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Downfall, 2004
Toward the end of WW2, Traudl (Alexandra Maria Lara) is brought into the Nazi headquarters under Berlin to serve as a secretary to Hitler (Bruno Ganz). As military operations unravel and defeat looms, the underground bunker becomes the site of both absurd normalcy and outrageous, explosive emotions and violence.
This movie is . . . I don't know how to describe it. The opposite of Xanax?
This is a film with a lot of cultural "noise", from the attention it got on its release to the (hilarious) unrelenting memes centered on a sequence where Hitler reacts poorly to bad news. Usually I don't do well with films when I've gleaned so much about them via osmosis, but in this case the strength of the film really rose above all that. (Okay, I did giggle a bit when that meme scene hit, but honestly that might have been out of mental health survival).
There isn't anything here that doesn't deserve praise. Rather than centering on Hitler, as I'd assumed the film would, it is a sprawling, interwoven story that takes in everyone from the secretaries to the children of the Goebbels to a young boy who decides he will fight for his country to the bitter end. By slightly un-centering Hitler, the movie allows for some breathing room in how it shows the bizarre and upsetting events that took place over the ten days following Hitler's birthday.
The acting is strong, and to the film's credit I found it pretty easy to keep track of the absolutely enormous cast of characters. There's a fascinating emotional arc that we see in almost all of the characters where they move from genuine hope, to desperate hope, to delusion, to something like acceptance. This is mirrored in sequences we see outside of the bunker, such as the fact that military officials are still pinning medals of honor on soldiers as surrender and the encroaching Russian military looms.
The movie is also, it must be said, unrelentingly tense and horrifying. Have you ever read one of those articles about some dude who loses his job and just decides to go home and slaughter his whole family before killing himself? That's basically the last HOUR of the movie, and it is relentless. The movie never tries to argue for the innocence of its characters, but there is something unspeakably horrifying about a child resisting drinking something that she suspects isn't really "medicine." Even as you know that the people in the film (well, most of the people) made choices that put them in that position, some strains of basic human empathy can't help but break through.
I'm still debating the length of the film, which felt maybe a touch overlong? But then again, the way that events are drawn out adds to the horror, so I was at least in theory on board with it.
I'm not sure I could watch this movie again. I had to use like four different mental wellness exercises to get through it (thanks, Happify!). But I think it's one of those brilliant films you need to watch at least once. And just in case an argument could be made about the film humanizing the Nazi characters, the movie begins and ends with archive footage of an interview with the real Traudl who ultimately concludes that there is no excuse, not ignorance, and not the folly of youth.
Downfall, 2004
Toward the end of WW2, Traudl (Alexandra Maria Lara) is brought into the Nazi headquarters under Berlin to serve as a secretary to Hitler (Bruno Ganz). As military operations unravel and defeat looms, the underground bunker becomes the site of both absurd normalcy and outrageous, explosive emotions and violence.
This movie is . . . I don't know how to describe it. The opposite of Xanax?
This is a film with a lot of cultural "noise", from the attention it got on its release to the (hilarious) unrelenting memes centered on a sequence where Hitler reacts poorly to bad news. Usually I don't do well with films when I've gleaned so much about them via osmosis, but in this case the strength of the film really rose above all that. (Okay, I did giggle a bit when that meme scene hit, but honestly that might have been out of mental health survival).
There isn't anything here that doesn't deserve praise. Rather than centering on Hitler, as I'd assumed the film would, it is a sprawling, interwoven story that takes in everyone from the secretaries to the children of the Goebbels to a young boy who decides he will fight for his country to the bitter end. By slightly un-centering Hitler, the movie allows for some breathing room in how it shows the bizarre and upsetting events that took place over the ten days following Hitler's birthday.
The acting is strong, and to the film's credit I found it pretty easy to keep track of the absolutely enormous cast of characters. There's a fascinating emotional arc that we see in almost all of the characters where they move from genuine hope, to desperate hope, to delusion, to something like acceptance. This is mirrored in sequences we see outside of the bunker, such as the fact that military officials are still pinning medals of honor on soldiers as surrender and the encroaching Russian military looms.
The movie is also, it must be said, unrelentingly tense and horrifying. Have you ever read one of those articles about some dude who loses his job and just decides to go home and slaughter his whole family before killing himself? That's basically the last HOUR of the movie, and it is relentless. The movie never tries to argue for the innocence of its characters, but there is something unspeakably horrifying about a child resisting drinking something that she suspects isn't really "medicine." Even as you know that the people in the film (well, most of the people) made choices that put them in that position, some strains of basic human empathy can't help but break through.
I'm still debating the length of the film, which felt maybe a touch overlong? But then again, the way that events are drawn out adds to the horror, so I was at least in theory on board with it.
I'm not sure I could watch this movie again. I had to use like four different mental wellness exercises to get through it (thanks, Happify!). But I think it's one of those brilliant films you need to watch at least once. And just in case an argument could be made about the film humanizing the Nazi characters, the movie begins and ends with archive footage of an interview with the real Traudl who ultimately concludes that there is no excuse, not ignorance, and not the folly of youth.