important and burdensome movie

Rating: 10/10 (18 October 2004)

set design, special effects, makeup, costumes etc. are flawless and excellently done, technically this is a formidable movie.
it can be a little difficult to understand and follow the plot - especially in the beginning - if you don't know the entourage in the bunker and all the other characters (speer, schenk, fegelein, weidling, mohnke et al). but contrary to some critics in Germany i don't think this film is long-winded. the more you know about the background the more you discover in each scene.
bruno ganz did an outstanding job portraying Hitler. what a feeling it must be to impersonate this man - and to force yourself to give him the full set of human emotions, to play someone like Hitler as a human being, not as a stereotyped monster. an achievement for which ganz deserves great respect.
alas, he sometimes exaggerates. if you listen to Hitler's "tischgespraeche" you can tell that ganz overdid Hitler's voice, tonality and accent. this was annoying and produced some comical / awkward situations and suppressed laughter in the cinema where i watched the movie.
***mild spoilers in the next paragraph***
many scenes, especially magda goebbels poisoning her kids, Hitler crying or freaking out or the scenes of frantic drinking and feasting were very disturbing and emphasized the mood of the whole film: dire hopelessness on the verge of madness.
although historians and contemporary witnesses praise the exactness of "der untergang" we should not forget that this is a movie, not a documentary. read "der untergang" by fest to learn about the dramatic/storytelling freedoms the filmmakers took. in my opinion though, and taking into account previous picturization, this movie is as close to reality as it gets.
what is the goal of this movie? its intention? this movie can help you visualize and realize the surreal situation in these last days of the war. you probably read or heard about it somewhere already, what occurred in those days, how Hitler managed to keep his generals in control, how the German soldiers kept this madness going. i think this movie helps you get a glimpse of a situation that is beyond comprehension - even for the people who witnessed it.
critics warned or asked whether this movie makes you sympathize with Hitler or the top military and nazi leaders. whether it makes you feel sorry for "the fuehrer" because the movie succeeds in portraying him as a human being. whether the movie tries to play down the atrocities of WWII and the nazi regime. i have at no time felt that this film tries to reduce or shift guilt and responsibility. although you might be touched by Hitler's suffering and feeling of betrayal the movie never let's you forget what Hitler (and the Nazis and the military) planned, perpetrated and thought. pity you might feel, but not for Hitler. and when the lights turn on in the movie theater you'll feel like someone punched you in the stomach - and that's definitely not sympathy.
that they show Hitler as a human being is important, so is this movie. it shows that we have to see behind the curtain. because even the most evil tyrant can behave like a decent man - if it suits him. because evil can appear in the disguise of an alluring, simpler solution. this is a lesson we have to preserve for the future.