Important for our understanding of How It All Could Happen

Rating: 10/10 (27 February 2005)

This is an important film and absolutely a must for anyone who has ever pondered how WWII, the Holocaust and all that was at all possible.
Der Untergang has sometimes been criticized for making Hitler and the Nazis look sympathetic and human. I saw it like this: the most horrifying thing about Hitler and Nazis is that they WERE humans, not some caricature monsters of hell. The movie displays this very well, without sympathizing or underlining the evil of these human beings.
If you're a human being equipped with normal feelings, you ARE right in feeling slightly compassionate towards a crying Hitler. But at the same time, if you're a normal person, your compassion vanishes when you remember why he's crying. He's not regretting his inhuman deeds. He's not feeling remorse for the suffering of other people. He's crying because his horrible plans have failed, because he thinks the German people have failed him.
I also think Der Untergang points out an important thing about the Nazi ideology. It was and is evil because it is based on intense hate and the conscious rejection of compassion. People blinded by this kind of ideology are also blinded by hatred, and as we know this phenomenon is unfortunately alive and well in today's world, in the East and the West as well. Movies like Der Untergang give us an important lesson in understanding this dangerous way of thought and the utter madness and vanity of war. Go see this if you can.