"Downfall" - Film Review

Downfall is ostensibly a film about Adolf Hitler, and one level it really is a film about him and his spiral into madness during the last days of the Third Reich. But on another level it’s a film about Berlin, and particularly the people in Hitler’s bunker, during the final days of World War II. So little of the story is actually told from Hitler’s point-of-view. Even scenes featuring Hitler are typically from the perspective from another character, and the film goes extensively out of its way to tell unrelated stories outside the bunker, notably about an army doctor who puts his life at risk to save people and a boy playing at being a soldier; both of which are every bit as compelling as any of the more prominent drama in the bunker.  

The film gives an intimate, at times claustrophobic, portrait of the last few days of Hitler’s regime. As the Russian’s close in on Berlin and victory becomes increasingly futile, Hitler refuses to give up. His lieutenants are almost all aware that the end is nigh and continue to try to convince their dear, headstrong, crazy leader to surrender, or at least flee the city. But Hitler seems to know that this is it, either he pushes back the Russians here or he loses everything; he’s a captain going down with his ship, and in the process taking thousands more with him. 

The great thing about the film though is how sympathetic and humanistic the portrayal of all these people is. It would be all too easy to make Hitler into the evil boogeyman he so constantly is depicted as, but the film finds the right balance of ridicule and criticism while never forgetting to make this person above all else human. This is helped tremendously by the performance of Bruno Ganz as Hitler who is one of the film’s highlights and gives an unequivocal, unsettlingly committed performance.  Hitler was a monster, but he was one of the human variety.

But the film’s supporting cast runs deep. There are countless well-observed performances from the large cast, including memorably Ulrich Mathes and Corinna Harfouch as the sickeningly fanatic Joseph and Magda Goebbels. One performance worth noting is Alexandra Maria Lara as the film’s protagonist Traudl Junge, the young secretary to Hitler who finds herself in too deep. It’s a very understated performance where we mainly find her reacting to the chaos around her, and it’s a role that could be swallowed up in favor of Ganz's Hitler, but Lara gives the part a great deal of nuance and warmth. 

The film has a stark, brutal realism to it. It takes an exacting, calculating descent into the self-destruction that takes place in the bunker and city, which becomes more disturbing, pathetic, uncomfortable, and sad as the film progresses. There’s a scene where the Goebbels’s drug and poison their children that is one of the most depressing scenes I’ve ever seen in any movie. The film gives off a vibe of hivemind martyr-hero complex and insanity as people keep following the rules and orders even as it becomes flippantly ridiculous to keep abiding by this failing logic. Amongst all this bleakness however, the film finds a sort of somber beauty. 

In fact, the word I kept coming back to in order to try to describe the film is beautiful. There are so many moments of striking humanism that cut across the morbidness of the film’s subject matter that they become somewhat lyrical. This is perhaps most true of the film’s final sequence where Traudl tries to walk past Russian lines. She’s scared as all hell; you can tell she needs someone to be by her side, but the one other person who was with her refuses to go, and so she pushes on because she wants to live. And the boy who was pretending to be a soldier, now disillusioned and fatherless, grabs her hand. It’s a simple act of human decency and kindness that both of them need in that moment and it’s so hopeful, poignant and sweet.

Downfall is a sobering, thoughtful examination of the last days of Hitler. It’s a dark, poignant deconstruction of the titular downfall of Hitler and everyone around him.    

Grade: A