DOWNFALL (Der Untergang)

Bruno, my angel... where art thou?

Bruno Ganz stars as Adolf Hitler, during the last days of the Third Reich when Hitler and his cronies are in their top secret bunker headquarters in Berlin, and their empire is falling apart around them. Since the first time I saw my beloved Wings of Desire many years ago, Bruno Ganz has been my dreamy, kind-faced, gentle-hearted romantic angel, who understands the glory of a good, strong cup of coffee. He rests his hand on your shoulder, and you feel all of your worries melt away. To see Bruno as Hitler was more than a little jarring for me. His warm eyes sparkle familiarly when he charms a group of young women he is interviewing to be his secretary, then in the next scene, he is throwing a fit in front of his generals, with such unabashed crazy-dictator fury that spit is spraying from his mouth and his stringy black hair is falling into his face in disarray.

That is not to say Ganz doesn't do a fine job portraying Hitler. As he becomes unhinged (or more unhinged... after all, he IS Hitler) through the last days of the Third Reich, you can see the weariness in his posture, and literal tremble in his hand. He looks, at times, kind of pathetic. There is the weird discomfort for us as viewers, as we struggle with whether we are supposed to feel a bit sorry for this man, or maintain a cold distance. He is only human, after all. But then he opens his mouth in a fit of venom, and we're reminded just who this fading man is.

Downfall features a who's who of Hitler's inner circle. So many people stream through the film, that unless you recognize the names (Eva Braun, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, Albert Speer) it starts to become confusing who these people are, and what their roles were in the big scheme of things. It only takes an epilogue of "What ever happened to...?" at the end of the film to tell you that they were all pretty much bad guys. But I was a little discouraged, thinking the film tried to cover too many people, rather than focus on a few to give us something to hold on to.

The feeling of doom in Downfall is relentless. The claustrophobia of the situation is overwhelming at times, as the situation spirals downward. The vast majority of the film takes place in underground cement corridors with no natural light, and characters finger their personal-sized vials of poison, wondering how much longer they have until they have to crack it between their teeth.. It is not a matter of what will happen, but when (and at over two hours long, the movie takes its time getting there). You'd almost think the Nazis are coming to take these people to death camps—until you are reminded that these ARE the Nazis!

The subject of Hitler's last days is, inarguably, a fascinating one. Even if you know how the story ends, Downfall still has suspense to offer. But in biting off more than it can chew, Downfall comes across as a bit bloated and scattered. It has moments of excellence, but is not an excellent movie. This may not be the definitive humanistic portrayal of Hitler as a complex man (and not entirely evil, though pretty darn close), but it is one of the first, and it is indeed watchable because of its uniqueness.