Hitler's Last Ten Days

Rating: 10/10 (4 December 2011)

Downfall is an epic war film depicting the final ten days of Adolf Hitler's life in his Berlin bunker and Nazi Germany in 1945.It stars Bruno Ganz as Adolph Hitler and Alexandra Maria Lara as Traudl Junge, together with Corinna Harfouch,Ulrich Matthes,Juliane Köhler and Thomas Kretschmann.The film was written by Bernd Eichinger, and based upon the books Inside Hitler's Bunker, by historian Joachim Fest; Until the Final Hour, the memoirs of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's secretaries (co- written with Melissa Müller); Albert Speer's memoirs, Inside the Third Reich; Hitler's Last Days: An Eye–Witness Account, by Gerhardt Boldt; Das Notlazarett Unter Der Reichskanzlei: Ein Arzt Erlebt Hitlers Ende in Berlin by Doctor Ernst-Günther Schenck; and Siegfried Knappe's memoirs, Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936–1949.It was directed by directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel.
Traudl Junge was twenty-two years old when, in the fall of 1942, she was hired to be personal secretary to Adolf Hitler. In April of 1945, Junge was still working for Hitler as forces were bearing down on Germany and the leader retreated to a secret bunker in Berlin for what would prove to be the last ten days of his life, as well as that of the Third Reich. As Hitler's mistress Eva Braun attempts to throw a cheerful birthday party for her man, Hitler's closest associates, including Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, and Albert Speer, urge him to flee the city with only Goebbels maintaining any illusions that the Third Reich has any hope of survival. Hitler refuses to leave Berlin, and he spends his final days ranting and raving to Junge, blaming all around him as he tries to understand where his leadership went wrong. Meanwhile, Goebbels and his wife round up their six children and bring them to the bunker as Berlin begins to topple, determined to take their lives rather than face the Allies after Germany's certain defeat.
The greatest achievement of this film is that it gives a definitive and unbiased account of Hitler's final days and the collapse of the Third Reich.The film also had excellent and outstanding performance especially from Bruno Ganz,who plays the German dictator as delusional, hateful and cruel man -- but also human.Arguably,this film presents the greatest portrayal of the man who also has emotions and is affected by his demons as a human being.It also shows him in times of trials,tribulations and impending defeat.Although some may see Ganz' portrayal as a neo-Nazi in one way or another,the film only tries to show the humanity of the person who just like you and me have their own strengths and weaknesses.Aside from the focus on Hitler,this film's message also tells us how men who uses evil devices end up on the final run.It is a lesson that a viewer can see not from a historical point-of-view but rather on one's own perspective as a human being.No matter how one rises in power,one should also foresee that it doesn't last forever as there is a time that everything ends.In Hitler's case,his downfall also came inspite the fact that he was capable of conquering the world and turn it under his authority.