I can imagine some people having problems with showing a human side of this historical monster, but for this picture, it was necessary to show how so many people under his command would follow him, even unto the same fate.

Swiss actor Bruno Ganz (The Manchurian Candidate) gave without a doubt, the best, most dynamic portrayal of Hitler ever. His choices to depict as having different levels of emotional anguish and not the all-the-time-screaming little man we usually see of the brutal military leader.

Ganz of course had scenes where Hitler was screaming at the top of his lungs, but because of the moments he chose to do so, it allowed us to know when Hitler as a character was absolutely livid, not just screaming. At one point, when his architect and friend told him face to face he had been disobeying his orders for months, Ganz broke a pencil and a tear ran down his face. The control was masterful and so original.

I appreciated showing Hitler differently as a character. Of course, the movie still portraying him as a leader without compassion for his own people, having a twisted look on how to "cleanse" his country, and showing how a man like that can still care for people willing to stand by his side until his very end.

The production design on the bunker was also very well put together and very well shot. I completely felt clausterphobic at several times in the picture.

The cast was very international, bearing French, Swiss and Austrian actors, as well as German performers. I even noticed one Irish actor, but I don't know his name, and didn't catch whom he played. The International cast gave this picture an interesting set of faces for these infamous last days of Hitler's rains. Simply, it was an extremely strong ensemble cast.

The only problem I had with the picture was the final 45 minutes after Hitler kills himself. Without Ganz to lead the picture, I felt myself slipping from the last of the story. I wanted to see what ends up happening with the secretary. With Hitler dead, she and a handful of others you want to see leave Berlin are all I cared about.

However, the picture goes into these details of Hitler's other officers killing themselves, feeling it's the right thing to do in honor of their furor, or it's the only way to go since they cannot live under their dreams of national socialism.

I appreciated the importance of showing these things, but when out story has a shift in attention, I thought these sequences could have been far better paced.

One sequence showed the wife of one of Hitler's officers-notice I can't keep track of their names-killing each of her six children, rather than leave Berlin or watch the Russians take the bunker. It would have been powerful enough to show her killing ONE of her children, with the highly potent poison she used; the youngest one even. Showing her kill all six, or seven-honestly I lost count how many they had, was simply overkill, visually unnessessary and SLOWED down the movie.

Once the story became about the secretary and others' escape past the Russian front lines, the last 15 minutes of the movie, I was attention was back in the picture.

The pacing on those last 45 minutes is the only thing I didn't like about "Downfall." Otherwise, it was a very gripping and original picture to come from Germany, and the message it carried was well worth it. The picture, through the secretary, suggests your actions, no matter how uninformed you may be, always contribute to a situation where people are being hurt. Just being uninformed is a tragedy. I love that.

This picture is important and should be seen. It's not a great date movie and some sequences are real tough to accempt, but let's face it, human or not, it's still a movie about Adolf Hitler.

If you have a chance and the dexterity to see this movie, I think you should.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?

I absolutely love this movie. The audience is thrown into the final days of the war in Europe and is forced to accept a person who history has declared a monster and must realize that he was a human with all of those emotions. The writing, directing, and the acting especially by Bruno Ganz were incredible. I am almost afraid to say that this portrayal of Hitler was refreshing and probably closer to reality. Adolf Hitler was a human who not only made the appalling decisions that wiped out millions of people, but he also was a man who cared enough about his secretary to make sure she was out of Berlin to avoid Communist rule with the Soviets. In my opinion, "Downfall" is a must see movie for everyone and one of the best movies of all time as well as probably the best acting performance of all time.

The story is about the final days of Adolf Hitler in his bunker as the Soviet Army is encircling what is left of the city of Berlin. It is shown through the eyes of one of Hitler's personal secretaries, Traudl Junge, played by Alexandra Maria Lara (TV-Doctor Zhivago,) who is completely loyal to Hitler. Junge is staying loyal even though Hitler's closet allies are abandoning him. Hitler, played masterfully by Bruno Ganz (The Manchurian Candidate,) is almost bi-polar in the final days. One moment, he is the historical monster the audience as grown to know as we watch he tell his generals that there are large German armies outside of Berlin who are going to rescue him, then screaming at them when they don't. Then you see a Hitler that is concerned about his friends and the people who have worked for him, telling people to leave Berlin because the war is lost, and a show of concern over Goebbels children, telling their father and his most loyal officer to leave Berlin. I am not aware of another movie that has shown that kind of a Hitler. After Hitler commits suicide, the rest of the story focuses on Joseph Goebbels short command of Germany, the murder or his own children, his death, and Junge's escape out of Berlin.

Quite possibly the greatest performance by an actor, Bruno Ganz delivers us an Adolf Hitler that society is not ready to embrace. Ganz acting decisions to show us a human Hitler with emotions of kindness, compassion, and love, is completely different than the Hitler history has showed us. There are two scenes that show the greatness of his performance. The first scene is when Hitler is being told by the his architect, Albert Speer, that he had not obeyed Hitler's orders for quite sometime even though his personal loyalty never wavered. Hitler was furious but all he did was break his pencil, refused to shake his hand, and shed a tear. To show a monster with emotions is a powerful statement, especially the emotion of sadness, not just betrayal. Another scene that was powerful to me was when Junge walked into Hitler's room and he was sitting there with very little light looking at a painting of Otto Von Bismarck. The scene was almost spiritual in that he was sitting there and looking for answers in a calm and still fashion. It is Impossible to imagine the Hitler in history books that was this peaceful, but that is exactly how he was portrayed, at peace. Ganz makes many risks on this character and succeeds on ever one. Not since George C. Scott's portrayal of Patton have I seen an actor become the character he was portraying, Bruno Ganz was Adolf Hitler.

Another great performance, or performances, was turned in by Corinna Harfouch and Ulrich Matthes who played Joseph and Magda Goebbels. Their portrayal as two completely loyal servants to Hitler was at times chilling. The scene where Magda went into the children's room and gave them cyanide capsules was chilling, even though it probably wouldn't have worked that fast. Still the fact that the Goebbels were willing to kill their five children because they did not want them to live in a world without National Socialism, a.k.a. Nazi's, is beyond disturbing.

Director Oliver Hirschbiegel did not make a wrong choice. While inside the bunker, you felt Closter phobic and never safe from the artillery shells bouncing of the ground, outside you weren't safe and you knew that the longer you stayed outside, the sooner you would become causality. His action scenes were intense, say a step below "Saving Private Ryan." Two great scenes that he shot involved the young children defending the city. At the beginning of the film the children were receiving medals from Hitler for their bravery. When the kids were manning an AA gun, a parent came up and told them to leave because they would die, and they would have none of it. They were prepared to die for Hitler. Towards the end of the movie when the defenses were failing one of he children, a young girl, asked another older kid to kill her, and he did. He then turned the gun on himself. This scene was done without words and was again very intense and outstanding.

Screenwriter Bernd Eichinger did a magnificent job of turning Traudl Junge's book into a movie. His choices like the director's were flawless. Two scenes that introduced the audience to a Hitler that they have not seen before was the first one where Junge is applying for the job as secretary, and she is attempting to keep up with Hitler's dictation. She is unable to do so and stops about four sentences in and Hitler stood up came over to Junge, patted her on the shoulder and said lets try again, an effective way of introducing the audience the "new" Hitler. Another scene is where the Goebbels children are singing to Hitler and he is smiling and playing with them as if he was a loving grandfather and not the monster that sent millions to their death. Eichinger did a great job.

I could go on and on and get into some of the political philosophies of this movie and what they mean but I wont. This is an amazing movie and IF you can handle the fact that by the end of the movie, you may question your beliefs of what Hitler was, a man not a monster, then you should watch this movie, if you can't then stay away. Because this movie gives a convincing argument that not all evil men are heartless monsters, but human beings with a belief that what they are doing is right.