DOWNFALL

Part Five in My Examination of War in Film

"In a war as such there are no civilians. "

How many of you out there like Hitler?

Anyone? At all?

No, there's not too many who would express their warm feelings about a man who was responsible for the most horrendous series of massacres in the history of God's Earth. In fact, many would go as far as to say God abandoned this man. DOWNFALL has the balls to say otherwise.

We can't deny that Adolf Hitler was a man. A terrible man, but a man nonetheless. He had a rationale for what he did and what he believed. This isn't to say that I agree with him in any type of degree, but you really can't deny he had to have had a thought process going when he ordered the killing of millions of jews and minorities. In DOWNFALL, his final ten days are seen through the eyes of the people immediately around him. His wife, secretary, military consultants, family, and servants all watch in horror as the impending, inevitable Russian takeover of Berlin and the entire country rips his mind to pieces.

In all actuality, this German film's central character is not Hitler. It is really written to be an ensemble piece, with the most time devoted to his secretary, Traudl Junge's, experiences. Traudl is brought to life in a wide-eyed performance by Alexandra Maria Lara, who exhibits innocence, fear, anger, passion, suffering, anxiety, and still hope into every shot she is in. By her side are dozens of Germans of different significance. They are not painted as villains by director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who instead opts to film them as faithful soldiers and servants to their country.

It is only through Bruno Ganz's unbridled, explosive performance as The Fuhrer. He embodies Hitler, not only with the signature moustache, but with shaky hands and a face that has seen his epic dreams been squashed by who he believes to be a group of inferiors. While Hitler was an insane man whose mind completely abandoned him in his last days, Ganz gives a striking idea of how cunning and charming a man Hitler could be. While he hates the groups he persecutes, he cares for the people around him, especially the women, children, and young soldiers taking their last stand in a suicide mission inside Berlin.

It would be a hard task to humanize the Nazis without coming off as either assholish or truly offensive, but this small gem of a film does. With its stunning authenticity in performances, costumes, and sets (a burning Berlin haunted me, and believe me, I usually wouldn't sympathize for the German situation), DOWNFALL feels more like a docu-drama than a traditional film. As the tension escalates through the city and among the people, the drama becomes crushing. The most popular subject matter to talk about is the methods of killing oneself. Fathers take their own children's lives rather than watch them fall into the hands of the Russians. It is a haunting masterpiece of a film.

A+