Riveting!

Rating: 9/10 (17 January 2006)

I just grabbed this one at the video store not realizing it was subtitled which at first threw me off but once I got into it the film is very, very good. The cinematography is excellent. A few of the scenes looked almost identical to those in The Pianist, another great movie. Bruno Ganz is outstanding as Hitler; I keep wondering where I've seen Ganz before. Needless to say he confirmed my thoughts that Der Fuhrer was a complete nut job! It's a wonder he didn't have a stroke every five minutes. I am always amazed that the Nazis were so fanatically loyal to the point of killing off their children rather than surrender. And although I can hardly compare Hitler to our own President George W. Bush, we do have those in our country who seem to support him no matter what. I especially like Thomas Kretchmann who seems to bring something new to every Nazi he plays (as in The Pianist). The battle scenes are fantastic too; just trying to imagine the director setting up such wonderful shots is enough to warrant a second look. I got a little chuckle seeing Hitler eat ravioli like it was the last thing on earth and they always seemed to have plenty of booze too. I won't get philosophical about the film; much has been written etc. about the Holocost and all that. I have the movie for 5 days so I think I'll watch it again. Riveting!