Sympathetic Without Crossing The Line

Rating: 8/10 (2 December 2014)

Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz), tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
The difficulty of any film focused on Germany during World War II is how to portray the humanity of the people without sympathizing with the Nazi cause. One does not want to make Hitler out to be human (although he was), but it is also unfair to paint an entire country as monsters.
The Hollywood cliché is that German soldiers were cruel and ruthless, but were they? Here we have Hitler's secretary, who saw much of the last days. If anyone can be said to be both inside the circle and yet innocent, it is her. If we are to believe the real Traudl Junge, such decisions as regarded concentration camps were never made known to her. She was a secretary, but apparently not typing up the most terrible documents.