Downfall Indeed
Hey everyone! Since the movie theaters deserted us this weekend, Thomas and I did something we haven't done in awhile: we rented a movie from The Video Station. None of our netfixes did the trick for us. This turned out to be a good thing as we got one we'd long forgotten about, Downfall. Downfall is a German movie that was released in 2004 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2005. It lost to the Spanish film, The Sea Inside, a movie I didn't see but I can tell you now Downfall got robbed. It's that good. It should be required viewing and it did win many awards from other countries.
Downfall tells the story of the last days of the Nazi regime, a story I thought I knew, but it was nothing like I pictured it in my head. I pictured Hitler's bunker to be this small dark kind of place that he and Eva Braun ran to right before Berlin was invaded and then killed themselves. The movie took my five second imagination and turned it into a 2.5 hour film that is incredibly gripping. That the Germans made this film is just unreal. There is absolutely no sentimentalizing, no glossing over, no excuses. Downfall made everything and everyone look so much more horrible than I could have ever imagined. Hitler, played brilliantly and disturbingly by Bruno Ganz, is absolutely delusional, insane, prone to fits and rages, you name it. But as Thomas said, he never actually kills anyone. They're all too busy offing themselves. Downfall focuses on a few of the dozens of people housed in the surprisingly large, bright bunker during the the last 10-20 days of Hitler's reign. Primary players are Hitler's 24 year old secretary Traudl (the screenplay is partially based on a book she wrote) who blindly almost worshipped Hitler and couldn't bare to leave him alone; Himmler, his wife and their five children all of whom also worship Hitler and want to go down with the ship; Eva Braun, a madcap kind of gal if ever there was one; a couple of doctors trying to display a little humanity; and a general who pretty much just wants to be shot because he can't deal with all of Hitler's bizarre tactical decisions and his belief that non-existant divisions will be arriving at any moment to crush the Russians, preferably in a pincer move. Occasionally shots of the bombing in the streets of Berlin are shown, with particular focus being paid to Peter, a young member of the Hitler youth - 10 to 15 year old boys and girls whose goal it is to take down Russian tanks. Towards the end of the movie though, there is nothing but carnage and insanity on those streets with civilians turning against each other and old men being hanged for not being on the front line. Again, the fact that this is a German film impresses the heck out of me. Downfall could not have been an easy movie to see as a German, much less make as a German. I can't recommend it more.
-sunday
Downfall tells the story of the last days of the Nazi regime, a story I thought I knew, but it was nothing like I pictured it in my head. I pictured Hitler's bunker to be this small dark kind of place that he and Eva Braun ran to right before Berlin was invaded and then killed themselves. The movie took my five second imagination and turned it into a 2.5 hour film that is incredibly gripping. That the Germans made this film is just unreal. There is absolutely no sentimentalizing, no glossing over, no excuses. Downfall made everything and everyone look so much more horrible than I could have ever imagined. Hitler, played brilliantly and disturbingly by Bruno Ganz, is absolutely delusional, insane, prone to fits and rages, you name it. But as Thomas said, he never actually kills anyone. They're all too busy offing themselves. Downfall focuses on a few of the dozens of people housed in the surprisingly large, bright bunker during the the last 10-20 days of Hitler's reign. Primary players are Hitler's 24 year old secretary Traudl (the screenplay is partially based on a book she wrote) who blindly almost worshipped Hitler and couldn't bare to leave him alone; Himmler, his wife and their five children all of whom also worship Hitler and want to go down with the ship; Eva Braun, a madcap kind of gal if ever there was one; a couple of doctors trying to display a little humanity; and a general who pretty much just wants to be shot because he can't deal with all of Hitler's bizarre tactical decisions and his belief that non-existant divisions will be arriving at any moment to crush the Russians, preferably in a pincer move. Occasionally shots of the bombing in the streets of Berlin are shown, with particular focus being paid to Peter, a young member of the Hitler youth - 10 to 15 year old boys and girls whose goal it is to take down Russian tanks. Towards the end of the movie though, there is nothing but carnage and insanity on those streets with civilians turning against each other and old men being hanged for not being on the front line. Again, the fact that this is a German film impresses the heck out of me. Downfall could not have been an easy movie to see as a German, much less make as a German. I can't recommend it more.
-sunday
posted by Sunday at
4:08 PM
1 Comments:
I've seen that movie at the store but haven't rented it. I don't know if the movie shows it or not, but in real life all of Himmler's children were very young, I think 2-10 ages. The children were outside the bunker playing (it had a courtyard right outside of it) and his wife called them all into the house and gave each of them a dose of poison, killing all of her children just like that. The part about the Hitler Youth is true as well - they were the last line of defense before the fall of Berlin, most of them between 12 and 14. It's interesting to read William Shirer talk about Eva Braun. He basically calls her the most overplayed historical footnote in recorded history, that her relationship with Hitler was essentially blase (she wasn't Hitler's first or true love, that belonged to his niece, who either he or Goebbles had murdered). He said there was nothing remotely interesting about Eva, that she was a completely dull human being who wasn't even fanatical about Nazism or Hitler. Go figure, glad you liked the flick.
CBK
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Anonymous, at 2/20/2006 10:20 PM
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