Review: Film: Downfall

The closest analogue to Satan that the Human Race has really identified offers a rather tense subject to work with. Adolf Hitler and his political party were responsible for the deaths of over 10 million people, 6 million of those being Jews. He is perhaps one of the most hated and reviled figures in the history of humanity, especially in the country that he led to commit these atrocities, Germany. Downfall, German "Der Untergang", is the most well-known and famous German film outside of the country for the single reason that it examines the Nazi party in all of its evils.
      The film's protagonist is the young Traudl Junge, Hitler's misguided secretary who lived in the Führerbunker from 1942-5, and experienced the collapse of Nazi Germany. By far the film's greatest performance is from Brüno Ganz as the dictator. While charming and kind to those he liked, Ganz's pitch-perfect impersonation of Hitler really comes to a fore when he begins to realise that he has lost the war. It's unfortunate that the myriad of internet parodies has robbed this particular scene of its main potentcy, although I do support making Hitler look like a clown. I also appreciated Corinna Harfouch's turn as Magda Goebbels, whose performance in the film's longest and most evocative scene is chilling
     The film's visual cinematography is incredibly atmospheric. Designed to be as close to the tone of the real Führerbunker as possible, the occasionally strobing floodlights and a suitably grey filter give the film a constant sense of tension and suspense that rather deliberately isn't resolved by the film's end. Care has been taken to ensure that the film's props and setting are as realistic as possible - and the German studio behind the project makes this rather definite. I also admire the acting department, who hired actors with disturbing similarities to their historical counterparts. This makes Downfall one of the most realistic films about the Second World War ever made.
      What Downfall does that really makes it appeal to me is to appeal to my Rouseauist tendencies. Some may argue that it is unwise to humanise such an evil group of people, but that is in essence the point of the film; to say why these people were evil and how. Showing that they were human beings, that they had consciences and passions - it just makes their actions, perpetrated over a political idea, that more evil, but in a way that we can understand and learn from. I can't feel indignation about what I read in a textbook, but the work of these great actors, directors and filmmakers has put it into a medium that touches the modern Zeitgeist.
     Downfall is one of the most important films ever made about the Second World War, and despite its considerable length ever second feels important. It rips down the shroud of political balme games around that period and shows it for what it really was; a group of people that were evil, but human at the same time. It helps us to not only understand that period, but to learn from it in a way that will affect everyone who watches.

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Two years ago today, I wrote my first review and published it to Facebook. More details about the first year of this blog can be found here. Since my first year anniversary, I've managed to review the rest of Misfits Series One, Life On Mars Series Two, the whole of Torchwood Series One and Miracle Day, Doctor Who Seasons Twenty-seven and Thirty-two, the entire Fourth Season of LOST, AND all of Being Human. It's been a fun year for me on this blog, and I can only hope that I'm still here this time next year, to review both Series 7 of Doctor Who as well as the brand-spanking-new series of Red Dwarf.

Thanks.