Downfall is Best Film About Hitler and the Nazis Ever Made

Rating: 10/10 (2 May 2005)

I've seen a trashier version of Hitler's last ten days in the Berlin Bunker. It stars Alec Guinness as Der Fuhrer. Though it used Hugh Trevor-Roper's account of the last ten days, it was the usual blend of stereotypes and caricatures. I think I have seen Anthony Hopkins as Der Fuhrer somewhere too. But neither Guiness nor Hopkins could do justice to Schickelgruber without a serious movie wrapped around them.
This is a German-made movie that is genuine enough to warrant being taken seriously.
One problem a serious drama about Nazis in the Berlin Bunker is how to create heroes and villains.
A good film never creates heroes and villains simply. They come in shades. Downfall has the shading right.
The screenplay is pulled from two accounts of Hitler's last days, one of them by the then young stenographer he had hired only two years before the end of the Thousand Year Reich that made it just a few days longer than 12 years.
Incidentally, tho the US TV Press has been hyping the fall of Saigon 30 years ago this week, yesterday (Saturday, April 30, 2005) is the 60th anniversary of the death of Adolph and Eva, who jointly committed suicide. I saw this movie the day after Adolph and Eva's 60th Anniversary as a married couple. Never mind that the marriage didn't even last a full day.
Let me tell you the lengths the film went to be accurate. Joseph Goebbels had a childhood bout with polio that left one leg four inches shorter than the other. The limp he had as a result was portrayed accurately in the movie. Many Nazi film accounts make few distinctions in the uniforms of the Reich. Goebbels was the Gauleiter of Berlin, in addition to being the Propaganda Minister. His orangish sport coat uniform is a detail often missed in films about the Nazis.
The screenplay pulls few punches. Those who know the Bunker melodrama from reading Hugh Trevor-Roper or William Shirer carry the details in their head.
Magda Goebbels' murder of her five children is shown in a detail even Magda would have been interested in seeing. The Whole bunker is full of talk about suicide by all manner of major and minor Nazis as Der Furher contemplates his End. Everyone has a cyanide pill at the ready.
Magda only married her womanizer husband to get closer to Hitler. The movie suggests she was the most soulless of Hitler's sycophants. Her husband Joseph doesn't have the guts to put the children to death. But Magda consults with the Bunker chemist to make a bitter-tasting drink to drug the kids before the ultimate cyanide crunch.
Through several scenes, the Goebbels children are portrayed as having a grand old time playing in the Bunker as the sands ooze out of the hourglass. The kids are dressed like caricatures of happy schoolchildren and appear to have no sense the end is near.
Except one daughter is suspicious and Magda shows increasing concern that this one daughter will tip the others before she can bring off the 'final solution' for the kids.
The happy Bunker kids are mostly buying Magda's claim the potion being offered them is just a mild sedative. But the suspicious daughter says she doesn't want any and when Magda mildly insists, it doesn't work. Mother and chemist who mixed the heady brew have to force this daughter to drink it. A few minutes later Magda is shown placing a cyanide pills in each child's mouth and manipulating mandibles so the pill is crushed and does its work. The audience fears the recalcitrant daughter will awaken and put up a fight over the cyanide. We can tell Magda is worried too. But the reluctant daughter goes like the others.
Magda goes outside the children's room and slinks to the floor in relief at having completed her gruesome task. The less courageous husband Joseph approaches and they play a few hands of cards while contemplating their own last moments.
There are moral witnesses of all stripes to provide points-of-view of these events in the bunker. There is a humane doctor who opts for life and who is the main positive image in the film. Frau Jung, the stenographer who escapes with her life, is billed second to Hitler but is mostly a wide-eyed spectator with no opinion of events as they occur. At the end of the film, the real stenographer makes an appearance on film regretting her complicity while she worked for Hitler.
Albert Speer, Generals Jodl and Keitel, Martin Boorman, Eva Braun, a veritable party animal, and assorted Nazis and non-Nazis come and go as the movie progresses.
Der Fuhrer and others remonstrate with one another about the failures of the Reich, the German people, assorted generals. Heinrich Himmler, who attempts to surrender without permission, is believed a traitor. Eva's brother-in-law, whose wife, Eva's sister, is about to give birth, pays the ultimate price for disloyalty to Hitler. Eva begs for his life to no avail.
The Germans have an oafishness to their language and comportment that is often considered funny by other Europeans and Americans. They are often pictured as drunkards, party animals and perpetual Octoberfesters. The Downfall is heavy on the oafishness. I think the Germans are like that, but, in context, it is a good thing. They are not as cynical as other Westerners. They are more soulful and serious.
Downfall is a sad movie. The Audience finds itself on the side of many members of the Third Reich hierarchy. It is possible to feel degrees of sorriness for Adolph, Eva, even Goebbels and his wife.
Everyone should see this film. A multi-part TV series made with the same degree of seriousness would be a hit around the world.