Shockingly Realistic and Moving

Rating: 9/10 (28 June 2006)

Downfall launches the viewer head-on into the last moments of the Reich in Berlin, 1945. It doesn't patronise the viewer with an explanatory voice over it is unflinchingly real. Ganz's performance as Hitler is terrific he manages to capture the sense of terror and awe that the real-life counter part had. The supporting cast are also superb portraying the sense of utter loss and crushed belief as the seemingly invincible idea of Germania collapses around them. This film has been criticised for humanising the Nazis, particularly Hitler but I find this to be it's strongest point. Unlike most war films the Germans are shown as human, they have emotions, they weep as their children die and their leader weeps as his monstrous scheme dies. The film really portrays the manner in which the German people were swept up with National Socialism, they lived and died for it. It also captures the terrifying will to power which the Nazis used so inhumanely over the 'weak' which even turn out to be the German civilians after a while. All in all a moving and shockingly realistic portrayal of a legacy which still haunts us to this day.