The Soc Drawer
Downfall
OUFF, Saskatchewan Room, Exeter College, Wed 23rd Nov, 8 pm
4/5
The first portrayal of Hitler in German film for 50 years, this is a stunningly honest and utterly horrifying account of Hitler’s final days in his bunker in Berlin. Bruno Ganz plays the bent, shaking Hitler, who keeps his Nazi subordinates, and the audience, on a knife-edge as he flies between apoplexy and deep despair. Downfall is based on the memoirs of Hitler’s secretary, Traudl Junge, and includes her testimony, giving it an air of authenticity.
As a somewhat more humane figure, the young Traudl Junge provides ‘light’ relief in the context of depraved Nazi leaders. As Berlin falls, Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide, followed over the following days by a selection of ‘chosen ones’. Most memorable is the image of the contained Frau Goebbels as she resolutely poisons every single one of her sleeping children.
If you’re not a history don, it can be quite hard to keep up with who’s who, as you reach back into the depths of GCSE history. However that is a minor point. Downfall has been criticized for evoking sympathy for the Nazis, but the fact that they are portrayed as human beings and not monsters makes them all the more despicable.
17th Nov 2005