Hitler seems to have acquired quite a reputation for himself, and that is meant in the most evil sense possible. Since his death by suicide in 1945 there are few people about whom there has been written, filmed, drawn and spoken so much as Hitler. Was he evil incarnate or "just" a madman who knew to acquire simply too much power? The debate rages to this day as a new film reaches our screens about the downfall of Hitler and his Third Reich, aptly titled Der Untergang (Downfall).

 

There are several things that distinguish this two-and-a-half hour epic from the enormous pile of material about Hitler that has been generated in the sixty years since his death, not in the least the fact that Der Untergang is a fabulously well-crafted motion-picture. It is also a film that has been made by and intrinsically for Germans, though international audiences will appreciate it too I might hastily add.

 

In this, Der Untergang seems to follow a general sense of acceptance of the past, or rather a willingness to talk about it, something which has been difficult in post-war Germany for a long time. Slowly, with works such as the novel Der Vorleser (The Reader) by Bernhard Schlink, (about a boy in the 1960s who falls in love with a woman who has committed unspeakable crimes under Nazi rule) and films such as Das Wunder von Bern (The Miracle of Bern; a melodrama set in post-war Germany about their European Cup winning soccer-team that inspires the Germans to almost be proud again of their nationality) have the Germans grown to accept their past as just that: something of the past. With Der Untergang this trend continues and takes on the central enigma of Germany's downfall: Hitler himself.

 

After a brief prologue in 1942, in which Hitler (Bruno Ganz) hires the very young Bavarian Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) as his personal secretary, the story starts literally at the last possible point for the audience to still meet a living Hitler: during the very last days of his life in his bunker in Berlin, where he lives with Eva Braun and many of his loyalists. The Russians are rapidly advancing towards the capital and Hitler and his army top are desperate to stop hem, though they lack the resources. An infuriated Hitler sends off one non-existent regiment to help another, whilst life in the bunker grows ever more stifling. As the city comes under attack, first from the air and later on the ground, pounding explosions rock the bunker and influence its water- and power-supply. Whilst outside an ear-deafening chaos reigns, inside things grow ever more quiet as it seems to sink into people’s minds that they might be on the loosing side.    

 

What makes Der Untergang stand out is the fact that it almost plays like a documentary. The city is bombed, people are wounded and killed outside, and inside there is an ever growing sense of quiet oppression. Bernd Eichinger’s script knows exactly how to contrast the two, and interweaves small personal stories of the citizens in Berlin with the goings-on inside the bunker, where the once almighty grow less powerful and more desperate by the second.

 

Despite an army of generals, citizens, doctors, soldiers and deserters, the story never feels fragmented or kaleidoscopic; everything is part of the same story, of the same downfall. Music is very sparsely used, and nowhere are there cameras zooming in threateningly on Hitler or indeed anyone else. If anything, we are looking at Hitler in context, right next to the people in his surroundings such as his young secretary, who will survive the war. All these details help to heighten the sense of reality. When a suffocating silence in the bunker creates a deafening silence in the movie-theatre, it conveys so much more than any 50 piece string orchestra ever could. This is the breathtaking reality of history.

 

Though all actors are not good but great (this is very much an ensemble work), I would like to single out Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler and Corinna Harfouch as Magda Goebbels especially praiseworthy, both of them creating mad characters that never become caricatures but somehow stay grounded in reality. Ganz shows Hitler as a frenzied man, who despite his more human moments is ice-cold even when it comes to planning his own suicide. Harfouch, in the single most heart-wrenching scene, poisons her own children because life in a world where the Nazis are not in power would not be worth living.

 

Der Untergang, about Hitler’s last days in power and in life, has a good possibility to become one of the classic Word War Two films of all time. Not only are we watching great performances from a great script, Der Untergang is also technically very slick with incredible sets, lighting, sound and costumes and with very scrupulous editing and direction. It is as close to being in the bunker oneself as one can get; and that is meant as a compliment.