Untergang

History has a way of portraying some of it's most influential figures and events as almost mythical, superhuman figures.

If you want a good example of this then you need only look to Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP. Whilst we are all aware of the evil they did, little is done to address how they rose to power, and we see them portrayed in media, it is almost always as some sort of virtually supernatural villain.

So it is refreshing to see the human side of evil, and that's evident here in Der Untergang, or if you prefer it in English, Downfall. This epic film charts the last few days and hours of the Third Reich, the death throes of Nazism if you will. We meet all the infamous Nazis, from Goebbels to Speer to Himmler, with the chief himself, Adolf Hitler being played superbly by Bruno Ganz.

Initially the film is shown through the eyes of Traudl Junge, one of Hitlers private secretaries but over the course of the film we get to see the downfall of Berlin through the eyes of many different characters, from a terrified parent, to a brave doctor and the men and boys of the Wermacht making a last ditch defence of Berlin. Detailing the plot of this movie is kind of unnecessary given that most people are aware of what happened in WW2.

From what I have read and studied of that era, most of the actors here are absolutely spot on with their portrayal of some of modern histories most evil men and women. For example, Dr Joseph Goebbels is shown as a spectacularly vain man, with an undying devotion to the Fuhrer. Himmler is portrayed as the self serving and snivelling toad we all know him to be and Eva Braun? A ditzy, ineffectual blonde who partied whilst Berlin burned.

This is not a movie that can be watched lightly, it is certainly not Saturday evening popcorn fodder. Nonetheless this is a film that sticks the memory. With what we already know happened, you could be forgiven for being bored by this films premise but there's certainly no tedium here, despite the near enough 3 hour run time. In fact the director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, has delivered a sense of impending doom, an all pervading menace that infests the faces of all. What Hirschbiegel and Ganz also deliver, amazingly, is a human side to Hitler. That's somewhat troubling, the sympathy evoked but at the same time you're reminded of the terrible crimes committed in his name.

Films in a foreign language aren't everyone cup of schnapps but I would heartily recommend seeking out this one.