Movie Review: Downfall (Der Untergang)

"Call me stupid, call me mad
Question my faith, watch me laugh
Mock the courage of one
The many speak, your time will come
Burn me, scorn me, meet me and my downfall
Break my will but leave me and my downfall"
DeeExpus-"Me and My Downfall"


"All these horrors I've heard of during the Nurnberg process, these six million Jews, other thinking people or people of another race, who perished. That shocked me deeply. But I hadn't made the connection with my past. I assured myself with the thought of not being personally guilty. And that I didn't know anything about the enormous scale of it. But one day I walked by a memorial plate of Sophie Scholl in the Franz-Joseph-Strasse. I saw that she was about my age and she was executed in the same year I came to Hitler. And at that moment I actually realised that a young age isn't an excuse. And that it might have been possible to get to know things."


-Traudl Junge, personal secretary to Adolf Hitler, 1942 to 1945, in a statement made after the movie Downfall (Der Untergang) is concluded.

I've never written a movie review before, and I am not enough of an expert to know whether I am a good enough judge of motion pictures to do so. But first:


Spoiler alert: Hitler dies, the Nazis surrender to the Allies.


Oh come on, you took history in high school, right? This should all be common knowledge to you.


So, watch the movie anyway.


Downfall ( German title: Der Untergang) was released in 2004 and is a German/Italian/Austrian co-production, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel and produced and written by Bernd Eichinger. The film recieved excellent reviews at the time of it's release and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It also spawned a viral video phenomenon (go to YouTube and type in "Hitler complains about XBox Live" for a few laughs). In fact, the viral videos made me want to watch this movie, because it looked like such a well done film. Also, one of my favorite parts of 20th century history to study is the rise and fall of the Third Reich, because you wonder how one man can basically flim-flam his way into power and achieve so much of it, and brainwash a country and its people.


The movie is based off of the books Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich (1945), by historian Joachim Fest; Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary (1947), the memoirs of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's secretaries (co-written with Melissa Müller); Inside the Third Reich (first published in German in 1969), the memoirs of Albert Speer, one of the highest-ranking Nazi officials to survive both the war and the Nuremberg trials; Hitler's Last Days: An Eye–Witness Account (first English translation 1973), by Gerhard Boldt; Das Notlazarett unter der Reichskanzlei: Ein Arzt erlebt Hitlers Ende in Berlin by Doctor Ernst-Günther Schenck; and Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936–1949 (1992), Siegfried Knappe's memoir. This was another factor that drew me in to watching this film. Historians like myself want to know what was going on inside the mind of the mad Fuhrer and inside the Fuhrerbunker during those final days of his iron-fisted rule and the Battle of Berlin. You also wonder what was going on in the heads of the people that were closest to Hitler; like his closest staff, his generals, and his girlfriend Eva Braun.

Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler

Alexandra Maria Lara as Traudl Junge.

The role of Traudl Junge is played by Alexandra Maria Lara, whom I first became familiar with in the 2013 movie Rush, where she played the role of Marlene Lauda, wife of F1 legend Niki Lauda. Lara puts on a subtle, yet emotional performance as the young secretary who does her level best to stay loyal to her employer, but also sees the pain and turmoil going on in those closest to her and her fellow staff members. One minute she will be close to tears when she thinks about the chaos around her, but the next she will put on a happy face for her boss and others around her. I was already a fan of her work due to her role in Rush, so I am interested in seeing more movies starring Lara.


Interesting fact: Lara is not the only cast member of Rush who played in a role in a film about Nazi Germany. Daniel Bruhl, who played Niki Lauda in Rush, was also in the film Inglorious Basterds.


Adolf Hitler is played by Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, who painstakingly prepared for his role for over four months, and also studied in depth the only surviving recording of Hitler in private conversation so he could properly perform Hitler's Austrian-German dialect. The preparation and hard work paid off, as Ganz delivers a breathtaking performance. Ganz succeeds at making even the coldest, most evil man the world had ever seen into a man that you almost can feel sorry for...ALMOST! We are shown moments of compassion and warmth that are not expected from a man like Adolf Hitler. He seems to truly care for Ms. Junge as an employee and a person, loves his dog, and enjoys the company of children. But then, like any masterful actor playing the role of villian, he takes all of his redeeming qualities away and shoves them down your throat in a rage. From compassion to evil in a short measure, from sadness to violent anger, from praising bravery to wishing death on his generals and the country he claimed to love. Ganz captures the hair trigger mood swings that Adolf Hitler was known for with chilling accuracy and depth. I have to say it is one of the finest performances I have ever seen on film.


Some film critics felt that Bruno Ganz made Adolf Hitler seem too "human" and almost "likeable". Poppycock. If Ganz would have portrayed Hitler as a stiff, robotic, one-dimensional villain, it would have been farcical, comic, and just plain stupid. The best portrayals of villains are the ones that ALMOST convince you that they are in the right, but then prove without a shadow of a doubt that they are clearly in the wrong and continue to be unrepentant even at the bitter end. The writers of the film and Bruno Ganz leave the viewer no doubts that Hitler is clearly a villain of the most disreputable nature who is losing his mind as his "empire" crumbles around him. This movie does not play hard and loose with the facts and does not mince words. Hitler's two-faced megalomania is clearly on display for all of us to see.


The most chilling performance of the film has to belong to Ulrich Matthes, who portrays Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Propaganda Minister. In the film, it seems that Goebbels was the tail wagging Hitler's dog in the final days in the bunker. Never wavering and continuing to propagandize his leader to the bitter end, Matthes gives us a dark reminder of just how blindly loyal he, many members of the Nazi party, and the nation of Germany was. He was cold, ruthless, and unyielding. When asked about whether he felt sympathy for the German people, he bluntly states "I feel no sympathy. I repeat, I FEEL NO SYMPATHY!! The German people chose their fate. That may surprise some people. Don't fool yourself. We didn't force the German people. They gave us a mandate, and now their little throats are being cut!" Ooooh...ouch. I bet when an autopsy was performed on his body after the war, I think one organ they did not have to analyze was a heart, because I don't think he had one.


Corinna Harfouch, who portrayed Magda Goebbels, his wife, gives us a picture of loyalty that is almost even more shocking. In one scene, Albert Speer (played by Heino Ferch), sees Magda lying in bed, crying. During the conversation, Magda chillingly says "My children cannot grow up in a world without National Socialism" and talks about how she also cannot live. Her loyalty is even scarier than her husbands. How did the German people allow themselves to be hypnotized to the point of a thousand-yard stare by this "cause", this "Fuhrer"? How?

The staff enjoys a party in the Fuhrerbunker

In a film like this, which has so many villains, you try to find someone with redeeming qualities who you can kind of root for, and in my case, it was Ernst-Günther Schenck (portrayed by Christian Berkel), a doctor whom was working for the SS in Berlin. When orders were given to evacuate Berlin, he stayed behind and brought needed medical supplies to wounded soldiers and civilians, and also assisted in operations despite not having surgical training. His courage and his deeds when all of his superiors turned tail and ran is truly admirable. Yes, even in Nazi Germany, there were good men.


Yet, sadly, it is hard to find "good guys" in this film. The bulk of the main characters were all working for or affiliated with the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei aka NSDAP aka Nazi Party, a regime responsible for the deaths of 50 million people. Watching the film, there were parts where I wanted to feel badly for the people of Germany or the soldiers who fought for the German army who were dying. I wanted to feel bad for the generals who were taking instructions from a madman who had zero grip on reality and was ordering troop movements for armies that didn't exist! I did find myself feeling sympathetic towards Traudl Junge, because she was just a young girl who wanted a job who was brainwashed into the Hitler Cult of Personality like every other person in Germany. I also felt somewhat bad for Eva Braun (played by Juliane Köhler), being she was just a young, naive woman who seemed to care more about having a good time and was oblivious to what went on around her. While she loved Hitler, and seemed to blindly obey his every wish, there are moments where she wishes things we different. Yet, her childish enthusiasm and ignorance make her very difficult to like.


There really is no hero in this story. This isn't about a heroic last stand of a virtueous nation fighting for their freedom. This is the just desserts for the big bully who tried to push around Europe and the world, but could not take it when Europe and the rest of the world pushed back. Instead of repenting for his wrongs against the world, the bully takes his own life rather than face justice or his own come-uppance.

In a famous scene due to a YouTube parody, Adolf Hitler berates his generals.

I wish I could go into every single detail: the shock and horror of a parent seeing their young child saying that they will fight to the last man because Hitler ordered it. The infighting and tension between the generals as they argue about whether orders should be followed or should they think for themselves. The sadness and emotion any parent with a heart would feel watching children being put to death by their own mother out of loyalty for a lost and terrible cause. If I went into all the details of the film, it would take away from the experience of watching it.


All in all, Downfall is a brilliant, brilliant film that any history buff or fan of good filmmaking should see. Incredible acting, excellent detail, and great historical accuracy. Like Schindler's List, I consider this a MUST WATCH if you want to learn more about the terrible history of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler. Remember, those who fail to learn about history are condemned to repeat it.


4.5 out of 5