Downfall
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Features
• AC-3
• Color
• Dolby
• DVD-Video
• Subtitled
• NTSC
In Theaters : 2004
DVD Release : 02 August, 2005 |
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Downfall Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
GOTTERDAMMERUNG....
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Based on the book, "Bis zur letzen Stunde" by Traudl Junge and Melissa Mueller, director Oliver Hirscbiegel's 2004 film about the end of Nazi Germany is the most sobering account of that event to date, and told appropriately in its native language.
It begins in 1942 when a group of frightened, wide-eyed young secretaries are escorted into a Quonset hut under guard, and made to wait outside an office. Among them is Traudl Humps(Alexandra Maria Lara), a young woman whose family wished for her to avoid close association with the Nazis, who is chosen for the position of Secretary to Der Fuerher.
The Swiss-born Bruno Ganz's first appearance as Hitler in this increasingly dark drama is spellbinding because he doesn't appear menacing, but as an aging military officer having a convivial chat with a new employee....
Fast forward to three years later...What Germany sent around had come back around.Berlin is under heavy siege as the Soviets advance, and after over 700 years of periodic German invasions, and ultimately having the largest number of casualties in what the Russians call "The Second Great Patriotic War"--in which every family in the country lost someone, they just weren't going to be nice people.
The main focus is on the claustrophobic conditions of the Fueherbunker in the waning days of April and May of 1945.
The film introduced me to the saga of Dr. Ernst-Robert Grawitz (Christian Hoening), whose falling out with Hitler led him to blow himself and his family up at dinnertime, six days before Hitler's demise by his own hand.
On the streets of Berlin, Hitlerjugend prepare to defend the city to the death. The most prominent of these is the ill-fated Inge Dombrowski (Yelena Zelenskaya), a striking young girl with blonde braids dangling beneath her warrior's helmet. Her friend, Peter Kranz (Donevan Guina)was honored for a combat mission during one of Hitler's final public appearances.
Julian Kohler's Eva Braun is slimmer, harder, ane more intelligent-looking than Hitler's actual wife-to-be. She presides over one final party in a scene whose desperate gaiety is highly reminiscent of how Ancient Rome looked just before its downfall. Later, in between discussing quick and painless methods of suicide between Hitler, Traudl, Gerda Christian(Birgit Minichmayr), et. al, Eva invites the secretaries for a walk outside where they encounter a ready made bouquet of white flowers springing up amid the ugliness of the demolished world around them.--A moment of such wistfulness and ironic beauty.
Hitler, shaking from Parkinson's Disease, still manages to give orders, including one for the execution of Eva's brother-in-law, SS-Gruppenfuher Herman Fegelein (Thomas Kretschmann) for disloyalty despite Eva's pleas on his behalf. His orders regarding combat strategy reveal that he, like all dictators, has lost touch with reality.
Certain details struck me as odd; Why were some in Hitler's inner circle smoking when he objected to that vice? And why is the vegetarian Hitler shown eating meat ravioli for a last meal?
I had a sense of deja vu watching Anna Thalbach as Hanna Reistch. She is the doppelganger of her mother Katharina, who played Wanda in "Sophie's Choice" over two decades earlier.
Ullrich Matthes is a sinisterly beady-eyed Josef Goebbels(sans the clubbed foot). Heinrich Schmieden's Rochus Misch seems largely impassive to the goings-on around him.
There are many elements to keep track of in this film. A significant amount of the drama revolves around the arrival of Magda Goebbels(Corinna Harfouch) and her six children. A conversation with Albert Speer ( Heino Ferch) reveals Magda's intentions for her children. She fogoes Speer's offer to take them to safety; in real life, she rejected a similar plea from her oldest son, Harald.
Eva and Adolf marry as cyanide is tested on Hitler's dog, Blondi( whose pups were put down as well).
Hours before her death, Eva confides her feelings about Blondi to Traudl, and gives Traudl one of her possessions. The Hitlers say farewell to their staff, and Magda, who later begs for Hitler to save himslf receives a pathetic badge as a reward for over a decade of loyalty.
As Traudl gives Goebbel's darling children their lunch, the Hitlers meet their notorious end. No words are needed to express Traudl's feelings as she visits the empty chamber shortly thereafter.
That evening, Magda enters her children's room with a sleeping draught mixed by Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger(Thorsten Krohn), and while little Heide(Amelie Menges), Hilde(Charlotte Stoiber), Helmut(Gregory Borlein), Hedda(Julia Bauer), and Holde (Laura Borlein) sip compliantly, Aline Sokar gives a memorable performance as 12 1/2-year-old Helga Susanne Goebbels (who turned seven the day WWII began) as a child raging futilely against the dying of the light, suspecting the truth of her mother's intentions. The scene of their extermination is handled less gently here than in the 1981 film, "The Bunker".
Soon afterwards, Josef and Magda join the contiguous parade of death, leaving behind those who must use all their cunning to survive.
The real Traudl Junge is shown speaking at the end, expressing remorse for her blindness to what the Nazi regime stood for. The audience can make up its own mind about her sincerity.
Comparisons to modern events will be left to other reviewers. But viewers of this film would do well to consider them. For it is a powerful drama with a timely cautionary tale brought forth by a powerful nation that has come to terms with its past.
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Downfall dvd movie.