Review of Downfall (1997) by Cameron J — 17 Jul 2012

Huh, I guess us Americans aren't the only ones who get foreigners to come in a play our historical figures... as well as any local could have, because the Germans actually got a Swiss to play Hitler. I suppose the Swiss figured that if Germany wasn't ever going to get around to invading them during WWII, they may as well come on over a couple of decades later. Hey, thank goodness they did, because Bruno Ganz is awesome as Hitler, which is a pretty great and, well, kind of funny testament to his range as an actor. The man's claim to fame (Yeah, quite the claim to fame, because everyone knows who Bruno Ganz is) was his role as an angel in "Wings of Desire" (Yeah, quite the claim to fame, because everyone knows "Wings of Desire"), and for his other most... relatively noted role, he's Hitler, who was anything but an angel. Even more ironic than that is the fact that Ganz went on to play Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, which is even more ironic because Wyszyński was hardly a fan of Nazism. Granted, I'd imagine that you wouldn't be doing a terribly Christian job of being a Catholic figure if you were to endorse a political party that aimed to commit brutal genocide on a religious group, though Wyszyński was particularly against that kind of stuff, so much so that even his film portrayal by a guy who played Hitler could only come "after" the "downfall", or rather, "der untergang" (I don't know why, but I really love this film's German title) of Nazism on screen. Hey, say what you will about the Nazis, but they sure do make for a good film, though hardly a killer-I mean knockout, and for a couple of reasons.

Running a touch over two-and-a-half hours, or in the case of the extended cut, nearly three hours, the film has more than enough time to give us a detailed account of the final days of the Third Reich, and sure enough, it does, though perhaps too much so, as I implied with these key four words found above: "More than enough time". The film trims little fat in its accounts, going padded and bloated with excess material, some of which feels rather inorganic in its incorporation, and much of which feels rather redundant. Certainly, when we're dealing with a very dialogue-driven and fairly political epic, the excess material is bound to provide a little bit of repetition, yet, quite frankly, we don't get that "litte bit" of repetition, we get a lot of repetition. Okay, perhaps the film isn't that monotonous, yet it makes slips into familiar territory time and again, to go with all of the excess material, and as if that's not bad enough, the thing about the film is that it is just so very sober, with limited bang and pow throughout, thus making it dry, and by extension, partially due to the excessiveness, often rather dull. The film is just so excessively bloated, with so much more material than you can handle, and more slowness than you seriously need. The final product is often rather limp and borderline boring; it's certainly borderline underwhelming. However, the film never slips over that border, for although it is a consistently flawed challenge to sit through, powering through the missteps is hardly the hardest thing to do, especially when you look at the quality of the wake-up calls.

The film's primary focus is to portray the talkative portions of the Third Reich's downfall, while leaving the warfare segments to serve as no more than subplots, if not simply background noise, yet make no mistake, the Nazis didn't go down without a fight, and during the fair couple of moments in which this film cuts to battle, it's hard to turn away, even though you sometimes would like to. The violence does get to be uncompromisingly graphic, yet not gratuitous, as director Oliver Hirschbiegel more than compensates with a kind of resonance that really plays with the authenticity of the brutality and pumps much sense of consequence into the action, which of course amplifies intensity over the warfare, and with farily believable sets also enhancing the authenticity, as well as Rainer Klausmann's handomely somewhat bleak cinematography also enhancing the grit, what we're left with are war sequences that aren't particularly stellar, yet competently grafted to grip both tension and substance. Still, as I said, these war sequences are hardly the primary focus, being not much more than texture and wake-up calls to the story, whereas the primary focus within this sprawling epic is the dialogue portion, which is often so excessive and rather dull, and with a formula like that, you can expect the final product to emerge underwhelming, or at least that's the case with lesser films. This film, however, boasts a consistent level of intrigue, made all the stronger by the thoughtful and extensive detail, and no matter how slow the film gets, it's not terribly hard to stick with it, as Hirchbiegel has his heart in the right place and the competence to absorb enough engagement value to meet his ambitions for the most part, even if his impact is slowed down by, well, the film's being slowed down. However, Hirchbiegel doesn't work alone in capturing your attention, as much credit for the film's engagement value is also due to the performers, few of whom have a whole lot to do, yet almost all of whom are fairly memorable, if not rather inspired when it comes to emoting, with Bruno Ganz easily being the most memorable and inspired performer of the film. This film has the steel nerve to play things authentic and actually humanize someone as truly evil as Adolf Hitler, not necessarily to the point of making him sympathetic, but to the point of stripping him of his emphasis as an evil figure in order to bring him down do our level, as he was still very much a man - just a really messed up one -, and if you're going to have the guts to do that, then you're gonna need an actor who can sell you on your potentially problematic intentions, and Bruno Ganz does just that, not only nailing the mannerisms, ticks, personality and, of course, appearance of Hitler, but also the essence of Hitler, presenting him with a kind of authentic humanity that, in fact, gives you further reminder of how drastically Hitler plummeted into his flawed depths as such a disturbed individual. Still, as much as you dislike Hitler, you'd be hard pressed to not be engaged by his story, largely thanks to the effortlessly transformative performance by Bruno Ganz, who is just one of the many people responsible for giving this film just enough intrigue and quality to generally transcend its missteps and dullness and stand as rather worthwhile.

Speaking of downfall, if I could bring this review to an end, the film spares little expense when it comes to being a detailed accound on the final days of the Third Reich, so much so that it finds itself excessively padded by material that is sometimes inorganic in its incorporation and often fairly redundant, as well as by frequent repetition, thus leaving the film to drag its feet, especially considering its dry limpness that often drags the film to an overly slow, if not boring state, yet never to where it is, on the whole, underwhelming, as the film boasts a couple of intense war sequences - which empower a sense of consequence -, as well as a consistent intrigue in its thoughtful detailing of this story, made all the more engrossing by a myriad of memorable performances, the most memorable of which being by the transformative Bruno Ganz as a rather humanized yet still obviously immensely flawed Adolf Hiterl, thus ultimately leaving "Downfall", or rather "Der Untergang" (I know man, I'm just really digging the German title for some reason) to stand as an excessively slow, yet still ultimately rather worthwhile study on the final days of Hitler, as well as his cruel tyranny.

3/5 - Good.