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Few films have dared tackle WWII objectively from a German point of view; most use the Germans as stock villains as Allied forces perform heroic feats. Movies like Patton show brief glimpses into German military thinking while The Pianist finds a sympathetic music loving German officer, who realizes the futility of his situation, but these comprise small vignettes within the larger scope of the film. A notable exception is Wolfgang Petersen's artfully constructed Das Boot, who successfully transports us through a German U-boat for three claustrophobic hours. But his film has a decided anti-war agenda and features unknown fictional Germans.
Before 2004, had someone approached you with a film idea that would present an even handed character study dealing with Adolph Hitler, you would have been tempted to break out into a chorus of "Springtime for Hitler." But Downfall (Der Untergang) is no joking matter. Daring to paint an honest portrait of Hitler's final days in his Berlin bunker, director Oliver Hirshbiegel pays such attention to detail that the viewer feels privy to surveillance tapes inside the Führer's headquarters. In a sense we are due to the fact that the screenplay is largely based on source material from Taudl Junge's personal narrative as Hitler's private secretary: Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich. Junge lived 81 years and was interviewed countless times by journalists and historians seeking first hand accounts; she witnessed a pleasant paternal side that only a select few inner circle of ladies ever experienced:
We never saw him as the statesman; we didn't attend any of his conferences. We were summoned only when he wanted to dictate and he was as considerate then as he was in private.
Appropriately, Hirschbiefel explores his challenging subject through Jung's point of view (expertly played by Alexandra Maria Lara, Junge). Initially hired as Hitler's stenographer (more for her youth and beauty than her secretarial skills), Junge gives us access to Hitler's final days as his beloved Third Reich collapses all around him. Only rarely venturing outside to witness deteriorating Nazi defenses under continual onslaught of Russian artillery fire and to observe the burning bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun, the film cloisters us inside Hitler's bunker. Like Das Boot, we shudder as the bomb blasts get closer and feel the fears of the encapsulated Germans, but unlike Petersen's submarine classic we already know the eventual outcome.
As the Russians close in on the underground "sanctuary," Hitler vacillates between utter despondency to lunatic rages and fantasies about a miraculous victory that has been pre-destined for his National Socialist Movement. Pouring over maps and imagining armies that no longer existed, issuing commands to officers who were dead, and screaming for executions of traitors, Hitler imagines an unfathomable rescue while simultaneously dictating his last will and testament and preparing his final cyanide cocktail party.
Creating a docudrama with such well known material presents an enormous challenge. For the film to work, it must go well beyond the basic facts and fill in the blanks with details and nuances that are less well known and must create flesh and blood characters that explore the unexplainable paradoxes of the situation, and somehow get the audience to latch on to a believably sympathetic character to carry them through the narrative. Hitler's public charisma and power are well documented through numerous films of his speeches, but what is the private Hitler like? How could such an evil dictator engender such devotion and loyalty? What is in the German character that allowed such a cancer to develop and overtake their society?
In this vein Hirschbiefel succeeds remarkably. This isn't the most entertaining film you'll ever see, but History Channel devotees will be put into virtual ecstasy with its educational value and film aficionados will appreciate the craftsmanship applied to the challenging subject matter. Small details like dining with crystal and fine china that continues despite constant bombardment, how the secretaries congregate far away from Hitler in order to smoke cigarettes, and how Eva Braun hates Hitler's pet German Shepard make a huge positive impact in the epic docudrama. If there's nothing new or noteworthy, it would be a wasted 155 minutes.
Of course the most difficult character to deal with is der Führer—finding a way to realistically recreate him without resorting to stereotype and caricature. In fact, initially Bruno Ganz had no interest in portraying Hitler, figuring that the character would be flat and lifeless, but after reading the script, he realized that Hitler's character could develop some depth.
That set Ganz off for research. Off to a Swiss hospital to study Parkinson's patients to perfect Hitler's own hand twitching, and off to study Hitler's language and speech. Most recordings of Hitler come from his public speeches, so Ganz was able to use their cadence, rhythm, and tonal qualities when going into rages, but talking in a normal conversational tone is en entirely different matter. Ganz obtained a copy of the only known recording of the private Hitler—an 11 minute 1942 recording made on the occasion of Finland Field Marshal CGE Mannerheim's 75th birthday that reveals Hitler's natural "working class language." These items become an important part of Ganz's technical arsenal that allows him to create a surprisingly nuanced Hitler with an emotional range that covers the gamut from obsessive fanaticism, to charm, to fatalistic despondency.
It's one thing to read of how Hitler loved children and was devoted to his dog, but to actually witness Ganz giving a fatherly send off to a twelve year old Nazi youth, greet the Goebbels children, lovingly pet his beloved German Shepherd Blondi, and gently deal with his flustered stenographer certainly makes history's most notorious villain more human and believable. It's to Ganz's credit that he creates an authentic portrait that shows various facets of Hitler's character—to the point of actually feeling his ironic anguish when the reverend asks der Führer if he's a racially pure Aryan to legally marry his longtime mistress.
And even more is revealed about the nefarious dictator from the various people surrounding him. Eva Braun tells about Hitler's obsession about vegetarian meals and divulges how he doesn't want anyone to see deep inside him. We know about how the insecure dictator would order swift executions for those who opposed him, yet we witness a very strong Albert Speer (Heino Ferch) privately express both respect and open disobedience of the Führer's order to destroy the German people under his command and see that Hitler's reactions are not always predictable.
Most chilling are the scenes involving Magda Goebbels (Corinna Harfouch) and Hitler. So devoted to her beloved Führer's ideals is she that she ironically declares that his parting gift of a Nazi pin has made her the happiest woman in Germany. So deep is her belief that she declares, "I do not want to live in a world without National Socialism," and she makes sure that her six children don't either whether hold Uncle Adolph's ideals or not. The Goebbels family "euthanasia"/suicides are graphically and tastefully depicted and dramatically set up. Even if you don't know the history, the first appearance of the cherubic children imitating the Trapp Family singers inside the bunker sets up the inevitable denouement.
Hitler has become such a stock villain the past fifty years that it's difficult to imagine him in anything other than melodramatic background. Menno Meyjes had his heart in the proper place when he attempted to create a nuanced character study in his 2002 production Max, but that film floundered as artistically as did the young Hitler. This film won't appeal to the masses, but will mesmerize its intended audience. Pictures truly translates much of what happens in that bunker in the last few days of the failed Third Reich, and one thing that clearly comes across is that Hitler was no giant of a man that could change the inevitable when greater forces of good are aligned against him. However, it's disturbing to realize that this little man with such a perverted and evil dream could previously rise to so much power and wreak such misery on the world. The forces that elevated him still exist, and it's important to examine films like Downfall to help protect us from any future incarnations.
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