6/10

If you are interested in hearing more about people's views on this movie go here
http://www.worldofkj.com/forum/viewtopi ... 83&start=0

9/10

I think it is a brilliant movie... dunno why, but it gave me more food for thought than Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan or Das Boot...

'Twas good.

I pretty much felt the way torrino did about the film (in Foreign/Independent), though a little nicer with the grading because, frankly, I just love movies about WWII, Hitler, and the Holocaust (though I still have to see The Pianist - will do when I get Netflix again this week...).

The performances were pretty great. I was incredibly impressed with the performance by Bruno Ganz. It was just so...so perfect. The secretary, Alexandra Maria Lara, was darn good as well. The film, itself, is beautiful.

The pacing wasn't that bad. I was into the film, even if it got repetitive here and there. However, I wouldn't consider it the best foreign film (sorry, Lecter... ), nor would I consider it the best film about WWII (Life is Beautiful is easily the best, IMO). Good, though. B

I've only seen it once (in theatres on Easter), but I was impressed without being wowed. DOWNFALL, obviously, dramatizes the final days in the life of Hitler (Bruno Ganz). I personally feel DOWNFALL's a technical triumph but is brought down to earth by a mediocre screenplay. In the lead role of Hitler, Ganz delivers a powerful and hauntingly mad performance which truly hits you square in the stomach. Also, the production values were superb and the creative team beautifully created the war-ravaged Berlin. But the screenplay is a bit of a mess, in my opinion. The secretary character was poorly-developed, many sub-plots were useless and only served to pad out an already overlong feature running time, and, at times, the film just seemed to forget where it was and wander around with repetetive and weird scenes until finding its way again. DOWNFALL is a weird film for me: Its a mess, but a beautifully-crafted and truly powerful mess which has hauntingly evil scenes but also a few too many annoyingly out-of-place scenes for comfort.

B-

Since several WOKJ members saw this movie recently/rented it, I thought I'd bump this one.

Well it was a good movie but not great. I wasn't as emotionally involved as I wanted to be. Alexandra Maria Lara gave a solid performance but Ganz steals the show. He's just perfect as Hitler. About a B for me.

I'll repost my review from the other thread...

A


To be honest, I have never been partial to German cinema. I find one of Germany's worldwide most acclaimed movies, Lola Rennt (a.k.a. Run Lola Run) incredibly overrated. It doesn't offer anything all-too innovative or distintive to me, but much rather the movie looks like an over-long MTV clip. Even most Germans you'd find only would admit that German cinema hasn't exactly been very productive regarding good qualitiy movies in the recent years. Though there were some big blockbusters produced over here (like (T)Raumschiff Surprise: Periode I and Der Schuh des Manitu), all of this movies have been nothing, but some Hollywood-like cheap slapstick humor with popular TV comedians which made these movies so successful with the difference that unlike the Hollywood features, they did not even have good production values most of the time. Therefore, I usually don't see more than one German movie in theatres within a year, tops and I can't remember myself anticipating any German movie coming out.

Well this has changed back in 2004 when I heard about Der Untergang (Downfall). Der Untergang tells about the last days in the life of Adolf Hitler (amazingly portrayed by Bruno Ganz) as well as the last 18 days of the occupation of Berlin during World War II. The whole movie is told from the perspective of Hitler's young female secretary, Traudl Junge (played by Germany's shooting star Alexandra Maria Lara) who stays with Hitler in his bunker during his final days even though she is not partial to national-socialism. The movie is based on Traudl Junge's biography as well as a famous book by Joachim Fest called "Inside Hitler's Bunker". It portrays the happenings inside of Fuehrer's bunker during the last days of his life and shows the insanity and the delusion of this man which really came to light during his last days. Especially one scene sticks in my mind when Hitler tells to his remaining generals his newest strategic plans even though the armies that he names don't even exist.

On the other hand this movie shows the devotedness of many people to their Fuehrer even though there was no chance for a victory anymore, people still believed in him even though he abandoned his own nation in the end. The movie shows the suffering of the people in Berlin caused by Hitler's refusal to capitulate. It shows how some people, even those out of Hitler's closest circles came to realize that he is nothing more than an insane monster who doesn't even care about his own nation. In a poignant scene of the movie Hitler says something in the vein of "They shall (the nation) drown in their own blood. I won't cry even a single tear because of that. They failed, they disappointed and now they shall go down with me because they don't deserve it any differently".

Finally I decided to go and check it out and I have to say that I was stunned. This is easily one of the best movies of the past years. As of now it ranks as the 2nd best movie of 2005, just a tad behind King Kong and while I enjoyed King Kong more, I must admit that technically Downfall is a better movie, even if only by a little. It is superb and definitely oscar-worthy. Personally, I think that if it was a Hollywood movie it would DEFINITELY receive over 8 Oscar nominations. The movie would definitely deserve at least that much. Der Untergang stars the creme de la creme of German cinema, including Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Noethen, Juliane Köhler, Thomas Kretschmann, Heino Ferch, Corinna Harfouch and many others. The acting is amazing by each member of the cast. The production values or no worse than of a huge Hollywood blockbuster. The occupation of Berlin has been portrayed very well and authentic.

What really sticks out about this movie however is Bruno Ganz as the Nazi dictator Hitler. After having seen him as Hitler I honestly cannot imagine anyone else ever playing Hitler as well as he could pull it off. The looks, the accent and the acting was just pitch-perfect. Not only he manages to show off Hitler's insanity and pure evil, but he also gives Hitler a human side, something we haven't really seen in movies. (don't worry, you still won't have much sympathy with him). He definitely deserves an Oscar nod for his role and if it was an American movie he sure would have gotten one. His performance is invloving, moving and so authentic that you really believe seeing Hitler on-screen. He portrays Hitler as a human madman and this is even more terrifying than all over-the-top, purely evil portrayals of him that we have seen before. It shows that evil can be among us without us noticing it.

Technically the movie is just as amazing. The cinematography is astounding as well as sound and editing of the movie. The art direction of the 1945 Berlin is great, especially for a German feature.

The movie is not flawless for sure, but it comes close enough. Some things in the movie seem a bit far-fetched and idealised for the movie. Also this movie with its length of around 2 1/2 hours drags a little bit in its last 30 minutes, asically after Hitler's suicide it loses some of its steam as Bruno Ganz does to this movie what Johnny Depp did to Pirates of the Caribbean. Other than that I don't have many complaints about this movie and most of the flaws are minor enough to be overseen.

This movie is great and it ranks as my ALL-TIME FAVORITE FOREIGN MOVIE. This movie is a classic and a milestone of German cinema and of filmmaking overall that will be remembered for many years to come (as indicated by its high position on IMDB's Top 250 list).

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND EVERYONE TO SEE IT IF THEY GET A CHANCE TO!

Quick thoughts first. Superb film. Bruno Ganz is pitch perfect as Hitler. The suicide did get a little repetitive toward the end, but the intensity never retreated. I found myself having trouble breathing in the first half. Beautifully shot as well. A.

I'd give it a B.

Though, take into consideration that I'm not a big fan of war films. Great performances though, and well made.

I didn't find it too compelling. The narrative that the film tries to sustain just kind of flounders as supporting characters come in and out, proclaiming loyalty. And I guess that's what kept me from having any type of connection with it by the time they exit the bunker.

I liked what the film was trying to convey - insight into and partial humanization of the mind of Hitler - and what it asked of its viewers much more than I liked the film itself.

I also had some problems with the film's cinematography. I don't know, it looked a little made-for-TV-movie to me. Really harsh lighting or something.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just tired.

C

Sorry, Lect. Not a fan.

The made-for-TV part is probably fair enough because it actually was originally planned to be a made-for-TV film when they started filming it, but then decided to put it in theatres (where it was a smashing success).

But you at least gotta admit that Ganz was great....

Well, I don't know what I can say that would be able to capture just how awesome Downfall was. First of all, the acting was excellent, especially by Bruno Ganz and Juliane Köhler (?). She was the actress who played his wife, right? I thought the technicals were great throughout, and although it lugged a little in the middle, the end more than made up for it. The last 40 minutes literally were the best minutes of any movie I've seen this year. From the children singing, to Hitler's death, to the burning, to the very sad scene with the mother and her children. Really, everyone needs to see this ASAP. Oh, and the cinematogaphy was brilliant.

A

RIGHT ON!

There are few films that have left me speechless after viewing them. This is one of them.

In short it is an utterly brilliant film, though in the end it is greater then the sum of its parts. The acting is simply superb, with some of the performances being utterly amazing. The technical aspects as well were flawless, and really added to the overall quality of the film.

On the other hand, I have to agree with some of the other comments that the screenplay was uneven and some of the subplots really did not pan out well in the end. It meandered through certain aspects from time to time, and the pacing did lag from time to time.

That being said, the film is still uterrly haunting, and for the very fact of what it attempts, and ultimately succeeds at accomplishing it should be commended. Too often history is repeated in that the figures that are deemed evil are elavated to a status that removes any of their personal convictions from their actions. Downfall manages to return Hitler to a human-level while not fully sympathizing with his actions. The filmmakers made wise choices in their careful treatment of the subject matter and it really shows towards the end.

Overall, its an amazingly haunting film. Its a film that commands at least one viewing if not solely for the fact that it presents a historically acurate portrait of Hitler. It isn't perfect, but it is a near masterpiece of filmmaking.

A

Just finished it. Unfortunately, i'm more in torrino's camp.

I think it's imporant to note that i'm not a big fan of war movies, so keep that in mind. With that said, really the only reason to see this film is for Ganz's performance, which deserves all the praise it's getting. Other than that, it really doesn't offer anything new to WWII film genre. It's extremely tedious and overly long. This story could have been told much more effectively in under two hours, but the filmmakers insist on introducing tons of side characters (who serve no purpose other than to take precious screentime away from Ganz's tour de force performance) and sub plots that really don't go anywhere seemingly simply to fatten up the run time. To call this film unnecessarily bloated would be an understatement. I admit, the film was extremely captivating initially. It gave me the sense that I was watching a part of history that is still largely a mystery (Hitler as a person), and it was pretty enthralling. The affect soon wears off, though, and we're left with nothing more than a random stream of characters coming into the film long enough to either pledge their unwavering love for Hitler or betray him and die. The technical aspects of the film are adequate. They're not bad, but certainly not any better than your average WWII film. And I think that kind of sums up Downfall as a whole. If you take away Ganz's performance, you're left with a slightly below average WWII piece.

C

Welcome, makeshift.

There are some Downfall-hating drugs making rounds here.

At least you agree that Ganz' performance deserves the accolades. That's what I need to hear anyway

I voted for him best actor at these awards, heh.




Hmmm. That's interesting. I've heard it before, and I figure I must be missing some piece of WWII movie history, since everyone has said this isn't new. Honestly, maybe I haven't watched that much of it. I was turned off from it when I was young after having to sit through so much in school, talk at home, whatever. So maybe I just never made an active effort to go out and see all the films about WWII. Anyone have suggestions for me?

I liked it alot, but mostly because I did think it was very new. I think the production is fairly expensive for a German movie as well, and it showed. How they managed to make the space engaging enough considering most of it took place in only a few rooms (always a tricky aspect that takes finesse to pull off). Some of the characters that come in and out, I assume you mean the mother and her children?

Indeed. Ganz is mesmerizing. I'm thinking about changing my Best Actor vote, i'll just say that.

I don't understand the point of this not being new. I mean how many movies showed exclusively the German side of the war, especially focusing on Hitler.

You should!!! That'd make up for all the snubs he has experienced almost everywhere, hehe.


Pretty please!

See, I thought that they kind of faltered when it came to maximizing their lack of space. The film FELT small and claustrophobic to me. It didn't fit with the story.

Yes, the mother and her children were some of the characters that I felt were needlessly drug out to either expand the run time or try and bring some sympathy towards the situation.

As for the film being new or stale, I guess it just depends on your perspective. I suppose the way in which Hitler was dealt with in this film is definitely a new thing, but other than that (the look of the film, the situations, the dialogue, everything), it brings nothing new to the table in the way that Spielberg's WWII films have.