Was Traudl Junge a naive Nazi or a simple shorthand-typist?

Rating: 8/10 (18 April 2005)

Traudl Junge arrives in Rastenberg and gets a job as Hitler's shorthand-typist, later moving to the bunker beside the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. The rest is history.
A lot of the film is based on her memoirs and told from her point-of-view. She sees most things in the bunker and even takes Hitler's last political testament. The atmosphere is dark and depressing throughout the entire film, as you would expect with a bunch of people facing a certain end. The Russians are just a few miles away and the whole city is under heavy artillery fire; the defence is down to a bunch of young boys and a few old men.
Alexandria Maria Lara (Traudle Junge) is probably a fine actress  she is certainly very pretty  yet this film is covered with her ludicrous, 'it's all so strange and terrible' expression. She plays a parody of someone caught up in unimaginable situations.
For such an epic moment in history  the triumph of one civilisation over another  this film, for me, just doesn't convey the enormity of the situation. Hitler and Goebbels make the occasional comment on the Bolsheviks and how their victory will be terrible, but it is just unconvincing, though still very interesting.
Bruno Ganz does a fine job portraying Hitler but, for some reason, he is made to look like a midget up against the other actors. According to IMDb, Ganz is 5'10" but here he looks about 5'2".
Worth watching.