How to deal with a monster

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2008)

One of the great challenges that an actor can face is in the portrayal of an absolute and uncompromising evil. Such is the challenge faced by many of the actors in Downfall, depicting the final days of the "Hitler Bunker" and necessitating portrayals of some of the worst criminals in history, including Heinrich Himmler, Albert Speer, Joseph Goebbels, and of course the arch-devil of National Socialism himself, Adolph Hitler.
And that is precisely what separates this movie from any other on the topic, the utterly amazing portrayal of the world's most brutal of dictators by Bruno Ganz. Ganz's performance takes on depths that very few could imagine, let alone portray, in the character of Hitler. His outlandish and sometimes childishly inappropriate reactions to the crumbling of his empire reveal the deep neurosis suffered by Hitler, while other moments in the film reveal sides of Hitler that many do not know of, such as his vegetarianism and love for animals. Another particularly interesting aspect of Ganz's performance is the open but never mentioned portrayal of Hitler as suffering from Parkinson's disease, a widely supported theory on Hitler's physical appearance and mannerisms in the late stages of the war.
The deeper issues and consequences of many Nazi practices are only mentioned peripherally in the film, which instead focuses on the personal and psychological effects of the dissolution of the Nazi state on both residents of the bunker and of Berlin above. Some of the film's finest scenes deal with the Volkssturm militias of young boys and old men who were hastily armed and organized as a last ditch defense against the Soviets. In dealing with this a very interesting historical moment is portrayed in the film. The last appearance of Hitler on film before his death was at a small ceremony outside of the entrance to the bunker where he gave medals to several young men that had destroyed a soviet tank, and this moment is shown fantastically in the movie.
This film is definitely recommendable to anyone who is interested in the Second World War or even history in general and is sure to stand the test of time as the definitive portrayal of Adolf Hitler.