Extraordinary, Impressive and Disturbing

Rating: 9/10 (20 April 2005)

This extraordinary film presents in chilling detail the affect of the failure of Hitler's Third Reich. By keeping a close focus on Hitler's bunker and the government district of Berlin we can concentrate on who these people around him were and how they reacted to him and the imminent collapse of the Nazi dream.
The acting and direction are assured and the visual impact of the film, both in the claustrophobic bunker and the ruins of Berlin itself, is impressively realised. Part of the horror of the film is that it does all seem so very real - these are real people in a real situation - and that is terrifying.
For me though, the most disturbing thing is that although the film recreates specific events of World War II, it stands as a warning to us, today.
Hitler, Goebbels et al, had a vision. A vision of purity and truth, a vision that millions of people took to be real, genuine and achievable. The problem with all such visions of purity and truth are that they require absolute fanaticism. For the Nazis there was no alternative, like for Magda Goebbels who could not see any future for her or her children without the Fuhrer. For these fanatics, if you cannot live up to the dream you have failed, and there is no compassion for failure.
The truly terrifying thing is that the world is still full of fanatics - be they al-Qaeda, born-again fundamentalists or Balkan nationalists. They have no place for non-believers, and should they ever gain the support that Germany gave Hitler, we risk being plunged into the dark ages again.
Traudl Junge's final words of the film are a chilling reminder for all of us, that no one can be 'innocent' when the fanatic calls.