Comments on: Downfall - the best WWII movie ever?

by: John Hodson

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:34:58 +0000

Hitler has featured in more movies than you might think - type in ‘Adolf Hitler’ at IMDB and you’ll see what I mean (though I think including Sam Kelly’s ‘Allo, Allo’ impersonation is stretchig it a bit).

Those IMDB results show a film called ‘The Devil With Hitler’ in which ‘Hitler is heard bragging about his skills as a two-handed house painter by claiming…”I could switch hands and never miss a stroke.”‘ Oo-er missus…

by: Mike

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:05:46 +0000

Oh dear, just shows what poor research can do, right? Actually, I typed ‘Hitler in movies’ in a Google search, and none of the results raised the two performances mentioned above. Thinking about it, there’s also a Robert Carlyle portrayal in ‘The Rise of Evil’ to consider… best not, huh?

Thanks Tim - I think Ganz more or less nailed the part, and wish I’d had the chance to see it in the cinema. It really is a great piece of work, though perhaps understandably of marginal interest.

by: Tim R-T-C

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 11:21:02 +0000

I think one advantage that Bruno Ganz had, is that most viewers outside of Germany would not recognise him. Adaptations like John mentions, starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Guinness are all well and good, but it is painfully clear that we are watching an actor playing Hitler - here it is much easier to believe that this really is Hitler, and that this is really happening as we watch.

I’ve not watched the film since I saw it in the cinema a couple of years ago, but I still think that it is the most powerful film that I have ever seen - conveying the true horror of the last days of the war (a period we usually only see through the elated eyes of the victors).

by: John Hodson

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 23:28:04 +0000

‘but serious fictional studies are notable by their absence’

I may be in a minority but I enjoyed Alec Guinness’s powerful portrayal in ‘Hitler - The Last Ten Days’ which covers much the same ground as ‘Downfall’ (and I agree, Ganz is terrific).

I’ve never seen it but the same period is also covered in ‘The Bunker’ with Anthony Hopkins as Hitler. Strange that nobody seems to have covered Hitler’s rise to power, but they are fascinated by his downfall.