Downfall (2 DVDs)

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Average Rating: (See all 6 reviews) Format: DVD (MA) Ships within 6-11 days In the dead of a November night in 1942, SS officers through the woods escort a group of young women to Wolf's Lair, Hitler's headquarters in Eastern Prussia. They are candidates for the post of personal secretary to the Fuehrer. Among them is 22-year-old Traudl Junge, a fresh-faced girl from Munich. Traudl is chosen for the job and she is overcome with joy at the thought of serving beside her Fuehrer. BERLIN, APRIL 20, 1945: Hitler has retreated to a bunker system under the German Chancellery. Traudl Junge is asleep in her room, deep beneath the ground. She is awakened by tremors from artillery fire. The enemy is getting closer. Charting the last 10 days of Hitler's life, from his 56th birthday on April 20th, 1945 to his suicide on April 30th, the film uses multiple characters to show the chaos of a country coming apart at the seams, from Hitler's henchman under the streets of Berlin, to the soldiers and civilians fighting and dying as the Soviet Army ravaged the city above. Synopsis Set in Berlin, 1945, this powerful and provocative drama retells the final days of the Second World War as recorded in the diaries of Adolf Hitler's private secretary, Traudl Junge, while barricaded with Hitler and his closest confidants in the Fuhrer's secret bunker. Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel with an astonishing performance by Bruno Ganz as history's most notorious figure, this unprecedented and controversial insider's perspective is a gripping insight into the madness and despertaion of Hitler in the final hours of the war as the Russian Army closes a ring around Berlin. Run Time: 149 minutes FullScreen: None Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel Cast: Heino Ferch, Bruno Ganz, Christian Berkel, Thomas Kretschmann, Juliane Köhler, Matthias Habich, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch, Michael Mendl, André Hennicke, Ulrich Noethen, Birgit Minichmayr, Ulrich Matthes Writer: Melissa Müller, Joachim Fest, Bernd Eichinger Producer: Jörn Klamroth, Doris J. Heinze, Wolf-Dietrich Brücker Composer: Stephan Zacharias Publisher: Roadshow Entertainment UPC: 9398710532197

Not an easy movie by any stretch, certainly fascinating for its historical insight and for the extraordinary perfromance by Swiss actor Bruno Ganz as Hitler. The movie charts the last days of Hitler and his select command as their empire crumbles around them and the allies begin to close in. Claustrophobic, a bit overlong but never boring. Quite provocative.

It's the last days of Adolf Hitler, April 1945, and Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge finds herself in the Der Fuhrer's bunker. Facing inevitable defeat, Hilter's moods range from defiance to fight or flee, remain loyal or opt for self-preservation. Eva Braun parties while Magda Goebbels kills her children. The movie goes on to show how Hitler and Eva lived their last hours in the Bunker.


wow i loved it. intresting movie to be quite honest.

DOWNFALL has been coined a "German film for Germans", perhaps thinking that the despicability of the Nazi hierarchy will somehow be toned down for a home audience. True, the film's creators show heroism and selflessness where they can find it: the dogged and brave defense of Berlin's city center by Generals Mohnke (Andr Hennicke) and Weidling (Michael Mendl), the concern for the civilian population and wounded by Doctors Schenck (Christian Berkel) and Haase (Mathias Habich), and even the bravery of Speer (Heino Ferch) in disobeying Hitler's orders to reduce Germany's infrastructure to scorched earth. But DOWNFALL also depicts Der Fhrer's antipathy for the Jews and his volcanic, recriminatory outbursts against his generals and the German people for their ostensible treachery and cowardice, the self-serving conniving of Himmler (Ulrich Noethen), the actions of the assassination squads above ground seeking out perceived malingerers and deserters, the to-the-death fanaticism of defenders no more than children, and the blind and irrational loyalty of Joseph (Ulrich Matthes) and Magda (Corinna Harfouch) Goebbels to Hitler. Indeed, perhaps the hardest sequence to watch is that of Magda killing her own children - Helga, Hilde, Helmut, Hedda, Holde - with cyanide capsules after first drugging them with a sleeping potion. She'd decided that they didn't deserve to live in a world devoid of National Socialism. At one point, the oldest girl, Helga, sensing something is amiss with her mother's intentions, resists taking the soporific, but is forced to submit by Magda and Dr. Stumpfegger (Thorsten Krohn). The Goebbels children, along with Hitler's dog Blondi, who was poisoned by his master to test the effects of the cyanide capsules provided by Himmler, are the only innocents here, and the viewer's heart may well bleed for them.

the best nazi movie along with american history x.
why is it good? because the fuckin' actors aren't american, they don't speak english with a german accent and there aren't american flags waving everywhere.
"get the american flag grafted inside your eyelids!"

This movie is a surprisingly honest look at the last few days in the bunker, watching people try to cover their backsides, and watching Hitler descend away from what little semblance of reality he ever lived to none at all. It is told through the eyes of a secretary in his service, and is brutally believable. One thing I found particularly interesting is that the author of the script clearly subscribed to the idea Hitler was affected by Parkinson's Disease, and the actor showed very realistic Parkinson's tremors throughout the movie.

This is a really good movie that is extremely informative but is actually interesting, not like watching some old documentary. You need to get past the subtitles first of all, but thats not difficult to do if you are prepared for it. An insightful look at not only Nazi Germany, the war and the Nazi party but at Hitler's personality and his other side.