Best biopic ever....

Rating: 10/10 (29 October 2006)

I read Sir Ian Kershaw's definitive biography of Adolf Hitler little over a year ago. I had studied that era before, but that book really gave me a pretty thorough insight into this monster. This man who was after all made of flesh and blood and was for over a decade almost a father figure and a person to be revered by the German people - among the most literate of Europe at that time. I hated Hitler even more after reading this well-researched biography because I understood how intelligent he was, how great an orator; a person with an aura yet so bloody-minded and bigoted.
The Downfall is uncanny because the image that I retained of Hitler after reading his biography is exactly the portrait presented in the film. I can understand how disturbing this film would be for people born and bred on one-dimensional caricatures. The Downfall shows the real Hitler - charmer, lover of dogs and little children, dynamic orator, unrepentant warlord, completely delusional madman. He was all those things and The Downfall is a three-dimensional view of the real man and his last days.
The film contains the usual rogues gallery from Hitlers last days: Eva Braun, Goebbels, Speer, Himmler, Keitel, Jodl, Fegelein, Mohnke and the chilling Magda Goebbels. All are portrayed realistically even if some come out looking heroic in their stubbornness. The mechanics of film-making are excellent, and the performances/acting superb.
Fegelein comes out looking honorable (which I can understand) and Speer's comes out positively heroic, which I believe to have been one of the great errors of judgment history has made. I refuse to believe he was as innocent as his autobiography portrayed him. Actual conversations Hitler had in the last few days, actual snap decisions, rantings and ravings are all captured realistically in this film. I found almost no fiction in The Downfall and I was already familiar with the very 'realistic' portrayal of events. In fact a lot of ground was covered in the three hour running time in covering a large number of factual incidents. This is an amazing achievement and I would say a history lesson for the open-minded. I would however agree that children, being impressionable, should not see this film because they might come to the wrong conclusions about Hitler.