The Last Days of Hitler and the Fall of the Third Reich

Rating: 10/10 (17 August 2005)

'Please, retain your faith in the final victory! If you lead us, we will follow!' By the time these words are spoken to Adolf Hitler it is far too late for him to be able to reassure the hysteric woman who said them. He knows, as all his Generals know, that World War II is over. And Germany has lost. However, as his mental stability declines Hitler will forget this and try, once again, to win. Moving forces that exist only on his map and calling in strikes by planes that were destroyed months earlier, Hitler fights until his last to protect the crumbled remains of what was once his evil empire. He pores over models that represent the new cities he believes he will build, and no one has the courage to tell him that his Aryan Xanadu will never exist as anything but these models.
This is "Der Untergang (The Downfall)". The film is inspired by the memoirs of Traudl Junge, Hitler's last secretary and oblivious follower. Traudl stands at the Fuhrer's side and refuses to move despite lacking all knowledge of him, even his Holocaust. The confused young woman watches in horror as Hitler's Generals turn their backs on him, and she weeps when she finds the remains of her leader's brains scattered across a wall following a fateful gun shot.
"Downfall" has a tricky goal: to show the human side of Hitler. No, it's not about making you sympathize with him. It's about showing that he wasn't some superhuman. Bruno Ganz's performance as Hitler, one of the towering performances in cinema history, exposes faults in the Fuhrer. Physically, his hands twitch uncontrollably and his back is hunched as if burdened with a massive load of shame and humiliation. Mentally, he rants about wanting to speak to soldiers he knows are dead and he fabricate stories about Nazi forces hiding in Prussia, waiting to rush in and save Germany from encroaching Russian armies. As he tells these stories to his friends and confidants, you can see he is telling them to reassure himself, and not his friends.
Then comes the final collapse. Hitler shoots his wife, Eva Braun, and then himself so as to prevent being captured and forced to face the music. Magda Goebells poisons her children, and then sits down to a game of solitaire before facing her own death. Joseph Goebells tries to salvage the German army, but finally gives in and shoots his wife and himself. Slowly but surely, every one of the Nazi officers in Hitler's bunker commits suicide.
Traudl finally accepts that it is over, and joins the German army as it moves to the front lines to surrender. Finally, she passes through the Russian front. While she may have lived in freedom physically, it is doubtful she ever escaped the mental image of what she saw, and the horrible truth she learned about her Fuhrer's crimes.
While we may have heard many ex-Nazi's and Nazi sympathizers claim to be oblivious to Hitler's true evil, Traudl Junge is the only one I'd ever believe. When the real Traudl appeared on screen at the end of the film and said she never knew of the Holocaust until the war ended, I felt sympathy for her and I understood the power Hitler had to blind young people and lead them astray.
"Downfall" has been surrounded by controversy since it debuted at the Toronto film festival last year. Critics said it sympathized too much with Hitler, which is obviously not true when you watch it. Others said it goes too far in it's depiction of Hitler's last days. Perhaps some people can not handle the sight of exploding heads and severed limbs, but to say this film goes too far is insane. How should this film depict it's subject? With sunshine and lollipops? World War II was brutal and, as such, so should any film depicting it be. Some people won't be able to handle it, but that's why we humans have discretion. We can decide what is okay for ourselves, and we can say no to whatever we think is bad for us. You don't have to watch this film.
"Downfall" is a vivid, graphic, firsthand reminder of the depth of Hitler's evil. It's makers are simply spreading the message that trying to forget evil will not change it's affect on us. Why shouldn't we depict Hitler in art the way "Downfall"'s makers have? It might be easier to live without thinking of him and seeing his human traits, but it wouldn't be any better to live that way.
This film should become required viewing for history classes.