The most powerful WWII movie I've ever seen...

Rating: 10/10 (28 February 2013)

I admit that I also heard of this movie from the many parodies on YouTube. Seeing Bruno Ganz's haunting portrayal of the Fuhrer was so fascinating (and so hard not to laugh at because it is so spot on!), I decided to see what the rest of the movie is like so I found it on Netflix.
And oh my goodness, I think this is the most powerful WWII movie I've ever seen. The cinematography and sets are wonderful and 100% realistic to the years 1943-1945. More importantly, though, is the story and characters - it's Hitler's 56th birthday, and for the next ten days, he will face his own downfall. In all that time, he watches his whole world fall apart, with his most trusted officers betraying him, and his army failing at his most desperate time. You see all this happening to him, topped off with a HUGE nervous breakdown (which explains him holding his injured left hand flapping behind his back), and shockingly enough you actually feel SORRY for him!! The movie gives Hitler a human personality and not a caricature villain personality. If a movie can do this and still NOT justify any evil thing that this monster did, that is an accomplishment.
Not only do you feel sorry for Hitler, you also feel sorry for every other person who is either traumatized or killed. The emotion is powerful in this movie - depressing, yes, but what do you expect? I mean there are even CHILDREN that die in this movie!! I guarantee, no matter how thick a shell you have, when you see this movie, you WILL feel something. The score, what little there is, is wonderful and bold. The amount of research that went into the production of this movie is phenomenal, and it shows. You are completely convinced that every bit of everything in this movie actually happened.
The acting - oh my god, the acting. When the actor/actress injects as much life as physically possible into their character, to the point where the audience sees them as not just an actor but the real character they are portraying, that is a great accomplishment in itself. This movie has great acting like this, beginning to end.
It's easy to see why there are so many parodies out there - because the movie was so great!!!! I completely recommend this. 10/10