lordsoracle I am just from watching this film, and I must say the realism, the acting, the portrayal of those imagined last days of Hitler in his bunker just before the Red Army overrun Berlin is remarkable.I was especially moved by the fact that this movie has been critically hailed for staying as true to the "facts" as possible. Off course all movies will have key details changed for dramatic purposes, but the director and writer tried as much as possible to remain factual in all portrayals here.The performance by Bruno Gantz playing as Adolf Hitler was remarkable down to even his looks. I am surprised this movie did not get a nod from the Oscar people or perhaps it did and I am not aware. I only learned of this film just last week as it was reviewed on someone's list and being the history buff I am, wanted to verify for myself.The performances from the supporting cast is also impeccable, the actors that play Goebbels, his wife, Himmler, Eva Braun, several of the generals and even the main character that plays Jungl is spectacular and nothing short of award winning (IMHO). It is amazing how such a gem can be missed by mainstream movie buffs like me.Bottom line, watch this movie, you wont regret it. If you dont mind reading subtitles when watching (as it all in German), then this is a must watch on your list. For me, this film is certainly at the same level as Schindler's List, A Beautiful Life and other such noteworthy World War II Dramas.

cinemajesty Movie Review: "Der Untergang - Downfall" (2004)The entire picture on one actor's shoulders, here in Bruno Ganz, who portrays the infamous historical figure of Adolf Hitler too such extent that this internationally-acclaimed motion picture directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, who gets over-powered by producer Bernd Eichinger (1949-2011) to fulfill an honest attempt to recreate the final days of "World-War-2" Berlin-bunker-isolations of leading members of the National-socialist party."Downfall" begins with Hitler personally-recruiting the aftermath-book-writing real-life Traudl Junge (1920-2002), portrayed by innocent convictions-spreading, yet full-collaboration exposingly up-playing actress Alexandra Maria Lara, when emotionally-deep-striving demon confrontation seeking picture means to deliver accurate facts to dramatizing revelations in high peaking ultra-thrilling as devastating conclusions in propaganda ministry family of married with six children get drugged to death in a mid-night cyanide-raid by trauma-given performances ignited by match-making Corinna Harfouch & Ulrich Matthes as Magda & Joseph Goebbels, convincing even Hollywood's Finest that this motion picture prevails as being an important one to be revisited in any cinematic historical event on failing dictatorships.Producer Bernd Eichinger makes sure that in the end every film-making department looks toward utmost excellence in peaks of contemporary German cinema, which just faded since producer's heart-stroking death in Los Angeles, California at age 61 in this clearly-Hollywood-embracing audiovisual striking efforts through the producer's thirty years lasting career in now more globalizing motion picture event movie industries. © 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

sowelton What makes this film so compelling to me was that it showed the Nazi's not just as some one dimensional evil force but rather depicts how some people were just caught up in it through naivety, fear or both. Yes those at the top were completely losing it, but some people just wanted a job as a typist.

DonAlberto Downfall is a word somebody found appropriate to translate into English the German film Der Undertag. And my deep ignorance of Goethe's mother tongue makes it very difficult to judge whether or not the word suits an historical and world-changing event like the Holocaust. In any case, I hold the belief that no rational explanation, regardless of its accuracy, can even come close to offer a proper and convincing explanation of what happened in Germany under the Nazi Regime. Yet Downfall isn't science but art, it's precisely because of this that may have a fair go at explaining what has no explanation.However, Downfall isn't at all about a comprehensive portrait of Hitler (brilliantly played by Bruno Ganz) and Nazis in Germany. It's rather an accurate depiction of the last days of that political system and its leader Adolf Hitler. We get to see him living his final days in his bunker in Berling. Surrounded by German troops and high-ranked officials in a city swept by war, the madness of Hitler is almost touchable. He's a man who gives away his intention of committing suicide in such an open manner that makes you wonder if he is pulling somebody's leg; he's a man who drags invisible armies across a map and into the heart of Berlin while pulls away the ally's armies as though his hand was the same hand of God, filled with mighty power to wipe them out. And he is a man around who everything and everybody orbits.The degree to which characters ranging from officials directly responsible of keeping the III Reich running, to just a simple secretary recently hire by the Führer, they all seem to be reduced to mere children in the presence of such a man. It looks like hes a man-turned God who draws on other people's emotions and weaknesses and turn them into obedience and power. When this process is over, he sends the final product back to their former owners. Yet now, the content is changed ans so is the owner. One could say he's a parasite that feeds off people's mistakes, changing them in the process.Can only a man shape so much a country that irrationality becomes normal? It turns out it can. Of course, as one would expect, not everybody complies with the law or play bay the rules. There's one particular character who amid the madness and violence seems to represent reason. He's a doctor and although the does what he's told to, the often confronts the orders he's given and the nature of absolute power. Through his eyes we see how this absolute power was projected onto the German society and its devastating effects and consequences.