My favourite foreign film

Rating: 10/10 (11 April 2008)

This is brilliant film, a great example that Germany is producing some of the best cinema in Europe and is starting to face its past. This film is also one of the most historically accurate films ever made. Downfall focuses on Hitler and the last few days of the Nazi regime. Hitler is seen as an evil in the sense that he did order the Holocaust (but its only mentioned in passing) and ordered the destruction of Germany which Albert Speer refused to obey. But Downfall also shows that Hitler did love Eva Braun, his dog and he was good with children. The film also showed that Hitler was loosing the plot, being in ideas of grandeur and that German was going to win the war despite the Russians overrunning Berlin. Hitler is also shown to be a kind man sometimes, especially to secretary Traudl Junge. The Swiss actor Bruno Ganz played the role perfectly, not portraying Hitler as a one-dimensional villain.
As well as looking at Hitler the film also looks at the wider collapse of the Nazi regimes, seeing many members getting killed, committing suicide or getting captured by the allies. The battle of Berlin is looked at, seeing how citizens were affected and Hitler youth members being used to fight the Russians. They were political power-plays also being made during this point in the war, especially by Goering, Goebbels and Himmer. There is a wider evil to the Nazis outside Hitler, but it also shows that they were some better people within them.
To anyone is who is interested in the Nazis, the Battle of Berlin or World War 2 then this movie is getting viewing.
A little footnote at the end, I also like how the filmmaker covered themselves because no one is 100% sure how Hitler and Eva Braun killed themselves.