Gripping and sobering view on the end of a chapter in history

Rating: Null/10 (8 November 2004)

I decided to go and watch "Der Untergang", partly out of curiosity, partly because of the controversy it generated in Germany. The 155 minutes the movie lasted were 155 minutes well spent, though.
Der Untergang gives an almost documentary-like view into live into Hitler's bunker in Berlin during the last view days of the 3rd Reich. The whole atmosphere and acting is very believable, and at times I found myself wondering whether I was, indeed, watching real footage from those days in 1945. The movie carries an "end-of-the-world" atmosphere in which, bit by bit, everything is destroyed.
**** SPOILER ****
The movie contains some hard to stomach scenes. Other viewer already mentioned the scene in which Mrs. Goebbels calmly kills 6 of her children, but there are many more. One of the scenes I found particularly disturbing is set in the streets of Berlin. Here, a "crew" of mostly children (Hitler-Jugend) man a flac-cannon. As it becomes clear that their position is desperate, a number of them decide to commit suicide. At that point, a perhaps 12 of 14-year old girl has an older officer shoot her (before he kills himself), while she presents the Hitler-salute with a face full of determination. Terrible.
**** END OF SPOILER
The thing that sets this movie apart from, say, Schindlers List, is the fact that it forces the viewer to realize that Hitler himself was, indeed, a human being. It's convenient and easy to dismiss Hitler as a monster, or as a non-human, because that way one doesn't have to think about why the terrible events in WWII happened. Such an attitude breeds complacency, which is a dangerous thing: The longer we deceive ourselves that something like this will never happen again, the more probable it becomes that, at a certain point in time, the exact same problem will stab us in the back again.