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 enlarge | Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Actors: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.94
Buy New: $7.99
You Save: $6.95 (47%)
New (45) Used (25) from $7.42
Avg. Customer Rating:  345 reviews
Sales Rank: 1255
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), German (Original Language), Russian (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 155
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D11545D
ISBN: 1404987606
UPC: 043396115453
EAN: 9781404987609
ASIN: B0009RCPUC
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
Release Date: August 2, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new, factory sealed. Fast shipping!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great Historical Piece May 31, 2008
For anyone trying to understand the WW2 era in European history, this is a must. Carefully done by Germans, this movie is excellent in helping outsiders get a handle on why people did what they did. It approaches the central characters in a more 3D way, opting not to portray people as caricatures or cartoons with no soul.
Es ist aus. Der Krieg ist verloren May 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The greatest movies are those that capture, torture and then motivate your mind. Out of well documented tragedies of the past century, two places always evoke my imagination: Petrograd of 1917 and Berlin of 1945; both marked an inhuman end of each empire and a complete termination of previous way of living.
Downfall kept my breath stopped to the end entirely having me absorbed into this desert of human ruins. What makes it a masterpiece is a rarely balanced measure of excellent acting and historic authenticity that reaches here the voyeuristic level: each little scene makes up a grandiose landscape of characters. Like in genuine Greek tragedy, you realize that each of these men and women was mentally trapped and could not act any other way than they did. Therein Bruno Ganz (Adolf Hitler) plays well, albeit not without a little grotesque, which Hitler, like any huge public figure, unconsciously cast upon himself. As well portrayed are Albert Speer und Magda Goebbels. Eva Braun has somewhat decadent imprint on her personality (did the Bunker abet that trait?). You watch a highly deluded man's sudden acceptance of harsh reality when it's "too late"; the grim verdict - "The war is lost" - nevertheless needed to be heard from the Fuehrer by his well informed staff, for it meant an end, a complete, total, ultimate end.
I must add I've never seen as many suicides in a movie as in Downfall: from an unknown fighter to the highest Nazi ranks, including Hitler (his suicide is shown, as it has to be, with the doors closed). In the scene where the Fuehrer was saying farewell to his close circle, preparing to leave this world, he took his Nazi membership badge off his lapel and put in on Magda Goebbels - for being the examplary German mother. Therewith the deadliest, misanthropic venom of the Fuehrer's callousness was passed over to her. How symbolic... Then comes the scene of killing of Goebbels' children by their mother's stern hand, which is an uneasy experience.
Some minor notes. In the scene with partygoers, bemused Traudl says "It's so unreal": no matter if that was ever really said so bluntly - that should've been omitted in the film - we, viewers, witness it ourselves. Secondly, it's been mentioned, Traudl is at shocking gaze when she hears Hitler speaking of Jews with his typical aversion. You cannot believe her character at this moment: she's a proffesional secretary brought up in Nazi Germany, socializing within the highest Nazi millieu, for whom hatred for Jews was in blood; you don't expect her to be THAT naive. Finally, in the end of the movie the filmmakers felt obliged to put textbook banality about death of fifty million people including six million Jews as a result of the war - but the movie is not about the WW2 or the Third Reich or even Hitler's biography; it's out of place.
Personally I found a bit distracting the fact that filming was done on dear streets of St. Petersburg, my home city, inasmuch as the modern Berlin offers very little of its imperial past. The Moika's railings are merely more elegant that those of the Spree embankments. But, of course, that is not of importance for other viewers, - the surrounding settings really cannot be any more perfect. And what an unexpected parallel between Petrograd and Berlin!
Like in most European films, there's no score soundtrack in Downfall (one scene has a brief sentimental music background, which doesn't trigger emotions anyway).
All too human... May 20, 2008
Untergang(Downfall) is an excellent movie. It shows all the human aspects that tend to be forgotten or glossed over by people (whether the frailty and madness of Hitler, delusions of victory and "normalcy" in the bunker, etc)...seen through the eyes of Traudl Junge and a Hitler Youth, it is a descent into darkness during the final days of the war. While the ending was pretty solid artistic license, it played out better as an ending than the gang-rapes of the women....which actually happened. In German with English subtitles.
Amazing Film May 19, 2008
This film deserved the Oscar for foreign film in 2005. Amazing performance by Bruno Ganz. Whether you are a WW2 buff or not you will find this movie well worth adding to your collection.
 It is a "Downfall" that this movie is in German! May 11, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
Good movie - but it's all in German with english sub-titles!
Amazon should have noted this under the product discription.
Other than that the film gives a good account of Hitler's last days
in his bunker, surrounded by his army chiefs, and unwilling to
believe that he was losing the war. There is nothing about the
concentration camps as the story is told through the eyes of
Hitlers young secretary Trudi.
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