A grim view into the abyss

Rating: Null/10 (25 August 2011)

A grim view into the abyss. That is what every inmate of the Führerbunker is faced with during the last days of the battle of Berlin. While everyone deals with the situation in their own way the audience itself is confronted with the upsetting and saddening abyss that is the human soul.
You might think this movie is about showing the human being inside the beast that was Adolf Hitler. But instead you learn how insurmountably close the Germans had tightened their personal destiny to that one person. So close that, as that destiny had surfaced as the doom of the German people, it was generally accepted that the end of Hitler would also mean the end of the German people as well.
This movie is credited with successfully picturing that situation and the ensuing reactions of Hitler's entourage while the population of Berlin suffers and has to hold out for their benefit.
In Germany, "Der Untergang" has been criticised for failing to deliver a well rounded setting of the plot. There have been complains about the omission of footage of extermination camps or war atrocities. But this is where this movie truly excels: The justification of the characters' ever growing angst and subsequent actions is left in the fog of war. Because right there, at the edge of the abyss, it does not matter any more.