Downfall

Downfall depicts the final days of Adolf Hitler. This story actually had been previously told, with Hitler: The Last Ten Days, which while had some scenes that are almost exactly the same differed rather greatly in tone. This film is different in its approach to not only tell the story from Hitler's secretary's Traudl Junge point of view it emphasizes this idea. We do not see the broader picture of Hitler's horrors other than within the epilogue featuring the real Junge coming to terms with her past. The film's constrictive approach is an effective one, in fact I'd say it would be a stronger film if it stayed even truer to this idea of the world of the bunker. The reason being the film is incredible in terms of its vivid realization of the strange society of sorts that forms within Hitler's final home, essentially a dark cellar in the ground. It shows the different men and women inhabiting it those who have come to understand their fate, those still fooling themselves into believing into the cause, or those happy to live in the façade knowing their deaths will come soon. The mess of emotions of the individuals is what makes the film most fascinating with everyone with a different delusion or lack of it. The film ends up being a story of decay centered around Hitler who seems to be both mentally and physically spent until he takes upon himself to end it all. I will say that is where the film loses a bit of its steam as it follows his underlings either following suit or trying to find someway to escape. This is quite disturbing however it does lose some of its potency once this becomes the film's path. The ending is not the strongest part of the film however as a whole film works in its examination of a humanized, though not sympathetic, insular examination of a monster.
4.5/5