Excellent look at the final days of Hitler

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2005)

A very chilling and profoundly disturbing movie. This is a good outcome as I am sure that was the intent of the people who put this movie together. Sublime acting by the whole cast made it feel like you were in the bunker with Hitler for those last days. Some may need Prozac after watching this film as it does not have the typical Hollywood happy ending. Excellent history as the script attempts to stay close to the actual historical record as possible. Even though I am a historian of WWII, I still found things out in this movie that were new to me. Still, what sets this movie apart from other "war flicks" is the intense work by the actors to bring these characters to life and make them as multi-dimensional as their real-life counterparts must have been. These are not your cookie-cutter Nazis as seen in most war films. You still loathe and despise these people but you come to understand them a bit better. Hitler does not come off well as they portray his loss of touch with reality quite well. This was a man who almost conquered the world yet we see him beaten and broken and feeling betrayed by his loyal followers as well as the entire German people. You get to see some of the cost to the civilians of Berlin for Hitler's desire to see them pay for their failure to win the war. This movie does not glorify Hitler or the Third Reich rather it attempts to put those final days into a bit of perspective. A very tragic and horrific story but one that most Americans would benefit from seeing.