Featuring an outstanding performance from Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler, Downfall is a gruelling and compelling depiction of the final days of the Third Reich.
The lack of German films about Adolf Hitler is a striking hole in post-war German cinema. Nazis have featured in many films and tv shows but often appear as comedy sidekicks in TV shows like Hogans Heroes, one dimensional villains in films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, or more usually as distant enemy figures in more conventional war films like Saving Private Ryan. Few have dared to seriously examine the Nazi regime and place them centre stage. What is so striking about Downfall, the latest film from director Oliver Hirschbiegel, is that it provides a stark and unflinching gaze at the Nazi high command. Disturbingly, the film forces us to look upon figures such as Hitler and Goebbels with a new eye, judging them as rounded human beings rather than the caricatures they have become.