Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
Screenplay by Bernd Eichinger
Based on the books, "Der Untergang: Hitler und das Ende des Dritten Reiches" by Joachim Fest and "Bis zur letzten Stunde" by Traudl Junge and Melissa Müller
Currently #105 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb (as of this posting)
Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler, Heino Ferch, Christian Berkel and Thomas Kretschmann
This movie has been in the national consciousness ever since the numerous Downfall parodies popped up on YouTube over the past couple of years. I thought that the movie Black Book was this movie for some reason. The movie was nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. I fully expected to love this movie, but I felt like I was sucker punched.
The events of the movie take place during the last moments of World War II when the Russians are advancing into Berlin. Adolf Hitler (Ganz) is stuck with the decision to either leave Berlin for his safety or stay and die at the bitter end. The story was supposed to be the perspective of Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge (Lara). If you say so.
I wanted to enjoy this movie very much. The thing is that the secretary is barely in the movie. She pops up every now and then to talk to some random person and leaves for twenty minutes. There were too many unnecessary subplots that could have been taken out. There was the kid soldiers. The doctors trying to give medicine. Blah, blah, blah.
There are times with the movie that different characters would tell Hitler, Junge or Eva Braun (Köhler) to leave Berlin. It gets really annoying to see, hear and read it repeatedly. It gets on my nerves. Stay or die, you assholes. I'm done.
My Rating
No comments:
Post a Comment