Powerful portrayal of the end of a world.

Rating: 10/10 (3 April 2005)

The producers of The Downfall made a number of brilliant editorial decisions. The film explains nothing. It shows in historically accurate detail what happened. The viewer is a witness to the many surreal vignettes played out in the charnal pit of Berlin in final days of WW-II. With this essentially neutral portrayal of a man who alternates between being a kindly uncle and a raving lunatic, the usual cadre of critics who feel they alone own Hitler (it is much more than a cottage industry) are left speechless.
Many will find the human Hitler in this film difficult to reconcile with his mythically evil stature. Like Christ, Hitler was a human turned into a god. In Christ's case it was by his supporters; in Hitler's case it was by his enemies. As Christians' have made a sacrificial human a symbol of their religion, so have many Jews incorporated the murderous dictator into a symbol of evil, far more potent than any positive aspect of their religion. But religious ideologues can't have it both ways: If Hitler was not a god, then he was a human and cannot be criticized for being portrayed as one. To complain that the film "humanizes" him is an attempt to have one's cake and eat it.
To add further complexity, one of the quiet heroes of the film is an SS medical officer. This nuance will clash against the shibboleth that all SS men were only sadistic concentration camp guards instead of also the Swiss Guards of Hitler's megalomaniacal rule. Heavily indoctrinated, they were also the best-trained and fiercest combat troops of WW-II.
If there is a criticism that can be made against the film, it is that too many of Hitler's generals were reasonable men, professional soldiers, yet still honor-bound to a madman's captivating aura. Yes, the German General Staff was comprised of classically educated noblemen of a caliber that will never again lead a nation's military. But surely they were not all so resolutely noble, regal and handsome. OK, there were two fatties-Göring and Bormann-but they are clearly as evil as they are corpulent.
The supporting women are expertly cast, particularly Eva Braun-more of a party girl than one images (and with a subtle nod to her possible affair with General Fegelein)--as well as Magda Goebbels. Frau Goebbels is an icy beauty, as fascinating as the stare of a cobra. Her methodical poisoning of their six children is one of the most sickening moments in film.
Watching this gruesome story unfold is like traveling back to the bunker in a time machine. With stories of the horrors of the Holocaust long since dulled by saturation, it is shocking to witness the catastrophic violence of the death throes of Berlin. Death in the camps was a smoothly humming assembly line; death in Berlin was sudden and always capricious-a deafening cacophony of artillery shells, tank fire, collapsing buildings and the whistle and thud of small arms bullets. Fresh body parts litter this urban moonscape.
In the end, The Downfall comes closer than any film or book in portraying convincingly the dissolution of Hitler, the genius psychopath who was able to lead a nation-and himself--down a path of utter destruction. Scenes of officer suicide in the face of Russian advances are realistically portrayed (and evoke echoes of Masada). And yet, still, Hitler's hold on the psyche of a nation is not fully understandable. We see what happened; that his followers thought him truly a god. But how-really-did that happen? Could it happen to us? Extraordinary as the film is in depicting the dying days of a once brilliant madman expiring in his lair like a wounded rabid dog, yet something more is needed to make us understand the "why" of it. Perhaps, like all religious conversions, the reason for such a captivating thrall can never be understood. It can only be experienced.