Well past the end of the beginning, more-so well into the end of the end.

Rating: 8/10 (17 January 2010)

Oliver Hirschbiegel's 2005 film Downfall takes us deep into the realms of the last days of the Nazi regime, in doing so, physically takes us deep into the grounds of Berlin as The Second World War comes to an end in Europe because the Third Reich is falling apart. The film isn't so much about Adolf Hitler's downfall, an aura built out of the fact it's his presence over most of the posters and so forth twinned with a quite stunning portrayal of the man by Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, as much as it is about the overall downfall of the Nazi party and their top officials located within Hitler's bunker. Crucially, the film does not end with Hitler's death but does so in a manner that sees a montage of sorts, featuring eventual outcomes of most of the other members of Hitler's grouping. This, as the fates of those involved in the film take their course during a pretty harrowing final thirty minutes.
The film begins with documentary footage of sorts, as an elderly German woman engages in an interview just a few years prior to the film's release and talks of her involvement in the Nazi ring towards the end of the war as her duty as a secretary is explained. The opening establishes perspective, a sense of oral storytelling as one reflect back. In a film that'll see many-a decision made throughout the runtime, most of which end in death, it all starts with one very routine one: the hiring of a secretary. We ourselves are as fresh to both the setting and environment these others inhabit as the potential recruit is; there is that sense that we as an audience are being welcomed in along with the new secretary, indeed 'hired', to observe and engage in the new surroundings – this twinned with the immediacy of the person talking in the interview footage and the frequent constructing of most scenes through the new secretary's viewpoint, go a long way in establishing how we, as an audience, will watch the events play out.
Downfall goes a long way in deconstructing how we might perceive Adolf Hitler, here he is vulnerable; scared even. If most Second World War films explore the making of the bed, Downfall is the slow realisation that one will have to lie in it. Whatever perception we have of Hitler going into the film; a probable image born out of countless, scratchy, black and white footage of the man standing on platforms resembling pulpits as his hand-and-arm-waving-rage streams out of him in a fury of loud, seemingly angry German ranting; then Downfall is prepared to go against type. He gets angry at certain points, sure – but the film is not interested in wholly delivering what audiences expect: we can feel the suffering and the bleakness of Hitler's eventual downfall without ever, and I mean ever, feeling sorry for the man, which is quite an achievement on Hirschbiegel's behalf.
Hitler is given the kind of build up you'd expect, in fact you get the sense the film sort of revels in the ominous aura it establishes as he is spoken about whilst still off-screen; spoken to whilst off-screen before shuffling out in order to call in the first candidate. When one of them makes a mistake in the interview process, Hitler is forgivable; he acknowledges the mistake and allows the backtrack, painting an early image linked to the above paragraph. In the bunker, internal conflict sees the once tall, proud figures of top Nazi officials have their power decay and run to ruin. This is all underground, whilst the buildings and the Berlin architecture above is going through a similarly desperate transition as the Soviets and their Red Army close in. Child members of the Hitler youth, still acting on their death-or-glory dedication to the cause of defending the motherland's capital, stand firm and do their best to build defence emplacements and then fend off oncoming enemies in what isn't an easy, manipulative method of getting across raw feeling by using children and placing them in a vulnerable situation as a manipulation tactic, but is just a chilling re-telling of a real life predicament.
And yet despite all these Nazi officials, it is through the eyes of Traudl Junge (Lara) that we see or observe events playing out; particularly evident when Hitler asks a number of people to leave a room so he may talk sternly to the remaining individuals – Junge is one of those asked to leave. The film hovers on the entrance from the outside as the secretary looks on, further giving off a sense of perspective, as everything transpires within. As the case-study between surface and below surface of confusion and chaos rages on, the film will cover a range of people going through a range of different emotions: characters will suffer sadness and become more depressed than others while others will become drunk more often than usual. As the realisation of the senseless waste of life the Nazi's incurred amongst most of Europe in their time comes to fruition, so too do the repercussions of it; with an additionally disturbing display of genocide, this time self-brought upon as the victims of which are so wholly infused within the political ideology they've just witnessed crumble around them, that surrender to the enemy is just simply not an option.
Downfall is rather-an impressive achievement; bringing to life a very important, specific period within an equally important, specific period and rendering it the terrifying, enclosed thing it is; cleverly through the innocent perspective of someone with no political sway. It would be hard to single out an individual triumph over all else in Hirschbiegel's film, needless to say it documents, addresses and brings down to Earth without ever being political nor exploitative; many-a film has been made of World War Two but few as dissecting and closed off from the conflict as this one.