gripping movie. The claustrophobic atmosphere
of the bunker is vividly recreated though painstaking research
based on plans, drawing and photographs of the bunker. A complete
replica was built for this production near Munich.
Exterior
shots of the chaos of wartime Berlin and street fighting were
filmed in St. Petersburg, Russia where many of the buildings
were designed by German architects.
Ganz
has a great supporting cast around him, but he dominates every
scene he's in as he brings to life the Hitler Junge knew:
Complex, fierce, obsessive, delusional, but also thoughtful
on a personal level and often charming.
But
even Junge had no excuses for Hitler's barbarity, his anti-semitism
and the madness he initiated that engulfed the world and killed
millions.
A
riveting film indeed.
