Downfall (Germany)

“Be ruthless. Life doesn't forgive weakness. This so-called humanity is religious drivel. Compassion is an eternal sin. To feel compassion for the weak is a betrayal of nature. The strong can only triumph if the weak are exterminated. Being loyal to this law, I've never had compassion. I've always been ruthless when faced with internal opposition from other races. That's the only way to deal with it.” – Adolf Hitler in Downfall.

When Adolf Hitler is delivering this line in the movie, I can’t help it but to feel so scared about the extent on how human beings can turn into an animal, corrupted by their powers and for being a prisoner of their demented reasons. Downfall, the film that was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film last year is a very cruel, dark and yet a very realistic portrayal of the last days of Adolf Hitler on his barracks, following the victory of the Allied forces to end the reign of terror in Europe.

Downfall, based on a book that was written by Hitler’s secretary on his bunker is a very controversial piece for giving answers for so many questions that were known to be buried together with the million lives claimed by the war. In this film, we can see Hitler’s compulsive, mad, and intelligent and sometimes naïve decisions before the Germans finally succumbed to the Allied. I won’t spoil the ending but it is definitely hard to perceive the images showed in the silver screen, thus the film is very successful in showing the adverse and demonic effects of war to the human beings in general.

“After the death of National Socialism, there will be no future to Germany and to the rest of the world”. This statement has just moved me into conclusion without offending the Aryan people, how arrogant can they be? I wonder why they want to give up even their children’s future because they firmly believe that once the National Socialism has ended, life and society has no meaning and the people have not considered their great plans for the human race.

Bruno Ganz, the actor who played Hitler, is excellent in portraying the role; I was really convinced and scared by his angry and manipulative character. The production design, cinematography and the rest of the technical aspects of the film are all brilliant. The script is clearly very sharp, intriguing and also well written.

During the production phase of this film, I thought that movie will be a piece of trash because of showing too much speculations and prejudices, but after 2 ½ hours of watching, I know why Downfall has been hailed by the critics around the world as one of the best WW2 epics ever made.

posted by basmayor @ 10:07 PM