Downfall (2004 film)

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Downfall
File:Der Untergang - Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
Produced by Bernd Eichinger
Screenplay by Bernd Eichinger
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Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Music by Stephan Zacharias
Cinematography Rainer Klausmann
Edited by Hans Funck
Distributed by Constantin Film (Germany, Austria)
01 Distribution (Italy)
Release dates
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  • 16 September 2004 (2004-09-16) (Germany)
  • 17 September 2004 (2004-09-17) (Austria)
  • 29 April 2005 (2005-04-29) (Italy)
Running time
155 minutes[1]
178 minutes (Extended cut)
Country Germany
Italy
Austria
Language German
Russian
Budget €13.5 million[2]
Box office $92.1 million[3]

Downfall (German: Der Untergang) is a 2004 German war film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, depicting the final ten days of Adolf Hitler's reign over Nazi Germany in 1945.

The film is written and produced by Bernd Eichinger, and based upon the books Inside Hitler's Bunker, by historian Joachim Fest; Until the Final Hour, the memoirs of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's secretaries (co-written with Melissa Müller); Albert Speer's memoirs, Inside the Third Reich; Hitler's Last Days: An Eye–Witness Account, by Gerhard Boldt; Das Notlazarett unter der Reichskanzlei: Ein Arzt erlebt Hitlers Ende in Berlin by Doctor Ernst-Günther Schenck; and Siegfried Knappe's memoirs, Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936–1949.

The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Plot

Downfall begins with an excerpt from the 2002 documentary Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary featuring Traudl Junge expressing her guilt and shame for admiring Hitler in her youth. The film continues showing Hitler (Bruno Ganz) hiring Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) as his secretary at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia in November 1942.

The story resumes on 20 April 1945, the Führer's birthday and during the Battle of Berlin. A loud artillery blast wakes up Traudl, Gerda Christian and Constanze Manziarly in the room they share. Down in the Führerbunker, Hitler is informed by Wilhelm Burgdorf that Berlin is under attack and then by Karl Koller that the Red Army has advanced to within 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) of central Berlin.

At his birthday reception, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and his SS adjutant Hermann Fegelein plead with Hitler to leave the city. Instead, Hitler declares, "I will defeat them in Berlin, or face my downfall." Himmler leaves to negotiate surrender terms with the Western Allies behind Hitler's back. In another part of the city, a group of Hitler Youth members are bolstering defenses. Peter, one of the members, is urged by his father to desert but refuses.

In another part of the city, SS doctor Ernst-Günther Schenck convinces a general to allow him to ignore an evacuation order and is then requested by Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke to bring any available medical supplies to the Reich Chancellery. Meanwhile, Hitler discusses his new scorched earth policy with his Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer, while Eva Braun holds a party for the bunker inhabitants that is broken up by artillery shells.

The next day, while his unit is fighting off the Red Army, General Helmuth Weidling is summoned to the bunker to await execution for ordering a retreat to the west. After explaining to Hans Krebs and Burgdorf that it was a misunderstanding, he is promoted by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel to oversee the crumbling defences of Berlin. Hitler orders an attack from Felix Steiner's unit to control the Russian charge, but is informed by Krebs and Alfred Jodl that Steiner could not mount the attack. Dismissing everyone from the room except for Keitel, Jodl, Krebs, and Burgdorf, Hitler flies into a rage against what he perceives are traitorous actions against him, and finally acknowledges that the war is lost. However, he is determined to stay in Berlin to the bitter end, even if it means killing himself.[4]

After seeing conscripted civilians needlessly gunned down in battle, General Mohnke confronts Joseph Goebbels, their commander, as to the slaughter. Goebbels tells Mohnke that he has no pity for the civilians, as they chose their fate. Hitler loses his sense of reality and orders Field Marshal Keitel to find Admiral Karl Dönitz, who Hitler believes is gathering troops in the north, and help him plan an offensive to recover the Romanian oil fields.

Later on, Martin Bormann interrupts a meeting between Hitler, Goebbels, and Walther Hewel to read a message from Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring asking permission to assume command and become head-of-state. Hitler responds by stripping Göring of his rank, ordering his arrest, and naming Robert Ritter von Greim as his replacement. Hitler then receives further upsetting news when Speer informs him that he has defied his scorched earth policy orders. Hitler does not punish Speer, but also does not shake his hand as he leaves.

At dinner, Hitler receives a report that Himmler has contacted Folke Bernadotte in an attempt to negotiate surrender. He orders von Greim and his mistress, test pilot Hanna Reitsch to find Himmler and for his adjutant Fegelein to be brought to him. After being informed that Fegelein has deserted by Otto Günsche, Hitler orders him executed for treason.

Reichsphysician SS Ernst-Robert Grawitz, the head of the German Red Cross and responsible for Nazi human medical experiments, asks Hitler for permission to evacuate Berlin for fear of reprisal from the Russians for his actions. When he does not get it, Grawitz goes home and kills himself and his family with grenades. That night, Fegelein is arrested and executed by an RSD squad.

News grows even more grim as Weidling reports to Hitler there are no reserves left and Mohnke reports that the Red Army is only 300 to 400 metres from the Reich Chancellery. Hitler reassures the officers that General Walther Wenck's 12th Army will save them. After Hitler leaves the conference room, the generals all agree that is impossible. After midnight, Hitler dictates his last will and testament to Traudl, before marrying Eva Braun. Hitler orders Goebbels to leave Berlin, but Goebbels refuses.

Hitler summons Dr. Schenck, Dr. Werner Haase, and nurse Erna Flegel to the bunker to thank them for their medical services for the wounded. Dr. Haase explains to Hitler the best method for suicide as well as administering poison to Hitler's dog, Blondi. Hitler eats his final meal and then bids farewell to the bunker staff. He then gives Magda Goebbels his own Golden Party Badge Number 1. Emotionally overcome by the gesture, Magda tries to convince Hitler to reconsider suicide, but Hitler does not. Hitler and Eva then kill themselves and, as per his orders, are cremated in the Chancellery garden.

Meanwhile, Krebs meets with Marshal Vasily Chuikov of the Red Army to negotiate peace terms but returns unsuccessful. Goebbels berates his generals, reminding them Hitler forbade them to surrender. Hans Fritsche leaves the room to try and take matters into his own hands, only to nearly be shot by an angry Burgdorf.

After this with the help of SS Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger, Magda kills her six young children with cyanide. She and her husband then walk up to the Chancellery garden, where Goebbels shoots his wife and then turns the gun on himself. The remainder of the staff in the bunker begin to evacuate while Krebs and Burgdorf commit suicide. Weidling broadcasts to the city that Hitler is dead and that he will be seeking an immediate ceasefire.

Traudl, Gerda, and the remaining SS troops that managed to leave the bunker are sticking with Schenck, Mohnke, and Günsche as they try to flee the city. Hewel manages to join them, but after word reaches them of the surrender he and several others shoot themselves. The same thing happens to many others the group come across. Meanwhile, the child soldiers have all fallen victim to the Russian charge except for Peter, who also discovers that a Greifkommando or Feldgendarmerie squad has executed his parents.

While the Red Army ranks are only streets away, Traudl decides to leave. Peter pulls her through the masses, but she blunders into a celebrating drunken Red Army soldier. Peter tugs her arm and she hastens away. At a ruined bridge, Peter finds a bicycle and they pedal away from Berlin. The epilogue then tells the fates of the other characters and one final excerpt from the 2002 documentary where the real life Traudl appears before the credits.

Cast

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Reception

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "Certified Fresh" rating of 91%, based on 136 reviews with an average score of 8 out of 10. The consensus states "Downfall is an illuminating, thoughtful and detailed account of Hitler's last days." The film also has a score of 82 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 35 reviews, indicating "Universal Acclaim".[5]

Ganz conducted four months of research to prepare for the role, studying an 11-minute recording of Hitler in private conversation with Finnish Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim in order to mimic Hitler's conversational voice and distinct Austrian dialect properly.[6]

The film's impending release in 2004 provoked a debate in German film magazines and newspapers. The tabloid Bild asked "Are we allowed to show the monster as a human being?"

Concern about the film's depiction of Hitler led The New Yorker film critic David Denby to note:[7]

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As a piece of acting, Ganz's work is not just astounding, it's actually rather moving. But I have doubts about the way his virtuosity has been put to use. By emphasizing the painfulness of Hitler's defeat Ganz has [...] made the dictator into a plausible human being. Considered as biography, the achievement (if that's the right word) [...] is to insist that the monster was not invariably monstrous – that he was kind to his cook and his young female secretaries, loved his German shepherd, Blondi, and was surrounded by loyal subordinates. We get the point: Hitler was not a supernatural being; he was common clay raised to power by the desire of his followers. But is this observation a sufficient response to what Hitler actually did?

With respect to German uneasiness about "humanizing" Hitler, Denby said:[7]

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A few journalists in [Germany] wondered aloud whether the "human" treatment of Hitler might not inadvertently aid the neo-Nazi movement. But in his many rants in [the film] Hitler says that the German people do not deserve to survive, that they have failed him by losing the war and must perish – not exactly the sentiments [...] that would spark a recruitment drive. This Hitler may be human, but he's as utterly degraded a human being as has ever been shown on the screen, a man whose every impulse leads to annihilation.

After previewing the film, Hitler biographer Sir Ian Kershaw wrote in The Guardian:[8]

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Knowing what I did of the bunker story, I found it hard to imagine that anyone (other than the usual neo-Nazi fringe) could possibly find Hitler a sympathetic figure during his bizarre last days. And to presume that it might be somehow dangerous to see him as a human being – well, what does that thought imply about the self-confidence of a stable, liberal democracy? Hitler was, after all, a human being, even if an especially obnoxious, detestable specimen. We well know that he could be kind and considerate to his secretaries, and with the next breath show cold ruthlessness, dispassionate brutality, in determining the deaths of millions. Of all the screen depictions of the Führer, even by famous actors, such as Alec Guinness or Anthony Hopkins, this is the only one which to me is compelling. Part of this is the voice. Ganz has Hitler's voice to near perfection. It is chillingly authentic.

Addressing other critics like Denby, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert wrote:[9]

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Admiration I did not feel. Sympathy I felt in the sense that I would feel it for a rabid dog, while accepting that it must be destroyed. I do not feel the film provides "a sufficient response to what Hitler actually did", because I feel no film can, and no response would be sufficient. As we regard this broken and pathetic Hitler, we realize that he did not alone create the Third Reich, but was the focus for a spontaneous uprising by many of the German people, fueled by racism, xenophobia, grandiosity and fear. He was skilled in the ways he exploited that feeling, and surrounded himself by gifted strategists and propagandists, but he was not a great man, simply one armed by fate to unleash unimaginable evil. It is useful to reflect that racism, xenophobia, grandiosity and fear are still with us, and the defeat of one of their manifestations does not inoculate us against others.

Hirschbiegel confirmed that the film's makers sought to give Hitler a three-dimensional personality.[10]

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We know from all accounts that he was a very charming man – a man who managed to seduce a whole people into barbarism.

The film was nominated for the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in the 77th Academy Awards. The film also won the 2005 BBC Four World Cinema competition.[11]

The film is set mostly in and around the Führerbunker. Hirschbiegel made an effort to reconstruct accurately the look and atmosphere of the bunker through eyewitness accounts, survivors' memoirs and other historical sources. According to his commentary on the DVD, Der Untergang was filmed in Berlin, Munich, and in a district of Saint Petersburg, Russia, which, with its many buildings designed by German architects, was said to resemble many parts of 1940s Berlin. The film was ranked number 48 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.[12]

The author Giles MacDonogh criticised the film for sympathetic portrayals of Wilhelm Mohnke and Ernst-Günther Schenck. Mohnke was rumoured, but never proven, to have ordered the execution of a group of British P.O.W.s in the Wormhoudt massacre near Dunkirk in 1940, while Schenck's experiments with medicinal plants in 1938 allegedly led to the deaths of a number of concentration camp prisoners.[13] In answer to this criticism, the film's director, in the DVD commentary, stated he did his own research and did not find the allegations as to Schenck to be convincing. Furthermore, Mohnke strongly denied the accusations against him, telling historian Thomas Fischer, "I issued no orders not to take English prisoners or to execute prisoners."[14]

German director Wim Wenders called the filmmakers' collaboration with a history professor "a strategic move to compile cultural capital and move the film beyond the reach of reprehensibility, challenge, or contradiction by writers or critics unwilling to engage the material other than by pointing out historical inaccuracies." He felt that the film said: "Wir wissen, wovon wir reden" ("We know what we're talking about"). Further, Wenders argued that Der Untergang presented an uncritical viewpoint toward the barbarism of its subject matter, and accused the filmmakers of "Verharmlosung" ("trivialising"). Wenders supported this observation with close readings of the film's first scene, and of Hitler's final scene, suggesting that in each case a particular set of cinematographic and editorial choices left each scene emotionally charged, resulting in a glorifying effect.[15]

Parodies

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The movie is well known as the inspiration for "Downfall parodies". One scene in the film, in which Hitler launches into a furious tirade upon finally realizing that the war is truly lost, has become a staple of internet videos.[16] In these videos, the original German audio is retained, but new subtitles are added so that Hitler and his subordinates now seem to be reacting instead to some setback in present-day politics, sports, popular culture, or everyday life. Other scenes from various portions of the film have been parodied in the same manner, notably the scenes where Hitler orders Otto Günsche to find SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein, and where Hitler discusses a counterattack against advancing Soviet forces with his generals. By 2010, there were thousands of such parodies, including many in which a self-aware Hitler is incensed that people keep making Downfall parodies,[17] and videos that depict Hitler as having a fierce rivalry with Fegelein, with the latter plotting mischief against his superior through a number of cruel and often comical antics. Hitler is also depicted as having an intense dislike of Jodl, who is shown to repeatedly object to whatever plans he makes. Some parodies even feature a self-aware Hitler ranting on the atrocities committed by his real life counterpart. Clips from other films, such as Inglourious Basterds, Dear Friend Hitler, Valkyrie, Hitler: The Last Ten Days and even films or footage that have little or nothing to do with Downfall's subject matter, are also juxtaposed for humorous effect, along with characters and settings from different, and often unrelated series, besides other films actors from Downfall have starred in. Parodies that make use of special effects or computer-generated imagery are also starting to become popular among fans, ranging from superimposing the characters' heads on other footage, to rotoscoping scenes from the film into different backgrounds.

The parodies, as well as the film itself, have also gained a cult following, spawning a community of YouTube users who call themselves "Untergangers",[18][19] devoted to the practice of making Downfall-related videos. Some of them have cited their reasons for making the parodies.[20] Stacy Lee Blackmon, a YouTube user known for maintaining the Hitler Rants Parodies channel,[21] has over 1000 videos to his name, as of September 2014. In an interview with the Swedish magazine show Kobra, Blackmon denied claims about parody makers being neo-Nazi sympathizers, and stated that the Unterganger community disparages Nazism.[19]

The film's director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, spoke positively about these parodies in a 2010 interview with New York magazine, saying that many of them were funny and they were a fitting extension of the film's purpose: "The point of the film was to kick these terrible people off the throne that made them demons, making them real and their actions into reality. I think it's only fair if now it's taken as part of our history, and used for whatever purposes people like."[22] Nevertheless, Constantin Films has taken an "ambivalent" view of the parodies, and has asked video sites to remove many of them.[23] On 21 April 2010, the producers initiated a removal of parody videos on YouTube.[24] This in turn prompted posting of videos of Hitler complaining about the fact that the parodies were being taken down, and a resurgence of the videos on the site.[25]

In October 2010, YouTube stopped blocking Downfall-derived parodies.[26] Corynne McSherry, an attorney specializing in intellectual property and free speech issues[27] for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, stated, "All the Downfall parody videos that I've seen are very strong fair use cases and so they're not infringing, and they shouldn't be taken down."[28]

In January 2012, British Labour MP Tom Harris stepped down from his Internet adviser role following adverse media reaction to his Downfall parody ridiculing Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond.[29]

In late 2012, an unknown DJ made a mashup with some clips from Downfall and made a Gangnam Style parody called Hitler Style. Similarly-themed parodies were also made by several YouTube users and have earned millions of views.[30][31][32]

In July 2013, Jefferies Group, an American investment firm, was ordered by a Hong Kong court to pay $1.86 million to former equity trading head Grant Williams for firing him over sending out a newsletter that linked to a Hitler parody video, mocking JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon.[33][34]

In August 2014 the Helsinki Film Festival, as part of the advertising for the 2014 festival programme, made a close reenactment of the much parodied bunker scene from the film, reproducing closely the film set, but using Finnish actors and with the role of Hitler replaced by Finnish military leader and statesman Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. They also began to be used for parodies.[35]

In Britain, the film's first 2005 TV broadcast on Channel 4 was advertised with the strapline "It's a happy ending. He dies."[36]

See also

References

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  4. Adolf Hitler: "But, gentlemen, if you believe I'm going to leave Berlin, you are seriously mistaken. I'd rather blow my brains out."
  5. http://www.metacritic.com/movie/downfall
  6. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  11. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. Eberle, Henrik, MacDonogh, Giles and Uhl, Matthias. The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin, New York: PublicAffairs, 2005, p 370. ISBN 1-58648-366-8
  14. Fischer, Thomas. Soldiers of the Leibstandarte, J. J. Fedorowicz Publishing, Inc. 2008, p 26.
  15. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. BBC: The rise, rise and rise of the Downfall Hitler parody
  17. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.. The self-aware Hitler parody is at http://www.kontraband.com/videos/19360/Hitler-Hates-Downfall-Parodies/
  18. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  19. 19.0 19.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  23. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. Parody, copyright law clash in online clips - San Francisco Chronicle
  26. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  33. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  35. "Mannerheim kuulee Rakkautta ja Anarkiaa -festivaalista", Helsingin Sanomat, 18.8.2014..
  36. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Further reading

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  • O'Donnell, James P (2001) [1978]. The Bunker: The History of the Reich Chancellery Group, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 978-0-395-25719-7.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (studies about the Film)

External links