I finally saw it ...

Rating: 9/10 (7 November 2006)

Having been away from the civilised world for two years, I finally moved to a town that has 'Der Untergang' on DVD. And yesterday I finally got to see it.
I've only read the last 50 comments, but judging from them I would say that almost everything has already been mentioned. Scary and unbelievable. Amazing performances, a grand depiction of one of the most grotesque moments in history.
What struck me the most was how out of touch with reality the inner circle of power had become. Or maybe had they always been lost in their visions and ideologies? That is a chilling point.
When Hitler says that the shelling of Berlin will aid him, because it will speed up the construction of his monumental capital Germania, when he orders armies to attack that virtually do not even exist anymore, we realise how ignorant Germans had been. Only in the end did many of them wake up to see through the lies and promises. Many never lived that long.
One thing that got stuck in my mind was the scene of the last SS battalion being encircled by the Russians. Even though blood is not commonplace in the movie, I seemed to get used to being surrounded by death: boys, girls, soldiers, deserters, civilians, generals, politicians, Adolf and Eva, the Goebbels family, dying by the minute. When the two SS officers blow their brains out, I didn't even blink. After all we had see, their suicide was just trivial.
I don't know why but that just grips me. In the beginning of the film, I was thinking about how hard it is to commit suicide. When the last two officers took their lives without hesitating, I knew that I would have readily done the same in the circumstances. Like Goebbels, Hitler and the Reich had been the essence of their lives. And like Goebbels, suicide was the only option.
Scary.