A German opinion....

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2006)

First of all, because I think it matters, I am from Germany.
Almost everyday in our lives, we young German people are still confronted with what happened 60 years ago. Sometimes, we still have to be careful what we say about strangers, about people of foreign countries, about people of a different religion. 60 years after our grandparents made a few terrible mistakes. So far, so good. My generation has no idea, what it has meant to live in the 3rd Reich, how people could follow a sick man like Hitler, follow his pervert ideas, obey anything this mentally insane man. But still we have to carry our heritage, every day we have to remember what happened 60 years ago. We have to. And films like Downfall, Schindlers List or The Pianist let us not forget, let us learn and remember. And that's why movies like Downfall are necessary, are important. Especially, if they of such great quality as this one. Only in one point this film is dangerous: It creates a picture of Hitler as a man, not as a monster. A sick man, a man with pervert ideas attitudes, okay, but a man who can also be polite and regarding. A human being. It is no question, that this is an almost perfect personification of Hitler, Bruno Ganz is amazing and the scriptwriters were brilliantly informed about the Fuehrer as a person. But as I said, some people who still have these radical ideas and see Hitler as a God-like figure (and they exist, not only in Germany!) might misunderstand this personification. "Der Untergang"is a masterpiece of German cinema, but it is nothing for a narrow-minded audience....