Downfall

Although it is not the first film to deal with Adolf Hitler's final days in power, Oliver Hirschbiegel's Academy Award nominated drama will surely be remembered as one of the more influential, primarily due to the fact that the German people have seen it in unprecedented numbers. Downfall recounts the last days of Hitler (a mesmerising performance from Bruno Ganz) as his empire falls asunder with the Allies' advance on Berlin. Rather than getting too close to this monster, the events are told primarily from the viewpoint of Hitler's last secretary Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara), a young woman whose family, she says, begged her not to get involved with the Nazis. As the Third Reich came crashing down under the Allies' bombing raids, Hitler's inability to accept that his days as Fuhrer were numbered led to incessant accusations that those closest to him had betrayed the German people.

While it's inevitable that any film that takes a closer look at Hitler attracts criticism for 'humanising' the Nazi leader, Downfall is at pains to maintain enough distance from this monster to escape accusations of sensationalism. Played out as a dramatic re-construction, the film skilfully develops an air of claustrophobia and tension as the Germans realise defeat is the only logical outcome. Aside from Ganz's devastating performance (veering between charisma and lunacy without ever descending into parody), the film's at its best when articulating the feeling of dread as experienced by Hitler's closest confidantes. Despite the tendency to unwisely revise the motivations of some - chiefly Junge, Professor Ernst-Gunther Schenck (Christian Berkel) and to a lesser extent, Albert Speer (Heino Ferch) - Downfall is a finely tuned slice of historical drama.