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Downfall Details

2004

80
from 36,793 members

Starring	Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Matthes
Director	Oliver Hirschbiegel
Genres	Drama, World Cinema

Downfall

Not since G.W. Pabst's 1956 effort, 'Letste Akt' (The Last Act) has a German film attempted to tackle the subject of their most famous leader, Adolf Hitler. Breaking a long-standing taboo, the director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, has made a film that has sparked much debate in Germany and the rest of the world.

Downfall features an astonishing performance by Bruno Ganz as history's most notorious figure. Providing an unprecedented and controversial insider's perspective, the film is a gripping insight into the madness and desperation of Hitler in the final hours of the war as the Russian Army closes a ring around Berlin. Beautifully photographed and brilliantly acted, this tour de force is at once dramatic, harrowing and remarkably authentic.

The basis for the screenplay by writer-producer Bernd Eichinger came from two key sources: Joachim Fest's book "Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of The Third Reich", the recognition that the horrifying epic of Hitler and his people during his twelve years in power was reflected in those last twelve days in the bunker; and the memoirs of Hitler's private secretary, Traudl Junge, in Melissa Mueller's book, "Until The Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary", which provided an invaluable insight into the character of the man, and those final, fatal few days of the war.

Starring	Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Kohler, Heino Ferch
Director	Oliver Hirschbiegel
Studio	MOMENTUM PICTURES
Original title	Der Untergang
Run time	DVD: 2 hrs 29 mins Blu-ray: 2 hrs 29 mins
Certificate
Genres	Drama, World Cinema
Language	DVD: German Blu-ray: German
Hearing-impaired	English
Subtitles	DVD: English
Released	Production year: 2004 To Rent: DVD: 19 Sep 2006 Blu-ray: 15 Dec 2008

Downfall (2004)

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Critic's review of Downfall
View all critics' reviews (6)
- A superb study of the collapse of an individual and an ideology, with fine performances, notably from Bruno Ganz as Hitler, visibly shrinking and shaking as he contemplates the end of the Third Reich, and alternating between despair and madness as he orde
- 35086
- - Halliwell's Film Guide
  - 02 Mar 2006 at 15:44
Most helpful member's review of Downfall
View all members' reviews (476)
- - 112
  - 21
  Fascinating, but overly long ...
  
  Bruno Ganz pulls off an unbelievably realistic and gripping portrayal of Adolf Hitler, and his final years as leader of Nazi Germany. Set in an underground ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 89080
- [Highly rated reviewer]
  - a customer
  - Edinburgh
  - 06 Apr 2005 at 02:25
Most recent members' reviews of Downfall
View all members' reviews (476)
- - 0
  - 0
  Hittler as we've never seen him before!
  
  It's not the insanity or the blind hatred of this man that facinates most, it's his ocassional moments of compassion and humanity which we are really ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 1089105
- - SiT
  - 13 reviews
  - 05 Feb 2012 at 18:02
- - 0
  - 0
  A superb study of motivation and emotion
  
  A study of those driven to their doom by ideology, superbly written and acted and powerful drama.
  
  Exposes all the mixed emotions of the individual ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 1079030
- - Willingham
  - 5 reviews
  - Cambridge
  - 06 Jan 2012 at 10:29
- - 0
  - 0
  Rivetting and beautiful
  
  A brave and compelling drama about Hitler's last days as told by the German people themselves. There is a cathartic quality and a purging from memory about ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 1069694
- - thatjenx
  - 2 reviews
  - 03 Dec 2011 at 09:59
View all members' reviews (476)
News and features
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The Reader
- 29 Dec 2008
Why are Anglo-Americans making films about Germany’s collective shame over the Holocaust? And why now? No doubt it’s entirely coincidental that The Reader comes hot on the heels of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and just a few weeks before Tom Cruise plays a sympathetic German officer in Valkyrie. At a pinch we could throw in Defiance too (released next week), another WWII story, this time about Jewish resistance – such as it was. I have a feeling that the international... Read more
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Rating breakdown

36,793 Member ratings

100	6,635
90	5,743
80	9,741
70	6,138
60	3,880
50	2,050
40	1,017
30	715
20	566
10	308

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- Downfall - Blu-ray
  
  Not since G.W. Pabst's 1956 effort, 'Der Letzte Akt' (The Last Act) has a German film attempted to tackle the subject of their most famous leader, Adolf Hitler. Breaking a long-standing taboo, the director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, has made a film that has sparked much debate in Germany and the rest of ...

- - Buy
- Downfall
  
  Not since G.W. Pabst's 1956 effort, 'Letste Akt' (The Last Act) has a German film attempted to tackle the subject of their most famous leader, Adolf Hitler. Breaking a long-standing taboo, the director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, has made a film that has sparked much debate in Germany and the rest of the ...