A war drama film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel ‘Downfall’ is a movie about the last days of Hitler and Second World War. The movie specifically focuses on Berlin war and the last days of Hitler and his closed associates inside a bunker. Hitler commits suicide when he is convinced that he is certain to lose the war.
The movie portrays two different sides of Hitler. One is ‘Hitler as fuhrer’-a strong, irrational, brutal and Cynic personality who is willing to sacrifice as many lives as he can to ‘win’ the war. When he gets to know that he has been betrayed by Himmler and Himmler is negotiating peace with the west he becomes extremely mad at Himmler and orders to kill him. Hitler is also seen as justifying the killing of Jews in the movie a few times. He thinks that he has purifies Germany by killing the Jews.
The other side of Hitler shown in the movie is his Human side where he is helping his close associates.He is shown emotional and helpless a few times in the movie. He is especially soft towards his secretaries. Though Hitler is soft towards his close associates he is still unpredictable and irrational.
Another interesting aspect shown in the movie is that Nazis were not a united force. Many of them had their own agenda and vision. There was a huge mistrust among them. Most of the Nazis were working more in fear and self interest than Being committed to ‘National Socialism’.
The movie also goes into administrative aspect of Nazism. All powers were concentrated in Hitler as he used to take all the decisions most of them were not in the best interest of Nazism.Hitler is seen to be giving orders to Generals who were dead. He was mobilising armies who were non existent. He is shown to be committed to National Socialism, however his commitment doesn’t do any good to the German people. Also the National Socialism has a very different meaning for him.
The entire movie takes place inside the Bunker where Hitler lived in his last days. It should be watched to understand the mind and working style of Hitler and some of his close associates. Bruno Ganz has played the role of Hitler in a very convincing way.
Rating: 7.9/10