Downfall takes us back to those glorious days of April and May of 1945 when we were about to declare victory in Europe. Let's kiss a girl in Times Square because the German's are toast! We all remember those images. For an American, watching Downfall is the negative side of V-E day celebrations. The film is about the final few weeks of the Third Reich as seen by on of Adolf Hitler's secretaries (Alexanda Maria Lara).When going into Downfall you expect your basic last days of Hitler in his bunker story, but even though Hitler is the main focus of the film it digs deeper than that concrete tomb and examines what life was like for civillains and the military establishment in those final days in berlin as the Russians knocked on the Eastern door. Bruno Ganz plays Hitler in a way that's never been seen before. He isn't just the crazed mad man in the ground. He's not a split person, he's totally shattered by the faltering Reich and Ganz makes the audience feel something for his subject that probably has never been expressed in a film featuring Hitler- sympathy. There are a few moments when you actually sympathize for Adolf Hitler, though they are few and he usually does something to eliminate that feeling rather quickly. That's a true accomplishment in Ganz portrayal of the Fuhrer making it the role of his career.
What's amazing is the way that even in the end there was still a split between following the orders of no surrender and realizing that this is the end and the need to save themselves and the city of Berlin. Many fall on the sword in this one and shows the extreme views of Nazi Germany.
This is a well acted, directed, and written piece of cinema. Downfall can stand as a testament to the evil that men do and how stubborn they can be when they realize they were wrong. They all realize they're wrong. In the end it's a decision of whether pride is going to let them keep on living.
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