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| Downfall | 
 enlarge | Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Actors: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Koehler
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.94
Buy Used: $6.67
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New (52) Used (26) from $6.67
Avg. Customer Rating:  363 reviews
Sales Rank: 1454
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), German (Original Language), Russian (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 155
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D11545D
ISBN: 1404987606
UPC: 043396115453
EAN: 9781404987609
ASIN: B0009RCPUC
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
Release Date: August 2, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: still sealed with promo drill through barcode
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Amazon.com
The riveting subject of Downfall is nothing less than the disintegration of Adolf Hitler in mind, body, and soul. A 2005 Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film, this German historical drama stars Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire) as Hitler, whose psychic meltdown is depicted in sobering detail, suggesting a fallen, pathetic dictator on the verge on insanity, resorting to suicide (along with Eva Braun and Joseph and Magda Goebbels) as his Nazi empire burns amidst chaos in mid-1945. While staging most of the film in the claustrophobic bunker where Hitler spent his final days, director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Das Experiment) dares to show the gentler human side of der Fuehrer, as opposed to the pure embodiment of evil so familiar from many other Nazi-era dramas. This balanced portrayal does not inspire sympathy, however: We simply see the complexity of Hitler's character in the greater context of his inevitable downfall, and a more realistic (and therefore more horrifying) biographical portrait of madness on both epic and intimate scales. By ending with a chilling clip from the 2002 documentary Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary, this unforgettable film gains another dimension of sobering authenticity. --Jeff Shannon
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| Customer Reviews: Read 358 more reviews...
 So few true innocents March 15, 2005
595 out of 624 found this review helpful
One of 2004's best films, DOWNFALL (DER UNTERGANG), recreates the last days of Adolph Hitler and his sycophants in the Fuehrer's bunker below the Reich Chancellery as the noose drawn by vengeful Soviet armies gets ever tighter.
The film actually opens in 1942 at Hitler's East Prussia command post as Adolph (Bruno Ganz) meets several young woman brought from Berlin to be interviewed for a job as his personal secretary. Young Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) lands the plum assignment, and it's mostly from her perspective that the remainder of the story is told as the scene shifts to Berlin in April 1945.
DOWNFALL is based on Joachim Fest's book, INSIDE HITLER'S BUNKER, and the volume BIS ZUR LETZTEN STUNDE by Traudl Junge and Melissa Mueller. Indeed, the real Junge, by then an old woman, provides voiceovers both at the beginning and end of the film, and appears in person before the final credits. (The 2002 documentary, BLIND SPOT, is an extended interview with Traudl, in which she expresses "plausible deniability" for the atrocities perpetuated by her employer.)
All of the major and minor players familiar to students of the period are represented: Joseph and Magda Goebbels and their offspring, Eva Braun, Speer, Fegelein, Weidling, Mohnke, Himmler, Krebs, Burgdorf, Keitel, Jodl, Guensche, Bormann, Goering, Hewel, Ritter von Greim, Reitsch, Stumpfegger, Kempa, Manziarly, Christian, Haase, Schenck, Linge, and Blondi (Hitler's German shepherd). DOWNFALL seems a faithful representation of all I've ever read about those last days in Hitler's hidey-hole.
DOWNFALL has been coined a "German film for Germans", perhaps thinking that the despicability of the Nazi hierarchy will somehow be toned down for a home audience. True, the film's creators show heroism and selflessness where they can find it: the dogged and brave defense of Berlin's city center by Generals Mohnke (Andre Hennicke) and Weidling (Michael Mendl), the concern for the civilian population and wounded by Doctors Schenck (Christian Berkel) and Haase (Mathias Habich), and even the bravery of Speer (Heino Ferch) in disobeying Hitler's orders to reduce Germany's infrastructure to scorched earth. But DOWNFALL also depicts Der Fuehrer's antipathy for the Jews and his volcanic, recriminatory outbursts against his generals and the German people for their ostensible treachery and cowardice, the self-serving conniving of Himmler (Ulrich Noethen), the actions of the assassination squads above ground seeking out perceived malingerers and deserters, the to-the-death fanaticism of defenders no more than children, and the blind and irrational loyalty of Joseph (Ulrich Matthes) and Magda (Corinna Harfouch) Goebbels to Hitler. Indeed, perhaps the hardest sequence to watch is that of Magda killing her own children - Helga, Hilde, Helmut, Hedda, Holde - with cyanide capsules after first drugging them with a sleeping potion. She'd decided that they didn't deserve to live in a world devoid of National Socialism. At one point, the oldest girl, Helga, sensing something is amiss with her mother's intentions, resists taking the soporific, but is forced to submit by Magda and Dr. Stumpfegger (Thorsten Krohn). The Goebbels children, along with Hitler's dog Blondi, who was poisoned by his master to test the effects of the cyanide capsules provided by Himmler, are the only innocents here, and the viewer's heart may well bleed for them.
The performance by Bruno Ganz was of Oscar caliber. He was certainly more deserving of a nomination than a couple of the actors so honored at the recent Academy Awards ceremony. However, can you imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the Politically Correct had Bruno's ADOLPH HITLER been acclaimed for the brilliant rendition it is?
For those who'd criticize DOWNFALL as humanizing Hitler and his cronies, I have a breaking news flash. Hello!?! These men and women were defective, but still Homo sapiens all. Those who'd put these deviants beyond the pale of the species are just as deluded as those who'd deny that the Holocaust ever took place, and they may just as well put their heads back under the sand. It's a tired adage, but, forget history and you'll repeat it.
My only complaint was that many of the characters, unless introduced to the audience by having their names verbalized in the dialogue, are left too long unidentified. There should have been visual captions at the first appearance of each. Himmler, Goebbels, and perhaps Speer, are immediately recognizable, but it took too long into the run time to identify such as Bormann, Guensche, Weidling, Krebs, Burgdorf, Keitel, and Jodl.
DOWNFALL is a must-see film for anybody interested in the death throes of Hitler's Reich. It was nominated for an Academy Award as the Best Foreign Language Film of 2004. It lost out to THE SEA INSIDE, a lesser movie. The fact that the latter was itself exceptional should be an indication of how superb a production DOWNFALL is.
Hitler as Human Being--Always Controversial March 25, 2005
262 out of 299 found this review helpful
I saw this film in Germany in November, 2004, and picked up a copy in Berlin this March...my pre-ordered Amazon.de copy was waiting for me on my return.
This film is essential for anyone who wishes to understand "the evil that men do" (and women, for example, Frau Goebbels, who killed her children because she did not want them to grow up in a world without National Socialism, Nazism). It is a deep film, based on the historical novel of Joachim Fest, and the stunning documentary "Blind Spot" (Bis Zum Toten Winkel) revealing the thoughts of Hitler's personal secretary, Traudl Humps (married to an SS officer on Hitler's staff who was killed in 1943, she became Traudl Jung), shortly before her death as the millenium turned.
The acting is superb. The best new crop of German actors, as well as Bruno Ganz portraying Der Fuehrer himself, are excellent. Most of the elements that led to the coming of the Holocaust, the Third Reich, and its downfall are cleverly intertwined in this phenomenally staged docudrama. In several viewings, I could find virtually nothing to criticize, down to the china used in the bunker, or so-called Fuehrerbunker, to the attitudes of the many Field Marshalls, who were in many ways as "apolitical" as General Tommy Franks, attitudes of resignation, as suicide as the last honorable gesture, of "doing the right thing."
Such films have to be seen in context. After 60 years of banishment of the swastika (Hakenkreuz in German) in Germany, we see the swastika in its full "glory" throughout the film, the beautiful and attractive uniforms originally designed by Hugo Boss (no kidding). In context, in 2004, Germans were suddenly faced with an extremely well-made film that shows Hitler as nearly human (hiding is Parkinsonian tremor of his left hand behind his back as he presents the Iron Cross, 2nd Class, to Hitler Youth defending Berlin after the declaration of "Clausewitz"--Berlin as a war front. While other officers plead for the evacuation of women and children, Hitler responds that the German people (das Volk) do not deserve to survive, because they have lost this war. National Socialism is revealed as the death culture it was. In other contexts, there are excellend books, articles, and documentaries revealing how willing the German Volk were to turn over all thought, conscience, morality, to the Fuehrer, who encouraged them to do so. Unfortunately, the next 60 years would show that the attitudes of National Socialism did not die with him.
I could individually commend the performances of the many players and people behind the scenes. I have been to Berlin, and this IS Berlin, to any approximation I have seen in photos of the time, and I have been in the last remaining Air Raid shelter (bunker) for the populace and it is no different from this soundstage, save the furniture that was probably taken from Jews years before by the party, which ended up as furnishings in the many homes of the high command and Hitler.
After viewing the film, I do recommend that the viewer take in "Schindler's List" or "The Pianist" to complement it. As we are faced with worldwide conflagration against a non-uniformed enemy of Western culture and democracy, it is hard to think of World War Two as the last of the "civilized" wars, even though it was perhaps the last of uniformed armies facing one another (the Cold War, which never went hot, excluded).
This film does show, through the characters of Traudl Junge and her young friend, the Hitler Youth decorated by Hitler personally, as they walk through the Soviet line on their way back to Bavaria, that the policy of war as a solution to any international dispute is at best fragile. Perhaps that fragility is our best hope for peace.
"Your Little Throats Are Being Cut" May 11, 2005
46 out of 48 found this review helpful
"Downfall" is one of the most astonishing movies I have seen this year. I am a little baffled that it hasn't received more attention in the United States. Bruno Ganz should have gotten an Oscar nomination for best actor. But it did get a nomination for best foreign film. "Downfall" is easily as good and gripping as the renowned hit "Das Boot". It's probably the case that foreign movies don't get as much attention now as they did in the 1980's. Nevertheless, this fine film should have a long life on DVD.
"Downfall" has caused some controversy because it depicts Adolf Hitler not as a demon, but as a human being who was kind to his young secretaries and his dogs. In fact this makes his evil all the more insidious and monstrous. "Downfall" can be seen as an attempt by Germans to come to terms with their part in Hitler's crimes. How could a not-entirely-bad man like Albert Speer or an innocent like Traudl Junge retain their loyalty and admiration for such a diseased figure? We see the terrible events of April 1945 through German eyes. This involves acknowledging the horrible suffering of the German people as they were bombed and smashed into surrender. (Definitely, however, without letting them off the hook for their moral responsibility for the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity.)
We see Berlin turned into an apocalyptic landscape that would not seem out of place in the Book of Revelation. Gangs of murdering Nazis roam the rubble, looking for final victims to lynch. The Volkssturm, the army of old men and little boys recruited for the last defense of the city, is slaughtered by the advancing Russians. Officials of the regime are committing suicide right and left. (Some historians say there were more suicides among the Germans during the end than among the Japanese.) Down in the fuehrer's bunker Hitler's young secretary Traudl Junge (the wide-eyed, pretty, sweet Alexandra Maria Lara) witnesses the death throes of the Reich. Bruno Ganz is amazing as Hitler. The warm, human angel of "Wings of Desire" is entirely gone, replaced by this occasionally lucid, frequently rabid being. For long stretches of the movie, I swear, I entirely forgot there was an actor working up on the screen and it seemed as if I was watching Hitler himself in all his malignancy.
The movie turns the screws of suspense as things get worse and worse, and you get a solemn sense of justice being done at last. (Although there are still crimes that can be committed, like the diabolical murder of Goebbels' small children by their mother, shown in graphic detail.) The key to the movie perhaps can be had in a little speech by Goebbels. An army General protests the wanton slaughter of civilians and the Volkssturm. Goebbels replies, "I have no sympathy. No sympathy! The German people gave us the mandate. And now you cry because your little throats are being cut." It's a chilling moment. And a sobering reminder that politicians must be held accountable, and the people of a nation have to be responsible in their choice of leaders.
Very accurate July 18, 2005
29 out of 30 found this review helpful
I thought it was a goof when we hear a German general suddenly speaking in Russian while negotiating a surrender. So I did a little fact-checking and was surprised to see how accurately events and characters are portrayed, down to the spoken lines and physical appearance of supporting actors. The general in question was Krebs and he was indeed fluent in Russian (Cornelius Ryan, "The Last Battle", p. 468)
For historical accuracy alone, this is a movie that puts all of Hollywood war movies to shame.
Epic Look At Last Days Of The Third Reich March 3, 2005
22 out of 25 found this review helpful
Within the orbit of the "sturm und drang' universe that was the twelve year reign of the Third Reich, almost nothing was excessive, not even the maniacal gesticulations of the Little Corporal, Adolph Hitler, whose final days in the enveloping holocaust that was Berlin in April of 1945. In "Downfall" we are treated to a disagreeable dollop of desperately demented degenerates in an absolutely riveting look at just how fantastic and solipsistic the worldview of the Nazis was. Even as the Gotterdammerung explodes around them, Hitler fancies a meal of Cheese ravioli even as his eating companions dither.
Hitler was nothing if not megalomaniacal; yet there was method to his madness, for the Soviet Union was indeed literally moving heaven and earth to discover and destroy him. Yet his almost whimsical last-ditch efforts to resurrect the smashed Wehrmacht to rescue him and win the day are fascinating to see recreated so powerfully and sometimes poetically here, and it helps one to better understand the malignant and molevolent motive force behind the mass movement that left mega-millions of dead and even more ruined lives in its fateful wake.
The movie strikes a fascinating counterpoint between the social dramas of the siege of Berlin around with the more personal drama of what is happening within the bunker itself. In so doing, it breathes life into Hannah Arendt's fascinating comment about the ultimate banality of evil. After all, these were human beings struggling to survive within the concrete confines of the bunker, however tortured, conflicted and self-interested. To recognize this is to better comprehend just how petty and mundane their lives were in these most fatal final hous of their miserable existence, worrying as they did about making coffee and smoking cigarettes while their very world was being smashed into smithereens above them.
The movie is multi-layered and quite sophisticated, and pointedly makes no effort to reach for the lowest common denominator in judging Hitler and his entourage, offering no drive-by facile answers while painfully and graphically exploring the excruciatingly caustic world of the Third Reich in its last painful death throes. Instead, we are reminded that the Fuhrer was as much a social phenomenon as he was an individual, and it was as much the fault of the average German who followed his charismatic lead as the devil himself who created the circumstance for the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. This may not be a movie you will really enjoy, but it is one we can all profit from seeing!
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