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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 Used: $6.55
You Save: $8.39 (56%)
New (52) Used (29) from $6.55
Avg. Customer Rating:  363 reviews
Sales Rank: 996
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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| Customer Reviews:
 Probably the Most Important Recent Film on Hitler and the Third Reich April 9, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This film is a truly amazing piece of work. Historically well researched, all of the major players are present and play their part in these, the last days of the Reich, as are all of the emotions one would anticipate as the armies of Stalin close in on the once proud city of Berlin.
As the battle rages closer and closer to the heart of Berlin, Hitler (and the residents of Berlin) react with delusional detachment. Hitler insists to his sycophants in the bunker that this invasion so deep into the capital of the Reich is all a ploy - a decoy for a final assault by the German armies that will break the back of the Russians and turn the tide of the war. The architects of the Reich - Himmler, Speer, Fegelein, Hess (offstage) and others - realize the futility of the situation and begin to rapidly maneuver to save their skins (Himmler even asks Fegelein whether he should give Roosevelt the Nazi salute or shake his hand as he tenders Germany's surrender), while the personal staff of Hitler and the citizenry of Berlin descend into a surreal, macabre festivity (as Trudl Junge, played to naïve perfection by Alexandra Maria Lara, says "it's like a dream, which you cannot escape, which never ends"). As the situation's genuine hopelessness becomes overwhelmingly apparent, the residents of the bunker begin to casually discuss the best means of suicide over dinner, again adding to the surreal air of the portrayal. Frau Goebbels' insistence that her children "cannot conceivably grow up in a world without National Socialism" rings similar of other more modern political and ideological sound bites and her depraved subsequent acts look similar to several other cinematographical events presented in a more heroic light.
What truly forces this film out of the crowd of other films dealing with Hitler and the fall of the Reich is its portrayal of the various Nazi participants as human beings, rather than diabolical or demonic entities of evil incarnate. I've always felt that portrayal of Hitler and his cronies as slavering maniacs (Hitler - The Rise of Evil, with Robert Carlyle, is the worst of the lot) and the German soldiers under their command as mindless automatons who shoot wherever they point does history a tremendous disservice. Portraying them as "fantasy/horror" villains of obvious evil demeans and diminishes the historical lesson to be learned, and implies that such characters are easily recognizable. Having lived abroad for the last 14 years, I've never been able to accept that the well-educated German people elected and supported a slavering lunatic - spittle smearing maniacs have a tough time appealing to the general populace, particularly an astute one. In a culture where "humanizing" Hitler is something to apologize for, it's easy to forget that Hitler was, in fact, just that - human - not some fantasyland villain or monster.
Bruno Ganz's portrayal of Adolph Hitler is almost grandfatherly, a seemingly benevolent man whose hands shake from palsy (the later stages of syphilis) but who addresses his troops and supporters on a first name basis and constantly exudes charm, wit and charisma (at least in the early moments of the film). Here lies the true message and the most important aspect of the film - these men were monsters, but they were human monsters, coupled with minds and visions much greater than the average. Despicable and evil, but, at the same time, great and inspiring. Unlike Carlyle's portrayal of Hitler in Rise of Evil, or Spielberg's/Schindler's List's Amon Goeth (portrayed by Ralph Fiennes), these monsters could pass you on the street and you wouldn't look twice. You'd invite them into your home, perhaps even support them if you did not have history to put them into context. Bruno Ganz's Hitler isn't a man who woke up every morning wringing his hands and sneering villainously, looking forward to doing "evil" during the day. He was committed to a cause and vision, albeit a twisted and corrupt one, who managed to capture the emotions of one of the most well educated countries in the world. As both Hitler and Goebbels remark during the film "The (German) people gave us a mandate. They supported what we have done. I do not pity them for what is to come." The old adage of "Never again!" has to be reviewed in this context. Have states and peoples subsequently been led to do evil by their leaders on the basis of emotion and collective hysteria? If so, will they again?
Really good, considering the subject matter April 7, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a tricky review to write b/c I do not want to offend anyone. However, this film was strongly recommended to me by a co-worker and he pestered me and pestered me until I watched it so we could discuss it. I am glad I did. A lot of stuff for your mind to chew on while watching. There is no footage of the camps, mostly all of the footage is in the bunker a few days before the fall of Germany in WW2. A very human film.
GREAT MOVIE April 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a GREAT MOVIE all the way around and top to bottom.
Nothing else needs to be said.
Human beings under pressure at the bitter end of war March 25, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
DOWNFALL is by turns bloody, horrifying, infuriating, claustrophobic, pathetic, and frightening. And almost always fascinating as it pans across the parade of humanity - the famous, the powerful, and the obscure - in the final days of the Third Reich in Berlin. Allied bombs are pounding the city. The Russians are fast approaching.
Hitler, the omnipotent Fuhrer, is down in his bunker below Berlin, and disintegrating into madness before the stunned faces of his senior staff and generals. His girlfriend Eva Braun - who seems at best a few sandwiches short of a picnic - is determined to put on her party clothes and dance; but the party is literally blasted back down into the bunker just when it's going strong.
Military men sit in the bunker and get drunk. Hitler's young secretaries wonder what will happen next.
Out in the streets the Nazi troops are aided by idealistic youth and the generals are stymied by the Fuhrer's deluded orders - based on reinforcements which are figments of his fevered imagination. A military doctor defies orders to vacate, and we are never spared for long the sights and sounds of the wounded.
There is little daylight in this film. There are few moments of quiet and peace. The Reich, the civilization as the Nazis remade it, is crumbling along with the city itself. Old scores are settled with violence.
In counterpoint to the blood-soaked streets, we see Goebbels' wife bring their children into the bunker. The cute blonde Aryan bunch sings a happy song for their Fuhrer. And ultimately are drugged to sleep and ruthlessly killed by their mother. The first, but not the last, homicides and suicides in the bunker.
It is the bitter end of war, the fall of a regime, and the plunge of a city into deep chaos. It is a downfall to remember. Not an easy film to watch, but well acted, gritty, persistently grim, and definitely worth viewing.
Powerful depiction of the end days in the bunker March 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Downfall
A very powerful movie showing the end days of Nazi Germany. It is well acted and shows the different types of people around Hitler apart from Hitler himself. One gets a real sense of what it must have been like in the bunker in the dying days of the war, as it became clearer and clearer for the characters portrayed that the Nazis had lost the war. Some of characters were clearly pathological deviants without question. Others were true believers and followers, who allowed evil to happen as they so much wanted to believe the illusion they were fed, while ignoring the reality and the brutality that was all too obvious for those with eyes to see.
Lessons to be learnt in today's world, where a new rise of fascism is evident. Time to watch out and pay attention to what is really happened and done and not just to what the leaders say.
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