A brave and brilliant portrayal of one of history's greatest villains

Rating: 10/10 (26 October 2005)

Like all movies, war films reflect the political agenda of their time. In the early 1950s, the world was still reeling from the immense tragic loss of life, but by the 1960s, war movies proposed a USA-politico-centric version of events: heroic US marines swaggering along with half-chewed cigars between their teeth, doling out wizened one-liners as each of their single bullets wiped out hundreds of screaming banshee Nazis. The theme was monotonous and repeated: the US won the war and the Nazis are the deserved losers. The Germans were simply the bad guys and there was no attempt to understand or dissect just what turned a leading nation into a murderous abyss.
It's only in the last decade that war movies have turned to more genuine, honest material, portraying war's hideous consequences, the unspeakable violence that it generates and the resulting loss of innocence. More recently, movies daring enough to depict WW2's arch-villain, Der Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, have appeared, due in no small part to Germany's reunification and national catharsis. Having recently been in Berlin, it is remarkable to see how open the Germans have become. They have progressed beyond the shame and guilt to a true recognition of one of history's most traumatic eras.
Robert Carlysle portrays the main role in Rise of Evil which depicts Hitler's manipulation, bullying, dogmatism and unstoppable rise to power. In Max, starring John Cusack as a Jewish art dealer, Hitler is portrayed as a failed human being obsessed with political imagery, though Max was a weak movie in my estimation. However, it is Bruno Ganz's portrayal that truly shines.
Ganz's Hitler is authentic in every detail, right down to his Austrian accent, gravelly voice and stoic expression.
Most war historians concur that Hitler is a contradictory character, evidenced by his apparent enthusiasm for seeming trivialities and total disregard for important details. Bruno Ganz captures this schism perfectly. Far from being a one-dimensional Charlie Chaplin lookalike in uniform, Downfall's Hitler is both a kindly employer, beloved leader, a pit of seething resentment and progenitor of national evil. He can delight in the dulcet tones of his ministers' singing children, all the while knowing that their parents will murder them to "save" them from a future without National Socialism. Ganz perfectly captures Hitler's narcissism, altering between magnanimity of a glorified leader and explosions of fury and prejudice. All the while Hitler confesses to his closest aids that his catastrophic vision was "meant for the best".
It is probably the most psychologically realistic portrayal of Hitler: a confused, weary, narcissistic tyrant who couldn't see the wood for the trees even while his ministers repeatedly beg his withdrawal from Berlin. Not content to simply hold out to the end, he dooms his advisors and staff to the same fate by resigning to inevitable failure and his unconscionable act of suicide. Downfall captures the sense of immense betrayal this creates - the betrayal of the high command and everybody who bought into Nazist ideology. The movie also represents the catastrophic future bequeathed by Hitler to Germany, due to his dogged insistence that Nazi Germany had a future while Berlin faced overwhelming odds and a relentless tide of Soviet armies.
Downfall shows Germany's slide into oblivion from the viewpoints of Traudl Junge (one of Hitler's secretaries), a young Hitler Youth volunteer, a medically trained Colonel and Hitler himself. Historic figures such as Albert Speer and Goebbels appear in the movie.
I have no doubt that more movies about Hitler will be produced. Hopefully, some will dare to look into his brutal treatment by his father and the consequent narcissism and hatred that possessed him, or the personal reasons for his monstrous "final solution". We can only speculate. Downfall will remain, in my estimation, among the best movies about Hitler himself.