DOWNFALL A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
DOWNFALL (DER UNTERGANG) was one of the nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Academy Awards. Following Hitler and his cronies deep underground in the last few days of the Third Reich, it was considered shocking in Germany because it dared to show that, when Hitler wasn't visibly shaking and close to foaming at the mouth, as he is in most of the movie, he was sometimes human and even downright polite to women and children.
Rather than focusing on a few key individuals, the film meticulously develops just about every character around Der Führer in those doomed final days before Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz) and Eva Braun (Juliane Köhler), his newly wedded wife, committed suicide. The film's long epilogue tells exactly what happened to all of these Nazi figures, most of whom I had never heard of, and I'm something of a history buff. Frankly, it was more than I wanted to know and contributed to the film's excessive length. Trimmed down by a third, the movie would have had much more impact.
What works best in picture are the dialog-free scenes, when the music comes up and the horror of the destruction washes over the audition like waves of blood. One dramatic outdoor episode reminds you of the dramatic finale in Gotterdammerung as Berlin comes crashing down. The most moving moment happens when innocent children are given cyanide capsules so that they will never live in a Nazi-free Germany. One of the most famous moments is that of Hitler, like a kid playing the game Risk, moving non-existent armies around on a large map of Berlin and its environs.
So long as Hitler and Co. stayed in the bunker, they felt safe, remarking that it was so far underground and fortified that no one could harm them. This kept bringing me back to the present moment and our Congress, in which one side continues to argue vociferously that bunker-buster bombs aren't necessary, so they shouldn't be built. Naiveté lives on to this day.
DOWNFALL runs 2:36. The film is in German with English subtitles. It is rated R for "strong violence, disturbing images and some nudity" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, February 18, 2005. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.
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