A profound and powerful film with a fantastic central performance

Rating: 9/10 (4 June 2005)

A film that takes you into the heart of darkness that was Adolf Hitler. An absorbing central performance by Bruno Ganz that allowed me to imagine what it must have been like in that bunker as the second world war drew to a close. I found the film completely believable and one of those rare things in cinema, a film that stays with you and which returns to you weeks, even months after you see it. A disturbing and unsettling film in that the intimate portrayal of Hitler as a fallible human being invites us to empathise with him, despite all that we know about his political fanaticism and monstrous actions. In this regard, this is an important film from Germany about German history. It is courageous and bravura film making and an important contribution to understanding how fascism came to power in Germany and why, of course, it must never be allowed to do so anywhere else again.