Powerful Stuff

Rating: 7/10 (3 March 2006)

Downfall seeks to chart the final days of the Third Reich as both Germany and Adolf Hitler stand on the brink of collapse, as the Russians advance to the heart of Berlin.
It is difficult to gauge whether or not Downfall is a great film or not. It seems that any film offering alternative insight to the Second World War is generally well received as either outstanding (Das Boot, 1981) or at worst, thought provoking and slightly unnerving (Max, 2002), and Downfall is a combination of all these factors.
To a certain extent, it's well acted. Bruno Ganz puts in an intense performance as Hitler, his mood swaying from quiet mourning to the brutal ruthlessness we all know him for, as he visibly degenerates as the war takes its toll on his sanity. What is important is that he remains unlikeable. Ganz makes him a bit more human, without engaging the audience on terms of empathy. He isn't seeking sympathy for the Devil, but is creating an accurate portrait of a man with history watching his every move. I know very little about history and the films accuracy, making the other characters simple types for me. They do an effective job but I've got nothing to base them on.
Downfall doesn't shy away from the more harrowing scenes of war either, focusing largely on the children drawn into it. Audiences are used to seeing soldiers and civilians die, largely thanks to Steven Spielberg, but seeing Nazi Youth soldiers executed by their superiors before they're killed by the Russians is more than what we're used to. The scene in which Magda Goebbels (Corinna Harfouch) poisons all of her children is the best (not quite the right word) example of this and is obviously chilling, as the innocents are punished for the crimes of their parents, in their sleep, no less. I was very relieved none of them woke up.
However, there is no one to root for here. We all know how it ends (although not exactly how) and Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) is perhaps too simple a character to really engage with. For this reason, Downfall is second best to character based efforts such as Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993) and Polanski's The Pianist (2002).
While it is heavy stuff, and more than a little though provoking, there isn't enough emotional connection here for it to be a classic.