"Downfall"of a Monster

Rating: 10/10 (24 December 2006)

"I was not an enthusiastic Nazi," a woman's voice-over tells us at the opening of "Downfall," as if to underscore her lack of complicity in Germany's actions in the second World War, or perhaps to convince herself. It is 1943 when director Oliver Hirschbiegel's film about the last tormented days of Adolph Hitler begins, and that voice belongs to the real Traudl Junge (played here by Alexandra Maria Lara), one of several young women smuggled into the Führer's headquarters in East Prussia to interview for a position as his private secretary. When she messes up the first go-round at dictation, Traudl, whose curiosity about Hitler is the catalyst for her adventure, is moved by the dictator's gentleness and generosity. A moment later she is jumping for joy to land such a prestigious position.
Two and a half years later, things are considerably different. The German military has suffered severe losses, Berlin is under artillery attack by the advancing Russians, the great experiment in National Socialism is crumbling like the city, and Hitler (Bruno Ganz) and his key commandants have retreated to the leader's private bunker. But the megalomaniacal Hitler, who irrationally still believes he can produce a Third Reich that is a German "treasure house of art and culture" comparable to that of the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, not only refuses to give up, but also shouts at his minions that a new military strategy is in effect that will help them win the war. How delusional!
Despite their resolute faith in the Führer, even some of the elite members of the SS have come to mistrust his judgment. Albert Speer (Heino Ferch), the famed architect of the Third Reich, looks askance at Hitler over a table top model of the cultural structures he planned to create for the master race. Field marshall Hermann Göring cannot (or will not) obey orders. Nazi doctors refuse to let civilians and young men die without some attempt at medical attention. When Hitler is told that "fifteen to twenty thousand" of those young men were lost in an effort to fight off the Russians, his heartlessly-spewed response is: "that's what they're for." But he will go out onto the street during a lull in the shelling to honor youngsters as heroes who "history will take note of," and pinch the cheek of one particularly innocent- looking lad.
The bipolarity of a man who himself has gone down in history as one of its greatest monsters is at the heart of "Downfall," the screenplay (by Bernd Eichinger) for which is based on historian Joachim Fest's book (The Downfall: Inside Hitler's Bunker, The Last Days of the Third Reich) and on the memoir of the real Traudl Junge (Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary). The film does not ask us to sympathize with this madman (given his actions, how could it?), but it does present a profile of a man who, despite his obvious dementia, still managed to hold sway over those who earlier pledged their loyalty to him and were determined to maintain it to the bitter end. And is it ever bitter.
The claustrophobic confines of the elaborately designed bunker (by Production Designer Bernd Lepel) are reminiscent of the submarine in the German film "Das Boot." We can practically smell its fetid air and feel the walls closing in on us as the Russians close in on the city. Given these circumstances, we can understand how Eva Braun ("Nowhere in Africa's" Juliane Köhler in another terrific performance) can say to Traudl, "The shelling has stopped, let's go for a walk," even if the suggestion is as insane as staying with Hitler.
But like the others who stick it out and who, in many instances, make inhuman, incomprehensible sacrifices to do so, both women descend yet again to that labyrinth of madness.
Aside from the exploration of Hitler's increasingly fragile grip on reality, what is most fascinating about how he is depicted is his appeal, particularly to women. In addition to Traudl and Eva Braun, the short, mustachioed man with the thinning comb-over mesmerized such otherwise strong-willed women as pilot Hanna Reitsch (Anna Thalbach), and Magda Goebbels (Corinna Harfouch), wife of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels (Ulrich Matthes). As such, "Downfall's" strength is greatest when it sticks to these human dynamics rather than when it sidetracks to subplots outside the bunker that have little or nothing to do with the story that unfolds in that enclosed world.
War is the ugliest, or among the ugliest of human actions, and "Downfall" does not glamorize it. On the contrary, despite its technically superb cinematography (by Rainer Klausmann, who also shot "Head On"), there are a number of graphic sequences that underscore the horrors of war, as if we needed reminding. Then again, perhaps we do.
"Downfall" does not necessarily present new information on those last twelve days of Hitler's life, but it does present it in a worthwhile way. In a time of war, such as the one we are currently living in, it is important to remember that monsters are made, not born, and that they lurk beneath the surface of some otherwise very ordinary humans.