Best Hitler film ever?

Rating: 8/10 (10 September 2008)

n the annals of film, the greatest screen portrayal of an evil world leader was undoubtedly Anthony Hopkins' 1995 turn as President Richard M. Nixon in Oliver Stone's Nixon. Within five to ten minutes of one's first glimpse of Hopkins- a Brit who looked and sounded nothing like the 37th American President, one almost forgets what the real Nixon looked like. But, now there's a contender who could knock Hopkins off his perch- or at least give him a good fight, and that is Bruno Ganz's turn as Adolf Hitler in the 2004 Academy Award nominated Best Foreign Language Film from Germany, Downfall (Der Untergang- literally The Downfall). What makes this all the more remarkable is that- unlike Nixon, many actors have tried and failed to get into Hitler's skin, including the aforementioned Hopkins, who took on the role in The Bunker (1981). In fact, Ganz is so great at portraying Hitler- and he looks far more like the real Hitler than Hopkins did Nixon, even sans the Chaplinesque mustache and combover, that the film took much criticism for portraying Hitler as a real live human being. Heaven forfend that art contain some reality, or 'truth,' as the PC Elitists claim! Ganz is brilliant- from his wild veering between depression and rages, to his jittery nervousness, and a shaking of his hands which, when held behind his body, seem to devolve almost into the claw of a wounded raptor, grasping for anything to steady his older than he looks fifty-six year old form. In fact, Ganz seems to age and literally shrink in size, as he stoops and hunches, with each succeeding scene. Yet, it's the moments of tenderness Hitler shows his fiancée/wife, Eva Braun, his wounded indignation at perceived betrayals, and his timidity toward women, as well as impeccable manners, that really offends the PC. This ability to move a viewer is, of course, the manifestation of the great art of a great artist.
Many big name critics, around the world, though, took the film to task for the most asinine of reasons. The New Yorker's David Denby, a minor thinker, wrote: 'As a piece of acting, Ganz's work is not just astounding, it's actually rather moving. But I have doubts about the way his virtuosity has been put to use.We get the point: Hitler was not a supernatural being; he was common clay raised to power by the desire of his followers. But is this observation a sufficient response to what Hitler actually did?' This incredibly idiotic statement, and many other PC comments like it, about film and art in general, are the very reasons I took to writing film criticism. What response could possibly be sufficient to the genocidal crimes of a Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, or King Leopold?. All in all, Downfall is a movie worth seeing, but it is not one that is 'required viewing'- neither for its art nor its historical value. It rises and falls almost solely on Ganz's shoulders. To me, the most affecting moments within come when Hitler willfully denies the reality of his nation's Götterdammerung, and pretends that this or that general will save the day with a brilliant maneuver, at the last moment, to cut off the Russians, and save the war effort. Anyone watching the recent change of American military leadership in Iraq is familiar with their nation's leader's utter refusal to face stubborn facts, and it's a scary scene- whether or not that leader is a mass murdering psychotic, or merely a clueless frat boy with a God complex. Yet, like many of the other 'historical' facts, this intermittent self-delusion is also considered, by most historians, untrue. Hitler is known to have commented after being repulsed at Stalingrad, and also after losing The Battle Of The Bulge, that he knew that an eventual German defeat was unavoidable. These are two more wasted opportunities to core into the man, and these ill wrought fictions- be they of whole characters or scenes with real personages, are ultimately what kill the screenplay. As a side note, it's worth realizing the fact that the Second World War, despite its horrors and nonpareil bodycount, can now be thought of as the last real war 'played by the rules' says much of our species.
That Downfall can succeed as a film, despite some bad acting, and a weak screenplay, also says much for the notion that a single great performance, as well as a historically significant and dramatic enough moment, can overcome abundant mediocrity more easily than a work of fiction can. Bruno Ganz is now the definitive film Hitler, but the definitive portrayal of his true downfall has yet to be made. Where is Ingmar Bergman when you really need him?