The Big Whatsit

Adolf Hitler might be one of history’s most (in)famous figures, someone who’s instantly recognisable to people far too young to have been alive when he was, yet his appearances in movies have been few and far between. We’ve had a fantasy Fuhrer (The Boys from Brazil), a look at his formative years (Max), and Hitler as a figure of fun (The Producers, Michael Sheard’s cameo in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade*), but serious fictional studies are notable by their absence. Considering the mass of war films churned out by former Allied nations, isn’t it odd that Hitler is a subject rarely covered? It’s like he’s this great taboo, as though no one really knows how to approach him. Possibly it’s the case that books and documentaries do such a good job of revealing the man behind the Chaplin moustache, there’s just no call to add anything dramatic. Then again, maybe the only country that could do justice to him is Germany, which leads to Downfall, a sober glance at the last days of the war in Europe as Hitler, his family, his closest advisers and staff await the end in their Berlin bunker.

Downfall follows Blind Spot, a German documentary that centred on the career of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler’s private secretaries who was with him until he died. Nearing death herself as the piece was filmed, Junge questioned her role in the war, wondering on the one hand what she could possibly have done at the time, whilst being aware that in some recess of her mind, she knew exactly what kind of atrocities her boss was responsible for. Some of these comments are shown at the beginning of the movie, and it is indeed from the young Junge’s perspective that the story is told. Starting briefly in 1942, as she is recruited (she gets the job thanks to being from Munich), the action quickly shifts to Hitler’s 56th birthday. It’s 1945, and the Russians are working their way steadily towards the government district of Berlin. Even from deep within the bunker, its occupants can hear the shells getting closer. Outside, a demoralised resistance slows down the Russian advance, yet there are no hardened troops but rather Hitler Youth members and raw recruits. It’s obvious what’s about to happen, even without knowing how the war ended.

The man at the centre of all this is broken down, exhausted and facing the onset of Parkinson’s Disease. With only one foot in reality, Hitler barks out orders to imaginary armies, though as the film progresses we learn this is partly due to what his aides are allowing him to know. One by one, the ‘celebrities’ of National Socialism slink away from his side. Goering makes a brief appearance, and Himmler - perceived to be the most logical thinker of the Nazi top brass - soon makes good his escape. Architect Albert Speer allows Hitler to discuss the future of the Reich’s Berlin with him, knowing full well it doesn’t have one, before pleading with Eva Braun to persuade the Fuhrer to leave. When it’s made clear that this isn’t going to happen, Speer then tells Hitler he’s been disobeying his orders for some time, and takes off. Only Dr Joseph Goebbels remains, a ghoulish, gaunt figure who is disillusioned enough to send men to their death in defence of Berlin whilst allowing his wife to bring their children to the Bunker, a decision that will have tragic consequences later.

Bruno Ganz has been a reliable and fine actor in German cinema for over 30 years, and though not the obvious choice to play Hitler, he pulls the job off remarkably. Quite simply, once Ganz wears the moustache, hairstyle and dress of the Fuhrer, he is Hitler. And this in general is one of the movie’s greatest strengths. To a person, the actors fill the shoes of their Nazi characters to convincing effect. Ulrich Noethen looks just like Heinrich Himmler. Heino Ferch does a good job of portraying the urbane Speer. Yet it’s Ganz who needs to capture his part to perfection. Without this, Downfall’s credibility would collapse, and it’s to his immense credit that he’s believable, and actually rather touching. Hitler barks and rants, but he also shows great affection to Eva, his dog Blondi, Junge, and various others. At the same time, we’re warned not to take to him too readily - in one chilling scene, Hitler explains how he is proud to have cleansed Germany of the Jews. A number of recent accounts about the Fuhrer have suggested he was much more of a puppet than we’re led to believe, but here it’s made apparent he was in control and accountable for the diabolical acts of the Holocaust. The man who, at one point dishes out kindly commendations to brave Hitler Youth members has blood on his hands.

Elsewhere, the gamine Junge watches in wide-eyed horror as things get steadily worse for the bunker dwellers. Eva tries to put a party on for those present, which comes to a literally crashing end when a bomb explodes just outside the room. People arrive with reports that are ever more ominous. Junge is told again and again to get out. Other officers simply get drunk. Christian Berkel plays Professor Schenck, who is our other point of reference in Downfall. Through his eyes, we see how things are going on the surface, and it’s his story that shows the grittiest happenings. When not watching people blow their own brains out, soldiers shooting alleged deserters, and increasing levels of chaos, Schenck is being forced to work in a makeshift hospital, amputating body parts and dumping the dismembered limbs into buckets below. Another interesting character is Himmler’s adjutant, Fegelein (Thomas Kretschmann, better known in this country as Captain Englehorn in Peter Jackson’s King Kong). Both a coward and a realist, Fegelein begs those in the bunker to evacuate before wasting little time getting the hell away. He doesn’t get very far.

You do see his point though. Those who remain have little but doom to look forward to. The occasional bright spot - Eva’s party, Goebbels’s children singing to ‘Uncle Hitler,’ Eva and Junge enjoying a cigarette outside the bunker - is soon marred by the impending surrender. Hitler marries Eva in a tiny room filled with filing cabinets, hardly the place you would imagine the leader of the Third Reich to wed. His new wife cuts a tragic figure, at all turns trying to look on the bright side whilst knowing this can only end one way. Even more horrible is the fate of Frau Goebbels, played to heartbreaking perfection by Corinna Harfouch. Magda cannot face the prospect of her six Aryan children being Russian captives, and in the film’s most terrible scene, coldly adminsters poison to each of them as they sleep. The only time she registers any emotion is when grabbing Hitler by the trouser leg and begging him tearfully to get out of the bunker. It’s never made clear whether she feels she can only leave with her children as long as it’s with the Fuhrer, or if she actually cares more about his future then that of her family.

Downfall weaves its tale quite matter of factly. For the most part, the camera is quite happy to watch events unfold, never flinching as horrible things take place before it. Spielberg could have done with watching this, and not Lawrence of Arabia, when he came to prepare for the far more stylised Schindler’s List (if only Schindler hadn’t been made a decade before Downfall, that is). In the meantime, the scenery and costume work is outstanding. Considering its €13.5m budget, Downfall looks entirely authentic, just like a wartorn city in the 1940s should.

Without doubt, it’s the best treatment of Hitler committed to celluloid, indeed it’s hard to imagine anyone doing a better job than Ganz in the part. But is it the finest World War Two film of them all? Previously, the best thing I had seen on the subject was Band of Brothers, of course not a movie but certainly cinematic in terms of its scope and ambition. That series certainly had balls, and performed wonders in showing soldiers’ lives from training camp through to VE Day. However, Band of Brothers could also be seen simply as the best in that entire ouevre of movies/series told from the victors’ perspective. Far more interesting is the point of view of the losers, the defeated party who’ve worked and suffered just as hard but without any relief at the end. Downfall tells a fascinating story. It’s bravely recounted, and played with conviction, a tale devoid of cheer concerning characters who deserve little better than what they are dealt. As such, it might not be the best Second World War movie; it could, in fact, be the finest film about any war.

Note to DVD buyers - if you’re a Philistine, like me, and didn’t keep up your German classes at school, you will have to watch this with subtitles. My edition - the UK Region 2 release - contains English subtitles for viewers who are hard of hearing only, which means that along with the dialogue you get bracketed comments explaining the sound effects, music, etc. They’re not all that annoying, but it is a little irritating to be told there’s an explosion taking place as the surround sound detonates into shrapnel fragments.

* Does anyone else who grew up watching Sheard’s fascist teacher, Mr Bronson, bellowing ‘You boy!’ in Grange Hill not find it delightfully appropriate that he took the character to a logical conclusion when he played Hitler?