[oowolf]

"........and it's all for NOTHING"
Eva Braun, quoted by Albert Speer

(I know this film has been out for over a year but its new to me. I haven't seen it discussed down here in the peanut gallery.)

I didn't really wanna see this film--I'm so goddam sick of nazis--but a couple I know tried to watch it and couldn't understand who was what because the characters are not "introduced" but just appear without explanation. Also, the dialog is in German so there's the distraction of subtitles. So, being an "armchair expert" on the third reich, I agreed to provide a running commentary of who was who and explain the motives of the major characters.

It's about the last week of existence of Hitler and his bunker buddies. This is a horror film and the cast is up to the occasion. The suffocating air of unreality that pervades the bunker stands in vivid contrast to the battle raging just outside. We witness the doomed elite of the master race coming to grips with impending annihilation. Reconstructed with meticulous attention to eyewitness accounts from those who were there and lived to tell about it (like 24 year old Traudi Junge, Hitler's personal secretary), this film is more of a clinical record than "entertainment".
I would recommend reading a book like Albert Speer's "Inside the Third Reich" before viewing this film. You'll miss out on a lot of nuance and drama if you go into this movie totally ignorant.

It's hard to feel much pity for these rats and everytime one blows his brains out the initial response is "good riddance". A few do remain in one's mind, however. Eva, whose response is to swill champagne and dance the Charleston while bombs explode directly overhead. Architect and Minister of War Albert Speer: the scene where he looks back at the shattered Reichschancellery (which he designed and had built "to last 1000 years") and realises that not only is his career over but he has made his "deal with the devil" and wonders if he can recover his humanity. (He made a herioc effort, helped along by 20 years of solitary confinement.) The most gutwrenching performance is that of Magda Goebbels (Corinna Harfouch). It's truly horrific watching her strangle the last shred of her humanity so she can commit the depraved acts that represent the actrocity of Naziism visited upon it's creators.

Director Oliver Hirschbiegel keeps the acting level slightly understated which is remarkable considering the possibilities for grandstanding the situation provides.

I enjoyed the scene where Adolf and Eva are married. Besides the bizarreness of finding a justice of the peace to marry them "correctly" when thier next act is selfmurder, the judge has the temerity to ask Hitler to show his "ID". I picked right up on that!

The moral is obvious, and is why I watch our government's actions very carefully.

"there is nothing to stop unleashed technology and science from completing its work of destroying man....." Albert Speer

[Schweinshaxe]

Yup, I saw the movie as well and I liked it a lot.

When I saw Hitler moving around imaginary army divisions on the map I couldn't help thinking that this is the very essence of collectivism. That's exactly what's being done today. Imaginary money is being transferred quicker and quicker from one place to another to fill up expanding holes in the fabric of society. Like Hitler relied on non-existing armies to defend what was left of Germany, our leaders try to get another year without disaster out of a collapsing system.

Otherwise I think that the last couple of years have been good years for the German film industry. We've seen a lot of very good German movies or movies in German language. Here are a few of them.

Good Bye Lenin!
Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage
Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei (The Edukators [sic]. PO related?)
Silentium (Austrian, a must see for the lover of the bizarre...)
Antikörper (Antibodies, a VERY disturbing psychological serial killer movie)

www.imdb.com

[elroy]

I saw der Untergang and Goodbye Lenin as well. I thought they were really good. I wouldn't call der Untergang entertainment, but more like a documentary or war movie. It kinda reminded me of 'The longest day' in that it showed the germans as people, not as 'nazi monster scumbags'. After all, it's a human thing that could happen anywhere given the right circumstances.

[Lokutus]

I finally got around to seeing Downfall a couple of months ago and must say it's one of the best movies of last year.

Your review is excellent.

If anyone hasn't seen it, they should.