strong emotional, compelling, well-acted film.

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2013)

*Spoiler/plot- Downfall, 2004. A fictional film based on the testimony and memories of several of Hitler's staff during the time in the Berlin Bunker just before the fall of Berlin and the suicide of Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Hitler.
*Special Stars- Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Juliana Kohler.
*Theme- Sometimes, offensive war is a power grab by weak flawed leaders.
*Trivia/location/goofs- German with subtitles. Most of the outdoor city scenes were filmed in Saint Petersburg, Russia. This was for two reasons. First the architecture of the city has many Germanic aspects. Second, there are plenty of streets with little or no modern advertisements and other commercial aspects. Clips from this movie are used in numerous parodies that appear on YouTube in which a scene (usually the one of Adolf Hitler yelling at his subordinates) is re-subtitled to imbue it with unintended new comedic meaning and pathos. Contrary to the reaction of Constantin Films, director Oliver Hirschbiegel claims to have seen over a hundred of such parodies, and enjoyed them very much. YouTube has since stopped blocking these parodies for copyright infringement concerns.
*Emotion- A strong emotional, compelling, well-acted film putting the world's most hated and outrageous Natzi WW2 leaders into their last days. You see and experience a fictional dramatic account of their movements and words among their staff and crews. I found the film too sympathetic and well mannered in making these hugely unethical leaders in charge of millions as more victims. I did not see them as such. History will judge them and maybe already has.
*Based On- The diaries and journals of Hitler's staff (secretarys) that survived the ending of WW2 in Europe.