A Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (4 December 2005)

I have been fascinated not only by the movie (I have watched this now 10 times) but the divergence of opinion - with some Germans saying it was terrible. This I don't understand.
In the West from the time of Charlie Chaplin Hitler was portrayed as a raving lunatic - but to me that does not explain his rise to power. A lunatic could not nearly conquer and enslave half the world. In his early rise to power, he was ridiculed in the West.
The fact that this movie gives him some human qualities makes him all the more chilling. There is a dialog between the Junge character and the Braun character that perfectly summarizes Hitler. They talked of the great gulf between the private man and the public man. The Braun character said that she had known the man for 15 years - and yet she knew nothing of him.
I believe to truly understand the movie one must also watch the movie with the director's commentary. Everything about this movie - with the exception of 2 things mentioned by the director - (which having just read the spoiler agreement I will refrain from mentioning - everything was based on fact, which makes the movie all the more dramatic. And the movie characters make some minor statements - based on fact - that would be lost on the audience without outside knowledge of those historical facts.
Small case in point: The Eva Braun character is telling the Traudl Junge character that she "so looked forward to coming to Berlin" with the inference (to me) that she hadn't seen Hitler for awhile. Then I read elsewhere that she was in Obersaltzburg for 6 months away from Hitler prior to coming to Berlin. The director stated that he wanted this movie to be treated not only as a drama - but a documentary. He succeeded in both.
I suppose this movie is controversial - a local reviewer said it tried to make Hitler sympathetic by giving him some human qualities but as someone else said this makes him all the more evil. It is these human qualities that make him a believable entity - kind to many individuals, indifferent and murderous to millions. And with the end he was indifferent to the fate of his own people, who were dying for him.
Watching this movie made me think that the German people's initial support of Hitler followed a plot from Goethe - that a Mephistopheles - a demon in disguise - promises the recipient all that he wants in return for his soul. This of course is a theme that has subsequently replayed countlessly in western literature since Goethe's Faustus.
This movie is based not only on Junge's book and Fest's book, but interviews with some of the survivors of the bunker.
I would recommend not only the movie but then watch it with commentary from the director a second time. It is all the more haunting when you realize that virtually everything was based on fact during Berlin's last days.
Bruno Ganz - as all the cast - turned in an excellent performance. Watching Ganz in this performance was watching Hitler. You will feel as if you too are a witness in the Bunker.
The beginning and end statements by the real secretary Traudl Junge make the movie even more powerful. This movie was so moving for me that I have bought Traudl Junge's book, "Until the Last Hour".
In the US on the DVD it is said it was nominated for "best foreign picture" - if it didn't win, it should have.