Ambivalent?

Rating: 7/10 (7 November 2005)

I'm not entirely sure about this film. On the one hand, it is undoubtedly a very well-directed and acted work of art, with an interesting and important story to tell; on the other, I felt an ambivalence - whether in the director, the actors, the story itself, I can't yet say - regarding the figures that were being portrayed. While the fallibility of Hitler, Eva Braun and the terrifying Goebbels family is immediately apparent (incidentally, I don't think I've ever seen a better and more frightening description of the dark side of motherhood than in Mrs Goebbels in this film), nevertheless I was left with a question mark: were these people really the savage misanthropes history has shown them to be, or idealists martyred to a cause they believed in, however misled? I think there is a danger in the film here, that it could be misused if it fell into the wrong hands. I was also somehow upset by some of the symbolism: the German 12-year-old who is able to destroy two enemy tanks, the drunk and disorderly Russian invaders. Are there fascist associations to this film? If so, are they consciously or unconsciously present? To what extent can a German director make a film of this sort responsibly? Eichinger certainly does a good job, but can he transcend his national origins?It may be useful, while watching it, to bear this question in mind. Nevertheless, a film worth watching.