Father Geek here. This post is weird because I had just finished watching Troma's Re-release of Vincent Sherman's 1941 classic of German life during the war, UNDERGROUND, when this Email from Germany arrived. Produced before the USA entered WWII the Warner Brother's film is a gripping story of conflicts within German culture on the homefront during those early days of the war when the Nazi's were still clearly winning. Its a chilling study of what fear can do to a people, and how governments can use that fear to twist the public to do its bidding. Great propaganda about propaganda in the fatherland there is still plenty of tension to chill you. Annnnd the extras, commentary by the 98 year old director covering the WWII period, plus the later blacklistings in the United States as the 50's US government created a false climate of fear thoughout the land in a misguided attempt to combat commies in Hollywood. Anyway coming off all that to open my Email to find the following just struck ol' Father Geek as, well, a bit strange. Now here's the word on DER UNTERGANG...
Now here's the word on DER UNTERGANG...
Hello there at AICN.
Greetings from Germany. I thought, that I would give you my thoughts on Oliver Hirschbiegel's film "Der Untergang" which in English is called "Downfall" (at least I think so). I saw it yesterday in a theater here in Germany and it had a big impact on me. So here come my thoughts, I won't call it a review, because I don't know if anyone can call my rambling-on a review but here goes:
After spending an afternoon watching the commentarys on the Original Star Wars Trilogy DVDs (I am an university student and I currently have no classes, so there is time;-), I went with some friends to the theater for our weekly tuesday evening activity going to the movies because Tuesday is half-price day. I had heard a lot about "Der Untergang" in the media over the last couple of weeks and I was curious as to what would hit me, when I would see the movie. I mean, I (as well as most other Germans) grew up with these terrible stories about the war, and I knew about what happened in the last days of WWII, so this film wouldn't tell me anything new, because basically it deals with what happens in Hitlers bunker in the last 10 days of his life and we all know, he killed himself after marrying his liason Eva Braun. So, I sat there in a theater that was packed with püoeple of all ages and the movie began. And during the next 150 minutes, there was not one scene, in which I didn't have a shiver running down my back.
(There will be some spoilers ahead:)
The film begins in 1942 when Hitler recruits his personal secretary Traudl Junge (marvelously portrayed by German actress Alexandra Maria Lara) who one could call the protagonist of this movie because for the most part it is told from her perspective. It then jumps to the ruins of Berlin on Hitler's birthday in late April 1945. Berlin is under siege and the end of the Third Reich is near. Hitler and his closest "friends", military and political leader have come to seek refuge in the Fuehrer's bunker. Here, for the next ten days, they wait for the end relativly safe from harm while on the surface, the Soviet army draws closer and closer and the people of Berlin suffer. This is the basic story and it as I said, it has been told a thousand times in history books, in school books, in novels, in TV movies, in feature films, in documentarys.
But, Hirschbiegel's film is special in many ways. First of all, the movie has great sets, the bunker's looks and the ruins of Berlin look very real and believable, he and his team created the perfect environment to set this film in. Then, he has actors that are believable and in many ways more shockingly so. Especially Bruno Ganz who plays Hitler is amazing. On screen, he impersonates Hitler so incredibly well that I found myself frightened by this person. When we meet Hitler for the first time he is this powerful and self assured military and political leader who is very kind to his new secretary. Jumping into 1945 we encounter Hitler in the moments before his final defeat, he is nervous, shaking, beaten and ill. And over the course of two screen hours, he deteriorates more and more, when his Generals leave him, when he gives senseless orders that aren't obeyed. These are the moments, when Ganz puts all his energy into creating this mad person who is in fury and rage, while there are other moments, when he has dinner with his wife to be and his secretary when he is almost likeable. He even manages it twice to get a small laugh out of the audience (which probably was the most surprising thing of all) It is my firm believe, that if this was an American film, Ganz would walk away with the statue next february.
But, Ganz is not the only great actor in this. Alexandra Maria Lara playing secratary Traudl Junge plays this young idealistic woman who like so many other Germans fell for the charismatic leader and who when all his devotees leave him decides to stay with him until the end. Or Juliane Koehler who plays Hitlers wife Eva Braun and creates this character who seemed to be happy in the bunker like never before and who happily went to death at Hitlers side. And maybe most shockingly, there is Corinna Harfouch who plays Magda Goebbels, maybe the most fanatic woman of them all, who before killing herself, poisons her children because they shouldn't grow up in a world without national socialism.
What makes this film even more intense, is adding to these dramas that happen inside the bunker. Hirschbiegel intercuts with what is going on outside. He shows how children who are all that is left defend Berlin, he shows, how many Nazis abandon the city and leave the civilists behind while others hang civilists because they supposedly are traitors. The intercutting of so many storylines most of them historically accurate (or as accurate as they can be) shows even more clearly the senselessness and the brutallity and the horror behind the ideoligy and the history of the Third Reich.
All in all, the film is perfectly made. The shaking cinematography ( sometimes a bit like The Blair Witch Project) add to the feeling of claustrophobia inside the bunker and the horrors of war outside the bunker. It gives the whole thing a documentary feel to it. The costumes and the makeup are really realistic. Since WWII is a time of black and white to me, seeing the uniforms in color is a bit strange but one gets used to it very quickly.
When the film was over, all there was was quiteness. Noone spoke a word while leaving the cinema. I've never seen a crowd so banned and touched by a movie before, Schindler's List, the Pianist, they all didn't have such an extreme effect (at least that's what I remember). And it wasn't this feeling guilty effect that most WWII movies seem to have on German audiences. It was something else. Maybe some kind of final understanding or something like it, I can't quite put my finger on it.
To sum up, this film is defenitely worth seeing, one of the best made German films ever I'd say. Give it an international release and show it to this Acadamy of yours. It deserves recognition more than any other film that has come out so far this year...
If you plan on posting this call me Flupptrack.
