Der Untergang

English title: Downfall

Genre: war drama  

With: Alexandra Maria Lara (Traudl Junge), Bruno Ganz (Hitler), Juliane Köhler (Eva Braun), Ulrich Matthes (Joseph Goebbels, the officer in a brown uniform), Corinna Harfouch (Magda Goebbels, his wife), Christian Berkel (Schenck, the SS doctor), Ulrich Noethen (Himmler), Thomas Kretschmann (Hermann Fegelein, Himmler’s assistant), Heino Ferch (Speer, the architect), Götz Otto (Günsche), Donevan Gunia (Peter, a Hitler Youth)

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel

Screenplay: Bernd Eichinger (based on a book by Traudl Junge and Melissa Müller and another by Joachim Fest)

Release: 2004

Studio: Constantin Film, Norddeutscher Rundfunk et al.

Rating: R

MBiS score: 8.1/10





Imagine You’re a Secretary… and Your Boss Is Adolf Hitler





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Story-line: in April 1945, Russian cannons are pounding Berlin and the capital will soon be surrounded. Traudl Junge, Hitler’s personal secretary, recalls those final days in his bunker underneath the Chancery.  

Pluses: a hallucinating turn by Bruno Ganz (notice his spastic left hand, stray lock of hair and violent opposition to ‟kapitulation”), solid acting support, a claustrophobic and competently structured screenplay, striking cinematography and able direction.

Minuses: you will need a little while to get acquainted with the film’s multiple characters but don’t expect much high-mindedness from them. As for subject matter, a number of reviewers have criticized DOWNFALL as too soft on its protagonists – considering their crimes against humanity – but the film does illustrate the Third Reich’s folly and cruelty even in its final days.

Comments: as you will see, some characters consider defeat as inevitable – while others are in denial – and several scenes border on the surreal (the communications breakdowns, a dilapidated hospital, the bargaining, those children manning the barricades). Inside the bunker, Traudl Junge plays a relatively minor role; the ones to watch are obviously Hitler, Eva Braun, Schenck, Himmler and the Goebbels (Joseph, the propaganda chief, and Magda, ‟the most courageous mother in Germany”). DOWNFALL is a disturbing yet useful story about hopelessness, a crushing wait and the ultimate defeat. In memory of Bruno Ganz (1941-2019).





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