Review of Downfall (2004) by Trina S — 20 Aug 2009

Its not 1hr 28min btw - its 2hr 28min. Its all in German so that means a lot of reading of subtitles happening...

I thought this was an amazing movie. I love this type anyway, and they always make you think. To see people who are so committed to a cause they're not only willing to die for it, but.

*spoiler*.

The one woman is willing to kill her own children so they don't have to live in a world that goes again their cause...??

*end spoiler*.

I don't agree that its right but it does baffle my mind. And to see the war from the POV of the Germans... That was interesting, and a view I haven't really seen before.

Then at the end the movie explains that Traudl Junge was classified by the Western Allies as a "young follower" and because of that was not put to death. After that an older woman who's being interviewed (the same woman? I'm not sure who she is) explains how she did not know about the Jews and others who were killed and it shocked her, but "was satisfied that I wasn't personally to blame and that I hadn't know about those things". She then explains how she walked by a memorial and saw how there was a girl who was born the same year she was, but was executed the same year she started working for Hitler. She realized then that being young was no excuse, and it would have been possible for her to find out things. If the Jewish girl was old enough to die, the German girl was old enough to be responsible for working for Hitler....

Anyway, I'm really just writing all this out for my remembrance. I do recommend the movie to anyone willing to read all of the subtitles (unless they speak German). :).