I *might* take it off, because I will likely see it on Starz. But although I do not really waste my theater money on this type of stuff, it may make for an entertaining Saturday afternoon sometime. And it's a big movie and I always get around to seeing "the big movies".

Where is the Steamboy thread???? I will comment... I have some things to say about it!

Back to Downfall!

I know this is not the thread to discuss The Longest Yard, but I just wanted to say that if you're a fan of Sandler, I'd highly recommend this film. It's one of the funniest films of the year, and it doesn't go as over-the-top as some of Sandler's other films.

I'm already looking forward to andaroo's thoughts on Oldboy.

Well, if the audiences are not ready now, 60 years after it's over...when will they be ready?




Hmm, too bad, I actually wanted to see Max.

And I think Enemy at the Gates is a great movie, by the way. Not a masterpiece, but a very entertaining and well-acted film.

C'mon people, everyone go out and rent Downfall! It's already standing at #60 at IMDB, ahead of Million Dollar Baby, Sin City, Kill Bill and many others!

I finally rented it Lecter it was great

I watched the extended version yesterday for the first time. It's around 30 minutes longer (180+ minutes total running time). Excellent movie still, a masterpiece. The extended version gives more depth to secondary characters.

In my (obvious) effort to pimp this movie, I feel obliged to bump this thread once again and remind every that they should rent the great movie that is Downfall

If you don't believe me, then check here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363163/

#48 of all time and ahead of any 2004/2005 release except for Eternal Sunshine!

I have downloaded this movie now for about the 5th time but I just don't get around seeing it.

#46 of all time at IMDB!

I'm finally seeing it today or tomorrow. And only because of the Doctor.

And...?

I pretty much agree, just got done watching it. Though I would give it a B, me thinks... (grading is pretty tough, now. )
I'm not too big of a fan of war films, but I did... somewhat "enjoyed it", and I didn't feel it was reaaaally long.

Wow! I really needed more than a year to finally seeing it?

It was a B. Pretty good movie, nothing outstanding beside Bruno Ganz.

The Doc pointed out the thread to me and since it's in my top 100 of all time adding an opinion wouldn't hurt

I'm going to come straight out and say this is the type of film that should be mandatory viewing in History classrooms. For every other facate of World War 2 be it Russian Front brutality (Come and See) the changes the journey of war has on the pychice (The Big Red One: The Reconstruction) all the way to the horrors of the Holocaust (Schindlers List) their stories are covered superbly and vividly, their tales a fitting companion to the written history we can all absorb.

But it wasn't until Downfall that the story of the end of the nightmarish dream that was the Third Reich was given a suitable visual backup to the written accounts that abound from the last days of Berlin. And more importently It does what no other movie until then had the balls to do, and that is give a truly accurate portrayal of Hitler not as a pantomine monster but as a real flesh and blood human being, something which makes his actions infinatly more sinister and evil.

Watching this movie is almost like observing a person suffering the withdrawal symptoms of an hellucinagenic drug. The Russians are closing in the end beckons and yet the crazy air of "we can still win" hangs in the mind of Hitler and his Leuteneints. He commands imaginery Armies, plans for future campaigns that will never come to pass, it acts as the answer to the question of why Hitler brought it all the way to the brutal end, why for him a repeat of the capitulation of 1918 was never an option. This answer could always be found in the textbooks but it truly is heartening to see it represented on film simply because the in todays age its a fact that its more likely to be see by more this way. The scenes which deal with his military fantasy are among the most mesmerising. We see the bellowing crazed Hitler the man seen in those black and white newsreels of the day, but its the change in character in these scenes that makes them such interesting viewing. The change in attitude from a calm almost docile Fuhrer to what at some points seems like a raving maniac. A pantomine monster can be fobbed off as an abboration from History. But this reminds us that Hitler was human and there is no gaurantee another of his ilk will not rise angain.

Bruno Ganz truly cannot be praised enough for his performance. Everything from the tone of voice, the hunched stance to the quivering arm is scarely accurate. He becomes Hitler right in front of you, its sometimes hard to believe its a actor playing a role its that convincing.

Its a movie that also examines the role of the German people themselves brilliantly. The various characters from Alexandra Maria Lara's Traudl Junge to Christian Berkels Dr. Ernst-Günter Schenck all the way to Ulrich Matthes Joseph Goebbels all act in a way as cyphers of the various states of mind the German people must have felt in 1945. Junge is the naive youth that has been lead to the slaughter by a man that has dominated their lifes and even at the end they refuse to beleive the truth of Hitlers evil, fighting on for a cause long lost, Schenck stands as the older wiser head, the German who's wisdom of the past leave him cold and realising of reality, the Germans that in a way resisted the Nazi's but got dragged along in the euphoric insanity of it all unable to stop. And Goebbels stands as the Germans of 1945 who in the end were beyond redemption, there belief in the cause absolute their humanity long since stripped away. For them this truly is the end of a macabre dream.

Downfall is the endgame of Hitler writ large on screen, but its even more then that. Its the violence and self destructive suicide of Europe reaching its sad inevitable conclusion. The end of the premacy of Europe the colonial empires, the rise of the USA and the Soviet Union, they all ended/began here. Its fitting that such an event gets such an amazing mesmeric film.

Great review. You're one of my new favorite poster now, heh

Seriously, I completely agree with the suggestion that this film should be watched in history classes. I remember Loyal making a similar comment after seeing it. I know some people who think that humanizing Hitler and showing him the way he is portrayed in the film would make people sympathize with him. I think this is crap. The way he is shown in this film is the most effective I have ever seen. It shows that he was pretty much a normal person on the outside, one that rose from the masses and started the insanity that led to the death of over 50 million people. The fact that he is shown so...normal makes it all the scarier considering that there could be people like him among us anytime and we would not even notice due to their outwardly mild manners. Bruno Ganz should have been awarded with an Oscar nom (and win for that matter) for his magnificent turn. Too bad stupid Academy rules made it not eligible for anything after it scored the Best Foreign Picture nom (which it should have won too).

There are so many haunting scenes in the film. One of them is Goebbels making his "We didn't force the German people. They gave us a mandate, and now their little throats are being cut! " speech. Another is his wife poisoning their six children in sleep. Then the scene in which Schenck goes into the abandoned hospital and sees the masses of old people gathered in the basement.

I have recently seen it again, the extended version, that is (25 minutes longer than the theatrical cut, goes deeper into characters). Great film, tied with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly for my all-time favorite foreign film.

25 minutes longer?

My goodness I don't know. It was already so heavy as it is I'm not sure if I could handle another 25 minutes.

Extended Version, Interesting. What pieces are added Doc?

Many many small extensions..

For the bigger ones:

- Eva baking a cake for Hitler's birthday

- Hitler's explanation to his generals why he wants to stay in Berlin

- The argument of the parents of the Hitler Youth boy

- Hitler talking with Eva and laughing (!)

- Schenk's first surgery

- Peter (the boy) shooting a Russian soldier

- Peter looking for his way home through a deserted and ruined Berlin

- Traudl singing with the Goebbels kids

- Goebbels' eldest daughter runs up scared to Traudl (he realizes what her mother planned for the children)

- Many long additional scenes showing the Germans from the bunker fleeing from enemy troups in Berlin

and a lot more

You can see the images from the extended version here:

http://schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=2698

Ein langweiliger Scheissfilm.

F

a very bad movie because the führer must not be played by a non-aryan actor.

Good movie. I really enjoyed this back in 2005 when it was released. Went to the cinema to see it.

So is this a good movie? Should I check it out

If you're interested in WWII history, definitely. If not, then probably not your cup of tea.