The Reich Stuff
Last days of Hitler portrayed in harrowing "Downfall"

This Oscar-nominated German drama about the last days of Adolf Hitler in that infamous underground Berlin bunker delivers the powerful message that absolute power unbalances absolutely. But that's not the whole story in Oliver Hirschbiegel harrowing and absorbing film.

Hitler himself is the galvanizing force in the story, particularly as portrayed by versatile Swiss actor Bruno Ganz (forever beloved as the soulful angel in Wings Of Desire), who completely disappears into the role. That Hitler's dubious mental state declines in direct proportion to the Russian advance into Berlin in 1945 is not in question; the more hopeless the situation becomes in the rubble of the city above, the more fervent his conviction that the German army will effect a miraculous victory and save Berlin. (And the more fanatically he raves that those who disagree are "traitors.")

But Hitler is only one piece of the puzzle as Hirschbiegel delves into the diverse psyches of his inner circle—officers, wives, employees, supporters—to try to understand the nightmare unleashed on the world in Germany's name. Hirschbiegel threads several personal stories through the larger narrative. Much is told from the perspective of Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara), Hitler's apolitical 22-year-old private secretary who remains devoted to the man even as she realizes she's "made a mistake." (Junge's story was also told in the recent documentary Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary.)

Col. Schenck (Christian Berkel) desperately tries to save lives throughout the crumbling city, even as fanatical Nazi soldiers determine to fight to the last bullet. A pint-sized Hitler Youth learns heroic platitudes are no use as he struggles to survive in the bloody streets, while Goebbels and his wife bring their six angelic children to the bunker, poison them all, and shoot themselves in the orgy of suicide carried out during the collapse of the Reich.

This provincial, paranoid, tantrum-prone Hitler doesn't have to be pure evil, only an icon on whom his followers project their own dreams. Men see in him the powerful State they crave after the ignoble defeat of World War I; women fawn over his rock-star power with hysterical fervor. (Even Eva Braun, who throws parties in the bunker to cheer everybody up admits she doesn’t really know him.) Meanwhile, the staggering loss of life (combat, suicide, execution) for warped political causes—or, worse, "honor"—reminds us chillingly how war corrupts humanity absolutely.

DOWNFALL With Bruno Ganz. Written and directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (R) 148 minutes. In German with English subtitles. (***)
Review published in Good Times, April 7, 2005