Downfall | Review

Hirshbiegel’s sophomore feature sympathizes (slightly) with the devil.

There have been a slew of films about the man with the world’s most unpopular first name that have managed to portray der Führer for what he was: an oddly-trimmed moustache-wearing lunatic. While many films get the physical appearance and some of his obvious character traits down with accuracy, few film representations have managed to portray him in any other an image but that. In only his second feature, after his heavily popular international hit Das Experiment, German cinema’s newest voice stirs up the controversy by showing history’s most hated man, under a more complex, untargeted light.

Avoiding issues of morality and striving away from easy war film reenactments, the film tackles the irreversible decisions that made the Third Reich defense of Berlin fall like a house made of dominos. With a Das Boot claustrophobic tone, the Oscar nominated Downfall presents the likes of Hitler, Goebbels, and Eva Braun during the last hours of depleted Berlin and via the combined testimonials found in the memoirs from Traudl Junge (who was the subject matter for the 2002 documentary Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary) and Joachim Fest’s Inside Hitler’s Bunker, Hirshbiegel scribes an historical traced, insider’s view of Hitler’s last breathes and shows how many were willing to walk the plank with him.

The 2½ hour trek does a good assessment with all the available facts, initially the film commences with a story belonging to Hitler’s personal secretary Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara), but thankfully Hirshbiegel lets the p.o.v float freely onto the other key figures – it allows for a better understanding of the devoted loyalty among the peers and the naïveté in the youth. When the spotlight features the antics of Hitler – the film looks at him through a different sort of microscope, the kind that was evoked in Patty Jenkins’ Monster. Actor Bruno Ganz (The Manchurian Candidate) gives a commanding screen performance, – infusing the figure with a balance of bent psychotic rage and with a sympathetic, caring side.

Ultimately, Hirshbiegel and screenwriter Bernd Eichinger have much to contend with, Downfall is a well-crafted piece with fine acting all around, but there are one too many characters that flutter onto the screen and one too many dull moments in-between the deeper tension points. Perhaps keeping the story at bunker level instead of occasionally peering at the chaos above, would have allowed for more depth to be added to the film’s closing testimony from Junge in which she discusses how blind youth were in relation to what was happening outside of their circle.

Rating 2.5 stars