An original approach

Rating: 9/10 (11 October 2005)

"Der Untergang" tells about the last days of Adolf Hitler. The film takes place mainly in his bunker, the downfall of the Nazi empire is seen through the death of the dictator.
Bruno Ganz performance is a masterpiece, there's no doubt. We can discuss about the film approach instead.
The movie is very unconventional because it's completely different from what has been made so far. It's not the classical war film in which the good are on one side and the bad ones on the other: here we only see the last attempts of Hitler to save himself and (that's what he meant) his country.
Many observers criticize the movie for this. It seems that director Oliver Hirschbiegel doesn't express an opinion about the Nazi power, he chooses instead to show the decline and the death of a man. Hirschbiegel approach is similar to what Luchino Visconti did with "The damned": both films talk about the end of a structure power from inside. The difference is that Visconti feature was more decadent and sarcastic, whereas with Hirschbiegel we have something more like a chronicle.
In fact this objection is pertinent. But I don't think "Der Untergang" is a way of "rehabilitating" Hitler -not at all. Private behaviour of Hiler has always been a mystery -we don't have a lot of informations about. The film simply proposes another approach, which obviously (and luckily) doesn't justify Hitler total insanity.