Humanizing Hitler - What Downfall is Really About (Film Analysis)
Vložit
- čas přidán 18. 09. 2021
- Making a movie about Adolf Hitler is not a riskless task. No historic figure triggers as much emotion as the 20th-century dictator. Downfall, the story of Hitler's final days alive in a Berlin bunker, attempts to humanize Hitler in two separate ways. For the audience, Downfall humanizes Hitler on a personal level by showing his capacity for politeness. And for the characters surrounding the dictator, his god-like image crumbles, and their leader becomes just another delusional, bitter politician. In this analysis, I explore Hitler's final story and how it shows us the danger of believing in people who believe in nothing but themselves.
Thanks for watching my video! This decision leads me to believe you’re a winner with unlimited potential for greatness. If you want to watch more great content, make sure to destroy the subscribe button and check out my many awesome playlists. My contact information is below if you have any questions about my content or wish to discuss advertisement possibilities. Thanks again for watching!
Contact Info:
Twitter: / lifeisastoryyt
Disclaimer: I do not own rights to any of the source materials I used in this work, appealing to allowance made for "fair use" purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research, under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 - Krátké a kreslené filmy
Hitler... Compares himself to Napoleon...
Hitler... Loses to Russia like Napoleon
Because of weather
Like Napoleon
Hitler was very inspired by Napoleon's conquests and imitated him during the conquest of Europe. I know that there are only two days difference between their invasion of Russia, they reached their destination in September and and they both finish in December. Hitler aslo was very hopeful that during the siege of Berlin he would be able to die on the same day Napoleon did. Maybe he lost to England and Russia on purpose to be more like Napoleon 🤣😂🙈
@@thewtclshow9573 😂, funny Indeed but tbh the weather Thing IS a Myth...
@@magicfire763 The Russian invasion was actually supposed to happened 2 or 3 months prior, but the Italians, being Italians, weren't able to conquer Greece.
Everyone does, everyone compared and still compares Hitler to Napoleon, and not even because of Russia, so why wouldn't he?
It's important to humanize him. Because it shows the truth and the dark side of human nature.
Also on the lighter side, the Hitler rants memes!
@@Menaceblue3 true
That’s part of what made this movie so special to me. They made hitler human and understandable, but you don’t sympathize with him. It’s often hard to do that, especially in villains.
Like many have said, Hitler has to be this murderous psychopath in peoples eyes because if we lead with the narrative that he was just a regular human being who went down a dark path than we can’t be removed from it. If there’s one thing people hate the most it’s having to look in the mirror and realize they’re not a good as they think they are, and how easily capable one is to give unto evil.
@@lufsolitaire5351 well said. It's naive for one to think that he/she is not capable of evil. Another thing that is not commonly realized is how people can think they are doing good when they are actually doing bad things, or how people just compromise their morals and brush their sins and crimes under the carpet, as if those things don't matter.
We are those people. All of us. For you to claim that you are not one of those people would be arrogant and naive. Same goes for me and anybody else. We the common people think we are better than the riff raff criminals, because we are supposedly more ethical, but we are more often than likely guilty of crimes that are similar in the nature of the intent. We all feel hate, envy, bitterness, greed, lust and violent anger, and think and act in unethical ways because of them.
When Downfall was released in Germany there was a huge debate whether Hitler should be shown as an ordinary human or being kept shown as the unbelievable monster from outer world with magical powers he was depicted as for decades. I still remember this time well and what a german satirist said regarding that discussion: "Well what else could he be depicted than a human being? He doesn't look like a carp to me, the ol' chap."
Portraying him as a human being eventually helped realizing that such times in fact can be repeated and that you have to be on constant watch.
Still dumb that the debate even had to happen... meanwhile Stalin and Mao killed far more people and created far more misery and there's people that idolise one or both of them and it's considered fine
Dont forget that such times can also be repeated by the people who keep watch aswell. So who will watch the watchers so they dont do what who they watch dont do what the watchers dont want the watchers to do?
@@SwedishEmpire1700 no se
He was a monster, cuddling with kids for Eva Braun camera while in the same time other kids were entering the gas chambers. This goes beyond any human for me. He was a human being but also a very sick psychopath. But most importantly his lunacy could go forward only bc of propaganda machine, Goebbels so nicely appropriated from American father of PR Edward Bernays. Just like Trump and the clique behind him these days, AH and nazi clique behind him could mumble WHATEVER with all capital letters, and it was taken as the truth, bc billboards and all media in Germany didn’t bring anything else, which is now equivalent of online disinfo and conspiracies. Conscious German opposition was eliminated and then all BELIEVED the nonsense of Aryan mythology, which originated in occult Thule Society, also nonsensically enhanced by hijacked ancient symbol of swastika. The biggest evil of AH can be only the tool of almighty propaganda. Without it he wouldn’t be able to proceed, the same as Trump, and others, today. To find, how we can get rid of propaganda for good, would be the end of whatever dictatorships. The question is though, why it’s not possible.
Well those times sure are being recreated worldwide now.
Bruno Ganz did not even get a nomination for the Oscar, which is just ridiculous. The best acting I have ever seen!
Was Downfall even nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar for that year?
Wasn't an American movie
Absolutely. His was the best portrayal of this Demagogue…ever played. Alec Guinness was quite good also. Mr. Ganz however takes the Prize. In fact the whole cast was Stellar.
As, a historical lesson…it’s Important to view the darker side of Humanity.
What leads to that situation.
Hitler was created. Not Magic. Politics…Economics….The fall of Empire, All had a hand in this recipe.
Today, similar seeds are being sown in America.
Same recipe. Same Lies.
Who might then in future times will play the Orange Narcissist?
History Repeats.
I can agree it's damn good acting, but I can't imagine anyone presenting an award for being really good at being friggin' H i t l e r.
I think it was political, I can't see the Academy nominate someone for playing Hitler. which is ridiculous of course.
To dehumanize him is to deny that someone can become such a monster.
U realy don't understand that there are demons in an human body..
Churchill was the only one who knowes about...high grade of freemasons..
@@edgarkrattiger9185 Yes because demons infesting humans is so much more believable then humans simply being able to be evil and cruel just like every other animal
@@edgarkrattiger9185
*Yeah, the demons of emotion.*
sadly that happens all the time to criminals, especially in america. that mentality of "people who do terrible crimes are monsters who deserve to die, they're nothing like us" is *one* of the many reasons why the rate of recidivism is so high in countries that are "tough on crime". In comparison, in the nordic countries where they focus more on rehabilitation, its less about good and evil and more about what turns people into killers or rapists, how we can prevent it in the future and how we aren't inherently better than criminals. usually...we're just luckier, when you really look at their lives in detail.
@@fibonaccisequins4637 It leaks into the culture on a smaller level too. That's why Americans are harsh on mistakes
The part where he absolutely loses his mind because his pizza was late really shows his human side imo
😂
Who wouldn't
Fegelein!!!!
You clearly haven't seen the part where he was banned from xbox live 😅😄
@@theemirofjaffa2266 ich ment to say flag in chat mien mutter!
Downfall is some of the best historical movies I've seen. Straight to the point and full of rich emotion.
Very good actors... This movie probably came as close as it gets to the real events that occurred at the final days of the fall of Germany .
I’ve always thought it was arrogant to call evil people “monsters”, as though they are a different species. To deny an evil person humanity, is to deny the lesson that they inadvertently create, that is, to not become like them.
Hitler, same as Stalin, Pol Pot, Mussolini, or whatever other dictator, are all human. To stop evil, we must understand evil, and that begins with accepting that these “monsters” of history were as human as you or I.
Eh. That's one way to stop evil.
There's more ways. Ask Seal Team 6.
I don't see a problem calling evil people "monsters," because _people_ are monsters period.
@@CoralCopperHead People are sentient.
Monsters are not.
Hitler wasn't a wolf or a lion, he was a man.
@@CoralCopperHead not everyone realises such, unfortunately.
I mean some are really are
My highschool social studies teacher used to ask the class "What was the scariest thing about Hitler" and near the end of the semester he said "You wanna know the answer to that question? The scariest thing about Hitler was that he was only human"
I don't know, if Hitler was a Terminator sent by from the Future by Skynet, that would also be pretty scary.
@@Edax_Royeaux It’s a different kind of thing though. It’s not as shocking for something that was made to kill people to kill people. But to know that someone who is the same species of you is capable of such catastrophe and that anyone even you can be capable of one day being able to so this stuff is what makes it scarier.
@@Fulllife3.2 The only way for this to be shocking is to be totally ignorant of history. That one in 200 men today are descended from Genghis Khan isn't because he was such a nice guy. Jesus wasn't brutally nailed to a cross because he wanted acupuncture.
@@Edax_Royeaux Exactly. Hence _”not as_ shocking”. That was purely relative. Their main point is the idea that all people have that inherent potential is still scarier on an existential level than a single anomaly.
I loved a comment from a friend, "Hitler had friends" he thought about it "f*cko I wouldn't ask them to a party"
The late Marcel Reich-Ranicki, himself a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto as a little boy, who had become one of Germany's most prominent literature critics, dismissed the criticism of the movie that you shouldn't portray Hitler as a human being "As what, then, should he be portrayed? An elephant?".
It´s especially the Survivors who are in Favour of a Humanzig Approach. I don´t know anymore who exactly said it but the Quote goes like: Those SS Guards were just ordinary Humans. It was the Mailman, the Milkman, the Farmer who killed and tortured. They were given a Uniform, a Cap with a Skull on it and that made them the Masterrace.
Don't give the nazi furries any ideas.
Repent to Jesus Christ!!
@@jesusislord6545 Lol
@@user-vz1zc3fn7o agreed
It's absolutely critical to humanize him because it shows how dark the abyss of man's heart can become. Society will never prevent evil if society does not try to understand why it exists.
Only bright hearts stand against communism
We can't really stop evil from happening we can raise child's as good as we can place as many laws as many security measures as many consequences but that won't stop it
“If you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
The truth is there is not a single good soul on this earth. We often cover our iniquities in self-righteousness, while calling ourselves good or try to. Despite that we all are failing day by day. There are no good people, just one that is less worse than others.
@@trolgeeeeee The fight to resist evil is a struggle for every generation, not something that can be won so you can rest on your laurels. You do what you can while you're alive, and hope you've taught the next generation well enough so they can manage the struggle too.
Undoubtedly one of the best WW2 based movies of all time. Bruno Ganz's most remarkable performance, and definitely the best portrayal of Hitler ever. Brilliant.
Maybe one of top 100 best WW2 movies. Secondly a movie where Germany profits from WW2. That's not good as this movie made money for German studies and they still haven't paid WW2 reparations.
@@peterc4082get a life
The most arrogant thing we do is call those who commit atrocious acts “monsters” and not “humans” as if we’re a seperate, less horrible species that couldn’t possibly do what they do.
I fully agree. I am Austrian, so we talked a lot about Hitler in school. I can still remember a classmate of mine saying that if he grew up back then he wouldn't have been a nazi, that it was impossible. Just looking at the stats, most of us probably would have celebrated nazi ideology if we were born in Germany at that time, and that is a horrifying, but important fact to remember.
atrocious acts are a way of life! Are they horrible? I thin NO! In NATURE we see it all the time and we are part of the Nature! We are - what we are!
Or perhaps change your perspective altogether and consider that all humans are in fact monsters. monsters are the standard
The error we make is thinking that it takes a Hitler to do all these atrocities while in reality he is the product of the society of that time and most of us wouldn't hesitate to bring him to power and unleash him on our enemies.
@@utzius8003 watch "die Welle" am awsome movie about this topic, its build on a True event.
Downfall is a perfect movie depicting how evil a human being can become whilst also showing that they are still just humans who have friends, hobbies, and favorites. That's what people don't get about this movie, Hitler didn't shoot lasers from his eyes, or have magical superhuman powers or reptilian skin, he was a human being not a fairytale.
evil and cruel?
Dude, u dont need hitler to know about evil lmao, just look outside of ur house
@@musashi542 deep.
I never d'où bref hitler's humanity, hé was just a trend in vis time ho led his country info deadlye wars and mass exécutions
@@musashi542 you sound like some edgy guy are you being serious?
He's no monster. He's a human being who made horrible choices and got the power to carry out his awful plans.
Only horrible choice was loosing the war
@@lifemocker85 It was lost the moment it was declared.
@@official_commanderhale965 ✡️ declared war against germany on '33
to be anne frank, i literally cannot give a damn about hitler anymore. he's talked about so god damn much that it's boring. ya'll made him a fuckin celebrity. and I don't read tabloids either. i don't give a fuck who angelina is fucking and i don't care how many jews he killed. not anymore. he's dead. moving on.
He was deformed
And grotesque
7:57 “Stand around like confused children who got lost in the zoo.”
I routinely see managers and supervisors in that state of confusion.
The actor that played Hitler should have won a Oscar
Oscar doesn't deserve him
That would be white supremacy…get it?!!!
I’ll see myself out.
@@jeeyyung1421 preach it. He was so freaking brilliant ❤
@@nemanjadelevingne4108yes
@@nemanjadelevingne4108 And oscar sucks all those awards just not that valuable
By humanizing him, it makes him even more horrifying. A regular human was able to do that much atrocity
Yup
Yup
I mean if I had the power to kill most ppl on Earth then I would so only me and my friends could enjoy all of it ourselves but maybe that's just me 🤷♂ I don't think human life is any special, just another biological system like all the other.
Its not that hitler was evil. Everything done was in the most scientific and mathematically advanced country in the world for its time. Germany was a country of science and proof of concept. Everything had to be proven true to be accepted. Yet it only took inconveniences and government policy chances on people to be swayed into a new direction. No Hitler was not evil nor his country. They were all reasonable human beings. Which makes it all the more scary; as at some point it shall happen again.
@@Danuxsy *_aaaaaand_* this is how sociopaths are made and how they become H-men with funny mustaches
Excellent presentation. I liked your subtle approach by allowing the viewers to extrapolate and connect the dots in the present. My dad grew up in Italy prior to and during WW2. He said what is happening today, not just in the US, but in other countries, is eerily similar to what he saw. These "strong men" are gaining traction in a number of countries. What you presented makes a lot of sense. Many people feel less secure today due to technology, demographic shifts, and financial uncertainty. They want to believe one person can return the world to how it was in the past. Frightening
We had such strongmen all the time. Thatcher was a strong man. Mitterand was a strong man. Reagan was a strong man. Across the curtain Brezhnev was a strong man, as was Khrushchev.
This guy’s analysis of key films leaves so-called film critics in the dust - their own bulldust. Spread the word about this channel. One of absolute best on CZcams.
The film that launched a thousand memes. Jokes aside this is one of the best WW2 films of all time.
together with The Rise Of Evil
@@god-hx7iw Rise of evil? I hear that the actor playing Hitler did a terrible job.
Btw the original bunker film is on CZcams for free. It’s actually not bad( Anthony Hopkins Hitler)and the book is good too.
And one of the best recent documentaries would be Third reich rise and fall, American version not the British narrator. On CZcams for free.
@@god-hx7iw total garbage
Alongside Come and See and Grave of the Fireflies
Stalingrad (the german one ofc) is great too
We likely see people "as evil as Hitler" every single day. The only difference is that Hitler had the power to do the terrible things he did. Given the chance with that power, people we see every single day would do the same.
I totally agree.
People often deploy the most amount of power available to them, and over trivialities, no less. Just look at social media where words are weapons. The most powerful and damning labels are used to destroy other people. “Racist” and “Nazi” are the strongest words these people have and they deploy them in the bat of an eye.
Can you imagine if those same people were to obtain real power? Say, the power to command an armed force? You can bet they would use it to its fullest extent.
@@JezaLoki Exactly. When you listen to the goons at CNN talk about "the pandemic of the unvaccinated" they sound like they'd just as soon round people up and shoot them than behave like civilized Americans. And, you know that "the pandemic of the unvaccinated" is just code for "Trump supporters." Also, "insurrectionists." When you listen to Don Lemon and Joy Reid today, it probably sounded like Julius Streicher and Joseph Goebbels back in 1930s Germany.
@@yohannbiimu It’s a pandemic of the unvaccinated because it’s almost exclusively unvaccinated people who are getting sick and transmitting it to others. It is literally a pandemic that is sustained theough unvaccinated people. That’s not even an exaggeration, let alone doublespeak.
If you want to see doublespeak, just look at how right wing pundits use terms like “cultural marxism” when they really just mean “anyone who isn’t white straight and normal”.
@@jazaniac You obviously do not listen to the types like Don Lemon and Joy Reid (if not, then thankfully so) because they ALWAYS speak in terms of "us vs. them." And, "us" is always we're "listening to the science" (Joe Biden and "Dr." Fauci), and "them" is always "they're listening to Donald Trump." Joe Biden hasn't made a proper, positive decision yet, and Fauci flip-flops so often that his "medical judgment" changes literally by the hour, and typically the changes have political rather than medical consequences.
The problem with this narrative is that the vast majority of people who're unvaccinated are "people of color" who were told initially that *the vaccine is UNSAFE* (2020 pre-election Democrat propaganda) by the likes of Don Lemon and Joy Reid (also, Democrats in Congress, Democrats in the Senate, and Democrat presidential and vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris). That is a fact.
ALSO, there are unvaccinated people who have already survived the virus (over 99% of those who had gotten it), and they are less susceptible to the virus than those who are vaccinated. Have you noticed how many people who are "vaccinated" who're getting it? A couple of days ago, two members of "The View" were pulled off the air because they had it, and they were "vaccinated up the wazoo" (according to Joy Behar). Creepy Joe is mandating that even these people "need to be vaccinated," even though that is ridiculous.
There are also people who have medical reasons to be concerned about getting the "vaccine" (of which people keep getting sick regardless of receiving it), Their doctors may also be concerned because of their patient's medical condition and how it may negatively affect them. Joe Biden's dictates do not see these considerations and conditions.
Regarding cultural Marxism, that's literally a thing that disregards manners and institutions that keep healthy societies together and emphasizes sexual, racial, and cultural differences in order to divide and destroy us. Notice that it's only "enriching and strengthening" in "white" societies, but nobody is saying that to societies that aren't. I wouldn't dream of going to China or Japan and tell them that they "aren't diverse enough." I wouldn't go to Nigeria, Nicaragua, or Nepal and do that either. But, SOMEHOW, it's totally NECESSARY to do that here.
Do you want to know what concerns me? I'm concerned about schools educating people to be able to operate in the real world, where they'll be able to do things that will allow them to live properly and politely with others. I want people to be proud to be good, respectable citizens. They AREN'T getting that with the "education" they're getting with the CRT bullsh*t and "diversity" training from those who are teaching kids that the lives their parents brought them up in are "racist" because it wasn't "diverse." Kids are being taught to be ashamed of things that are beyond their control, and that is evil.
Marxism is evil. Its historical record is proof of that. To say so is to state a fact. Orwellian doublespeak is borne out of Marxist theory, in order to gaslight the public to believe things like "the pandemic of the unvaccinated", while ignoring the fact that the very same people said that the vaccine wasn't safe, solely because its source was tied to a hated political enemy. It's also tying things that were going well for America, like border security and energy independence, and doing the exact opposite things, simply because its sources were hated for political reasons. So, now our borders no longer exist and we're having to import oil because Biden has shut down our pipelines. We're not even a nation anymore.
One more thing, nobody is telling you that you shouldn't receive government services because we do not march in lockstep with your political dogma. That is what is happening on YOUR side. The people on YOUR side are the totalitarians, not us.
@@JezaLoki Those leftist types already have some power. Anyway the way to beat those insults is too accept them and see it as a good thing.
The scary thing about Hitler isn’t that he is evil, but it’s that he is human.
If we keep dismissing these issues by using buzzwords like “evil”, we arnt going to find a root cause anytime soon, any of us are capable of the most terrible things.
He was just demonized. Basic communist propaganda
Stalin and Mao were probably just as evil or perhaps even worse than Hitler.
I'm not capable of enacting a genocide... but to each their own?
Very good insights. I particularly liked the one about his great weakness and great strength being his unshakeable self-belief, like Caesar and Alexander.
I always appreciated how the circle of his control of even the bunker shrunk to almost nothing as the days went by. At the beginning, everyone had to go outside to have a smoke because Hitler hated smoking so much. And by the last day or so everybody is smoking and carousing not too far from where Hitler was. It was like Hitler had become irrelevant because everyone knew he was going to check out and they had to figure out their own fates.
nice point, i just realised this from your comment albeit i already watched the movie
@@evanmedi6144 discussing movies is as important as watching them, new details are found out by every beholder.
provided the film crew are competent.
Various "ministers" had "more pressing matters" outside the DOOMED Berlin. Or were trying, as the deluded Himmler hoped, to make a last-minute deal with the Allies, in hopes of having some role in post-war Germany. Whoever already didn't have their escape to South America planned had either a quick suicide by cyanide capsule or the "last bullet", or, if captured by the Americans or British, a war crimes trial and the "long drop" with a "short rope", or, if by the SOVIETS...to slowly rot in the Lubyanka, where they'd PLEAD for Beria to kill them.
If you ever work in a company that is circling the drain, it's a very similar feeling.
@ThxGod It'sOver internet conspiracy weirdo detected.
Seriously, take easy, enjoy life, go out.. live life instead of just waiting for the apocalypse..
If anything, by humanizing Hitler, it makes him all the more vile: it shows that humans can truly be that evil, not just characters in popular media.
There no such thing as evil & good. That is given to us by the church; a really simplistic idea of the earth with binary method of judgement. Humans reflect the culture they are brought up in & live in.
One could say that we are all evil. We are destroying the planet, bio-diversity, & consume everything without a care. That is because we live in a very careless money orientated society. That is our sick culture. Are we all evil? No.
@@calderarecords Of course there’s such thing as good and evil. But there’s also a lot of mixture and grey areas. If u don’t think throwing men, women and children in ovens is not evil, ur a lost soul. Humans by nature r evil, but by having a moral code, u can fight your human evil.
@@xmanc5687 According to behavioral studies, that is a projection of our own values. I know this will result in cognitive dissonance so be prepared. But take beauty for example.. some cultures think stretching the neck, the tongue, etc is beauty. Others paint their teeth black. Insert silicone into their genitals etc.
There is no such thing as beauty. Good, Bad, etc. Humans reflect their culture. And like to think of their culture as the "correct one".
We have a lot to learn.
Wish I could see the responses. Anyway, the film's director said it best in 2015:
"Bad people do not walk around with claws like vicious monsters, even though it might be comforting to think so. Everyone intelligent knows that evil comes along with a smiling face."
@@pyromania1018 I Retort: *"There are no bad people. There are people with insufficient information to make appropriate decisions"* ~ Jacque Fresco
Look him up, because he has a scientific plan to get us out of this mess. B-)
My mom used to put on this video as background noise for a long time and I never really understood as a kid but was intrigued. As an adult it’s extraordinary. Truly Oscar worthy and I love it from beginning to end
To humanize Hitler is not the same thing as portraying him as a sympathetic figure. One sees a guy who is not only evil but also delusional and pathetic. It would be hard to create a cult around the guy depicted in this film
RIP Bruno Ganz, the great Swiss actor who passed away in 2019.
He had mixed feelings about the hundreds of so-called "Downfall Parodies" that spread like wildfire on CZcams for a period. He didn't condemn them - far from it. In fact he described their creativity as "genius". Bu he also felt that they detracted from his performance, into which he had "put his heart and soul", and potentially from a very serious subject. This he also mildly regretted.
As the saying goes, he truly was a class act.
I respect it. We humans are deep wells of emotion, which can often conflict one another.
@@Tiabliaj1989 So true.
That's really interesting makes sense, I've known about the downfall hitler parodies for 10 years but only watched the movie last year, I'm glad I did its probably one of the greatest ww2 films ever made.
Personally, the fact he didn't feel absolute revolt for the parodies is a testament to the scenes significance on both a personal and collective level.
Yeah it would have been great if ww2 didn't happened.... Germany might be or sure will be leading in many fields...it is what it is what more can we say, learned or repeat....a fool repeat his mistake and it takes genius to do that so not to worry much I guess...😌. Anyway appearance and worldly fames still futile to mankind, conquer it you conquer death. What did you gain if you own the whole world and lost your own soul"Lord's of lords".
My thoughts exactly. This is one of the most powerful films ever made. The most terrifying thing about this movie is that Hitler is was all too human, and that as much as we may deny it, History does have a nasty habit of repeating itself. As for Bruno Ganz, not even nominating him for an Oscar shows how shallow Hollywood really is.
@CBI : Comment Bureau of Internet I think many people in the west have this weird unhealthy obsession with Hitler, compared to other dictators ( Mao, Stalin, Leopold ii, Tojo, Enver Pasha, Pol Pot, Kim il Sung, Mengistu Haile, Yakubu Gowon) he was nothing special.
Academy awards aren't always the best way to tell how good a film is. There was one time Elizabeth Taylor got the Academy Award for Butterfield 8; one gossip columnist claimed she got it for being sick, and Taylor agreed with her. A good film is tested by its impact and how it is looked at over time. In many respects the movie "Night of the Living Dead" which was seen as grotesque low budget horror, ended up becoming not just a cult favorite but also a culturally significant film. It has more impact than most Academy Award winning movies.
@@TheUstasha101 That’s because of constant bombardment from media and so on. I mean it’s not bad people are concentrated on it but it really diminishes the actions of other psychopaths.
@@TheUstasha101 Leopold II was a legal king, not a dictator, but I get it - mass genocide and stuff.
The Oscar's have always been a thinly-veiled marketing ploy. They're not a reliable source for much of anything.
Brilliant piece. Insightful, honest and soaked in clarity, Thank you for sharing this!
The movie starts with the job interview because it’s Traudl Junge’s autobiography from which the film takes its direction.
It’s the shaking hands and the introvertedness that I thought was humanising.
Beware the wounded, quiet ones.
Let's not forget that the man who played him in the movie. Bruno Ganz, pulled off an insanely brilliant performance.
He is carrying the movie on his shoulders.
Cheers!
Rest in piece, he delivered a timeless performance
Yes his performance was superhuman, but I thought all of the actors were superb, right down to the smallest parts. An amazing film, which I could ony watch for 10-15 min at a time, it was so dark and intense. I skipped over whole scenes because they were just too powerful. Only 2 other films come even remotely close: Das Boot and Conspiracy.
Damn, he had to dress up as an ugly @$$ man just to play the role. Not an easy feat.
I think he did a horrible job
@@freeeggs3811 what? Why? He did a great job
When I was a kid, I was taught that Hitler was such a supernaturally evil entity, that it was as though he became mythical as the devil. That is a problem, and many people still approach things in this way.
This film is essential, because it dispels a fundamental myth that has been taught to us since childhood.
It's those same people who are afraid of letting their children read Harry Potter.
That's the way I was taught too. That he was the ultimate evil and in turn gained a mythic status as the ultimate evil. But people loved him, he had a way with words that people agreed with him, many people even sympathized with him back then. It's important to remember that because any one of us is capable of the same.
My school dosent even teach hilter cause there been stretching OUR 100 YEAR HISTORY INTO 18 GRADES
@@GraveRoda I think that he should be humanized but he still was evil person, but in my opinion the true ultimate evil were Stalin and Kim dynasty.
@@Edax_Royeaux No it's not, it's the overwhelming majority who see Hitler as a devil-like figure and they don't even have to be religions to believe it.
I highly recommend the documentary the film is based on called Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary, which is where the opening and closing interview clips are taken from. They interviewed her once, edited it together, then showed her the doc in the hopes it would trigger more memories - which it did. She died of cancer just before the debut of the film. She had said "Now that I've let go of my story, I can let go of my life." I was so happy they used the clip at the end that they did - it was my favorite quote of the doc. Downfall did such a great job of blending the doc with other accounts to make a compellingly human story and can we have all the flowers for Bruno Ganz? He took an extreme risk to his career to do it.
As a student of WWII specifically Nazi history, I really enjoyed your analysis. No bias, no crass remarks, just the human nature behind the decisions and "how did we get here?"
If there’s one thing this movie taught me is to always blame Fegelein.
LMAO... Underrated joke.. Nice one
The film taught me to look forward for Steiner's attack to save Berlin..
@@chrysecreative5575 This film taught me that Wenck will always come
Speer called him one of the most disgusting members of Hitler's inner circle. He was himmlers lapdog. So u can imagine the things he did under his orders. The theft and rape before the murders were his special touch though.
Why not blame the German? (Edward Richtofen).
You can't prevent evil if you refuse to understand it.
True but certain evil cannot be understood
@@kyle2095 No
@@kyle2095 did you know that Hitler never hated the Jews cos of their beliefs but due to their actions namely they controlled both the financial & media sectors of Germany pre WW I thus influencing business, politics & morals. They were also responsible for the failed attempted communist coup after Germany's defeat in 1918 which was rather successful a year earlier in Russia due to the Bolshevik uprising orchestrated by Jews as well. Karl Marx the founder of communism was also Jewish hence Hitler's hatred was founded on a political motive rather than a religious one.
yup which is why people must understand the weimer republic.
Important documentary on this topic: czcams.com/video/jO659PP_unQ/video.html
This is one of the finest film reviews I've ever seen or read. You made so many excellent points, several of which I had never thought of. Thank you, sir!
Part of the magic of Downfall is that everyone is still so passionate.
Logically, we know that being a passion merchant isn't enough to win a war or build a state, especially when you're too bigoted to optimise these efforts, but it's perhaps comforting to feel like someone is fully present and locked into a project you believe in.
The movie contrasting these objective truths with the sheltered life in the bunker creates a brilliant irony, particularly when most people who leave arguably go to a safer place.
I was 17 when I first watched the movie in school and Bruno Ganz played him so well I actually felt bad for Hitler for a moment. Brilliant actor, may he rest in peace.
yea me too, you would feel a little bit sad about anyone because its human nature to sympathize even if they don't deserve any
This film really left an impact on me. It's weird because I want to hate him, I know I should hate him, and therefore I do hate him, but in this film he was so lost in the dream he was living of being a God, not understanding the world around him because he was conditioned to feel infallible. I felt bad for this horrid person, and that is a testament to how good the performance really was.
Brilliant acting all round, they both played their characters well and in a lot of cases looked eerily accurate in appearance
@@you_were_the_chosen_one I was feeling bad for him when he was showing his dream city and telling he wanted to make skyscrapers even though he is a villan he had a big love for Germany . Germany got developed and has skyscrapers now so his dream is fulfilled but he is the worst human as he killed 6 million Jews people
@@Shivamkumar-uu9tu yeah Berlin today is thriving and completely rebuilt since 1945 when AH was in power.
This is the best Hitler in the bunker movie because Germans had the balls to make it themselves AND they didn't shy away from what actually happened. None of that Hollywood Tarantino crap, just good acting and a story that cuts deeper than fiction.
It almost felt like a documentary wrt the realism.
Tarantino crap? 😖
@@indobalkanizer6557 yes
Strongly agree. Das Boot, Stalingrad (1993), Downfall and recently All Quiet on the western Front shows that if there’s one thing German cinema knows how to do really well, it’s war movies.
This is a generalization but the most interesting and thought provoking WWII films have been made by the Germans and Russians.
nice bro..very well done professionally but also easy for me to follow
While downfall is a movie that has been memed over and over again to the point that the memes are all most people remember this movie by now, i still believe it's one of the better WW2 movies out there. Brunos performance as Hitler is still in my opinion unmatched, and they nailed all the characters here.
This movie is probably as close as it gets to the real events that occurred during the final days of the fall of Germany. You could just imagine the thoughts that was going through the minds of the Nazi leaders as The Red Army was closing in on Berlin and Germany was falling.
Hitler was a human being. I know, what a shocker.
Unfortunately for some people it us a shocker.
That’s debatable.
@@lemonadelemon1960 i hope youre making a joke
@@tunderstorm2769 I wish I was. Human is not what I’d use to describe him. But go off.
@@lemonadelemon1960 accept reality as it is and stop with the copium
My grandmother grew up in Berlin during this time. She was 13 when the war ended and remembers Hitler's rise to power. He was first presented as a politician for the people, who stood up for the poor and impoverished (my grandmother and her family's class). He had a housing bill that they were able to get a better home through, she shook his hand as a little girl when he came to her school.
It's how dictators can begin; as just a person, a politician, someone who may claim to be of the people. He wasn't just sprung onto the scene as who he went down in history as
If she was 13 when the war ended in 1945 it is impossible for her to remember him rising to power as he completed rising to power in 1933 when she was 1 year old.
@@rdgmobile6882 I guess I should have said "she remembers Berlin before the war and before he became known as the Hilter he is today", and maybe I have the dates mixed up, she may have been closer to 15/16, she had said that the war stopped her education because of the conflict and she had been in elementary school(or the German equivalent)
But the point was she remembers Hilter before the was the one history remembers him as.
Dictatorship begins by persuasion of people, then people will bring you the throne.
@@TIRFemcel I understand you watched TV or read a book and now feel entitled to speak wise words but unfortunately this was nonsense.
@@kampf5379 crazier was roosevelt, stalin and churchill
I really enjoyed this film study. Bravo, sir!
Brilliant summary - well done !
Hitler's life and persona, like any one of us, are marked by past events, traumas, loss and once the smoke of loss cleared out, a sense of hatred, anger, and revenge.
It is impossible to not put so many aspects of Hitler's life into question, such as for instance: If he lived which at that point was the most terrible war to have ever been waged, how could he participate and even pour more fuel into an even bigger and more deadlier one?
What Eva Braun says about him in the film says in the film is true, Hitler's dog, his sense of humor, it all feels like accessories rather than part of the actual man himself, because in a way, he was and had nothing before the First World War broke out, his parents were dead, few of his siblings were still alive and he was broke and homeless in the streets of Vienna. But when the war broke out he found purpose and wanted to enlist in the German Army, he had fallen in love with Germany despite being Austrian through his love for history, and he was once part of the masses that he would later on control and charm with his words and his goals. When Germany surrendered, it was the point of no return, he couldn't go back to the way things were, because the past was not any better than the present he lived in, and the future was going to be nothing more than a parody of what Germany once was, which is why he rejected it and went into politics.
It should also be pointed out that Hitler's beliefs were constantly evolving, he did not invent general anti-semitism, many in the german population believed it firmly, which is how he bought into it, he did not invent the "stab in the back myth", Luderndorff did, it was those around him that began to mold him in a way. His biggest charateristics were both bravery (which he was decorated for in WW1) and his ability to elevate things to a mythical level that would be his biggest strength, and weakness, in 1944 Traudl Junge (Hitler's secretary who also wrote the book which Downfall used as a source) thought that Hitler was perhaps thinking about a political solution that could end the war, until Operation Valkyrie happened. After Valkyrie's failure he firmly believed that Fate protected him and that it was a message from God to keep fighting the war.
All of his beliefs, and why the German people kept fighting even as the places they once called home were buried in the rubble, was the resignation of individualism, the kind of individualism and belief in democracy which was rampant in the Weimar Republic and is now the norm today, and instead working towards an ideal, something that would last even when death took them away from the world. It's why he died in Berlin instead of fleeing when the opportunity presented itself so many times. And that also captivated others who didn't betray him yet or who were fighting the inevitable outside to stay with him as long as he lived.
How could it not be appealing that a boy who had nothing to live for became a man that changed the world? Perhaps that simple idea of having nothing and then having everything is enough to turn any human being into a tool, a weapon, a resource to be used. It's the most intoxicating, most beautiful, and yet the most terrible and most deadly thing to have ever happened in this world.
Tldr
@@shotty2164 There is no tldr, read, it does not take that long.
Maybe if Hitler was admitted to the art academy he wished, things would have gone very different.
Let people follow their artistic desires even if an examiner says they have not "talent", it can save us a lot of pain.
@@andsalomoni
I actually really doubt that because of the outbreak of WW1, I think he would have enlisted anyway and everything would have happened even if he had joined the art academy, one of the biggest reasons why he went into politics was because of the fact that Germany lost WW1, and the Treaty of Versailles that followed right after, aswell as the rise of communism which felt like a real threat in Germany.
When our Governments demonise an individual such as Hitler, it is a duty to question such ideas greatly. I’ve learned this throughout my life. Sadam Hussein was also demonised, he did not have any weapons of mass destruction, in fact that war was only about oil, the worry of a petrodollar replacement (potentially obtaining poppies also) and stripping further tax money for the industrial war complex. The US and U.K. government lied about that war, as they did with every other that they’ve started or been involved in one way or another. Let’s not forget that is was the US that vaporised hundreds of thousands of (at least some innocent) people. Now they do similar acts with drones. They demonise individuals just justify their morally questionable decisions to their own citizens. The masses need to start thinking more and they should distrust their government narrative as much as their government distrusts their citizens.
RIP Bruno Gantz. Mr Gantz deserved Oscar for role in this masterpiece.
They should still award one to him posthumously. I am sure it will mean a lot to his family.
@ThxGod It'sOver Bro this is a CZcams video not a church
@ThxGod It'sOver you good bro?
@ThxGod It'sOver good and dandy, thank you very much! ☺️👌
Remember: “My brethren, be not many many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation” Peter 3:1 KJV
“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach patient. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” 2 Timothy 2:24-26 KJV
“Screaming” and writing out random verses doesn’t help anyone. Relax dude and reflect, you might be troll and well… I hope you do well in life? Stop embarrassing yourself. Blessings!
@ThxGod It'sOver you’re hopeless mate, you hear but you do not listen. You speak yet you say nothing. May the Lord help you out of your troubles and give you peace in your heart. It is time for me to dust of my sandals and move on. Blessings! 😊✌️
Well Hitler was human.
Downfall rules, man.. humanizing AH, whether intended or not, was most definitely necessary to show how someone who was held up SO high and SO quickly amongst himself and his people could fall so hard and so low. Human nature, essentially. I mean, hey..he was no god, but only human! Fallible and Flawed in MANY aspects. Partly what makes Downfall such a marvelous film!
A film about Stalins mental insanity in his last years would be so perfect, The Death of Stalin sort of did it but portraying all the brutal court intrigue of the Soviet Union surrounding a man slowly dying, both mentally and physically, as the godlike figure that surrounds him stays erect, it’d be a great angle
Stalin was more disease addled than truly insane. In the last few months he had dementia from progressive brain disease, he was permanently in his dacha and needed help to get from his office to bed. He was lucky he lived into his 70's after all the nearly fatal diseases he had in his childhood that had cumulative affects as an adult. Stalin wasn't ever really "insane". The opposite, he was a master tactician and everything he did has a purpose. He didn't arbitrarily kill people there was always a purpose to what he did. It's what set him apart from the other dictators of his time, he was capable of rational thought and valued the importance of the opinions of others to a point.
A good way to show is paranoia and vindictiveness would be Death of Lenin or Death of Trotsky. I'd love to see Death of Lenin.
For a few days in late 1941it looked like the U.S.S.R. would collapse. Stalin went to his dacha. After a few days the Soviet leadership followed him there and begged him to lead them. One would have expected them to blame him for the disaster and have him arrested. They probably could have done so. But the C.P.S.U. was so far under his spell that they had no confidence to rule without him.
@@juliaeastbourne6310 he had so fully terrorized the party with his show trials and what happened to Trotsky who had outshined him. They were too afraid to take any ounce of control for fear of drawing his jealousy and ire.
A high budget movie about the Pacific Front from the Chinese perspective would be interesting, too. I find it interesting that the vid uploader is blaming Hitler for all 50 million casualties, when at least 10 million of those are from Stalin's purge (rendering his military ineffective) and his complete disregard for human life... And another 15 million are from Japan's invasion and massacre of Chinese civilians.
This was not a war of a single villain. It was a war of a lot of evil. Even the so-called "allies" left Poland out to dry. No one gave a crap about Poland and it reflects in their 17% population loss. No one. America didn't even enter the war, until December 1941.
@@manictiger
TBF, the American public were still traumatized and angry that many of their boys died or injured in World War 1, a war which most Americans didn't care about and understandably didn't want anything to do with it.
This is why the Democrats lost the 1920 Presidential elections and the US didn't join the League of Nations (despite being their idea) and FDR had to exploit as much loopholes as he can to aid the British.
Honestly, watching this film feels like watching a person dying.
That’s actually the perfect analogy
Everyone in the film is going through the 5 stages of grief.
WTF? He killed billions of people. Who the F cares if he had depression🤣🤣🤣.
@@botchedoperations3485 warcriminal Soviets
@@botchedoperations3485 billions? I don't think that many people existed in Europe back then
The fear and constant tension are depicted so well it’s funny and scary. Loved it.
Excellent job. This is a wise and well executed video. Thank you.
It annoys me when people say that any small moments in this film portraying Hitler being in any way “nice”, such as being kind to Traudl when she makes a dictation error, are making him seem like a good person and not a monster. That is such a ludicrous misconception. You can be evil and be polite at the same time, be generous at the same time; _you are still evil._ Evil people are not 2-D, inhuman monsters, and trying to fit them into a binary link that distorts the truth of what humans are like, and makes us fail to recognise genuine evil. Downfall shows us a flawed human being who deceived and manipulated others, and compels us to see within.
"There are no good & bad people. No such thing as benevolent & evil people. All humans reflect their culture" ~ Jacque Fresco 1916-2017
Frankly, here's a hot take. Hitler was only one piece in the litany of human evil. The fact that he is held up as the Devil is absurd.
Sure, he was a monster. But so was Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, etc.
History is filled with monstrous people. But whatever the monstrous deeds they did, they were human. And exploring that humanity is critical to understanding how and why they did what they did.
@@Killzoneguy117 The politicians of today are bigger "Monsters" because they sit on their hands as the human race collapses globally as Scientists shout solutions in their ears.
I agree with all your points though. And recognise your abilities of Critical Thinking.
Trouble is intelligence is at an all time low & hysteria is at an all time high. A race of useless mindless wage slaves at best!
If he wasn't at all forgiving and gave zero leeway he'd never had got into that position. He believed what he was saying, there's zero doubt that he was evil but he was also human with friends, family and pets which he obviously cared for but dig a little deeper like his relationship with his niece and you soon realise he wasn't entirely reasonable like a normal person. He clearly cared deeply for her but his own actions led, sadly, to her death.
@@mrcaboosevg6089 Hitler really did not have any friends. Hitler had henchmen. The closest thing to a friend Hitler had as far as anyone can tell is Speer. And that relationship wasn't really warm. Hitler just admired Speer for what Speer could do. Which was impressive. Production increased right up until the end of the war.
"Men are more moral than they think and far more immoral than they can imagine."
Sigmund Freud
The same guy who said little boys and girls have feelings towards their parents? Ironic
The one you thing he got right.
@@MoldycheeseJr Because someone says one thing that's wrong(which it may or may not be I'm not qualified to answer I'm not a psychologist or neuro-professional) doesn't mean everything they say is wrong.
@@bigvinnie3 I was saying that it was very ironic
@@MoldycheeseJr Freud is indeed high on his own stuffs because of his Mouth Cancer and Morphine treatment addiction to Oedipus Complex drug, but he's the father of Psychoanalysis for a reason.
Really like your analysis and work on this. Subscribed!
Being a child is seeing Hitler as a monster
Being an adult is seeing Hitler as a human being
If he had redirected all that rage and hatred, he could have easily been a person who brought good to the world. He could have been on par with Orson Welles in oration.
The thing that still baffles me about Hitler, was that he loved animals. He was well known to be quite affectionate with his dog, but he had no compassion for other people
People are odd, aren't we?
Hitler was a huge animal rights activist, as he banned the boiling of live lobsters, among other things.
However, here‘s a weird piece of trivia. He also banned human zoos.
He was abusive towards his dog. Not really capable of true compassion. A man who's psyche was highly damaged during childhood (abuse, trauma).
@@zilpzalpmukkefukk he wasnt abusive lmao. His dog was probably the living creature he liked the most.
@@Suo_kongque Jesus, if he could've performed a fraction more of mental gymnastics, he could just genocided poverty, lack of healthcare, anything!
@@zilpzalpmukkefukk he cared for his dog like no other and kept her to the end. he treated her extremely well (up until the point where he ordered her to be poisoned shortly before him and his wife) and it's very possible she was one of the few things out there that hitler truly loved
Bruno Ganz was absolutely amazing in the movie...
Truly, this depiction will never be beaten.
I agree
The acting was superb but i didn't really like how hitler was portrayed as a maniac, i don't know if it's historically accurate but it felt highly exaggerated. This video talks about humanizing hitler yet in the movie it felt like the writers depicted him as a generic villain from a fictional story
@@phatlewt2932 in a bring of collapsed of his country any leader would act like that if a person he's command disobey to do what he think can make a difference
What a wonderful review. I admit that the reason I watched the movie was because of the parodies of the scene where he has his meltdown. It's a fantastic film that I would recommend to everyone.
One of the revealing things I've learned over the years, which seems to be confirmed by various examples, is that evil isn't what people assume it is. It isn't that evil people know and want what is the worst for everything. Rather, they pursue what they see is good, but they absolutely will not allow anyone to question their actions nor motives. They will not allow anyone to challenge them on anything. With a lust for power, they can only insist upon obedience, and undying loyalty. In short, they see themselves as infallible, and by implication, without limits. They demand that everyone else see them the same way, lest their delusional bubble be popped.
This video makes an interesting point that those who are full of doubt, uncertain of anything, are attracted to a leader without any doubts about himself.
In contrast, genuinely good people have motives in the same categories, but they allow their motives and actions to be challenged, questioned, because they understand that they are not perfect, and that their goals may be mistaken. In short, they understand that they are flawed.
"Anyone who has the power to lift you up has the power to throw you down". That is an epic line!
I'm very much in favour in humanising Hitler , the Nazis , Mao, Stalin and even Pol Pot ect in order to better understand human nature and how to handle it in a meaningful way
I agree with this here. The big problem is human nature. Society has tried many ways to mitigate human nature over 3k years. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Marxism, social justice, fascism, nazism communism. None of these practices work when it comes to mitigate human nature and people can take things to the extreme and followers go all in it.
We really need more movies about the final days of Stalin, Mao, and pol pot to understand them better.
Pol Pot was no human, he was something else
@@Bronxguyanese You seemed to have missed capitalism in your list.
@@pancytryna9378 You mean a dictator funded by the CIA? Yea, he was that. He also didn't institute:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalplan_Ost
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust
Which makes him more human than Hitler.
Excellent review! Finally saw Untergang in the original German. Excellent film, Ganz was awesome and the supporting cast was strong as well. Especially Alexandra Maria Lara as Traudl, Christian Berkel as Schenck, Thomas Kretschmann as Fegelein, and Corinna Harfouch as Magda. Note that Hans von Dohnanyi and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the grandfather and great uncle of Justus von Dohnanyi who played Burgdorf, were executed by the Nazis for their actions in the German resistance.
Bruno Ganz's performance is the greatest of a historical figure in film history. The director, screenwriter, and Ganz bring forth a 3-dimensional portrait of Hitler, He's avuncular and courteous in the first scene with the secretarial candidates and a raging, fantasizing, physical wreck of a man for the rest of the film. It's a riveting, brilliant performance and a powerful, gripping film.
"Humanizing humans is inhuman."
- Some Human, probably.
@ThxGod It'sOver What did you say?
Human moment
This looks weird but I'm leaving that comment for I know that one day he will return.
@@classycorgi9860 I don't know when, I don't know how, I don't know what he will look like, I don't know what color his skin will be, I have no clue who will become the next, but I do now that he is walking amongst us right now and I know that he doesn't know his destiny. He is about to rise and if I were any of you I would hold onto my skin real fucking hard, lmao!
@@exterminator1107 Emperor of mankind moment.
Hitler wasn’t a monster or a devil. He was just a man, and seeing him as such helps us understand the dark side of humanity. He’s remembered more for his crimes and less for who he was as a person. I think seeing him for who he really was is important for us to really be able to understand the man.
It's not about him as a person really, it's about how dangerous it is to evangelize some guy who talks cool stuff. Because humans are flawed and if you put someone on a pedesteal that had good/genius written on it you stop to observe reqlity and you're gonna excuse stupid/horrid actions.
Same with another example that's (so far) somewhat harmless:
Elon Musk. His fans see him as good/a saviour/a genius. They see no fault in him and excuse every dumb thing he does. And Elon Musk keeps up the propaganda that now includes his hordes of fans. He doesn't even need to cover his f***-ups. His fans will explain them away.
Gro a brain ffs he was murderous why jews
Yes, he was known for being polite and well mannered, at the same time as having Jews injected, gassed and being experimented on, including having babies drowned in buckets. Remember though his nazi followers were just as bad, like Joseph Mengele for instance. He was more of a monster than his boss could ever be.
That's not what a man does,a man goes home to care and protect people that is matters to him,to go home as a man without being called immoral or evil.
@@mickryan2450 What?
Incredible analysis. This video gave me further insight into this movie direction.
The best thing about Downfall is the claustrophobic feeling throughout that steadily grows. It is both a direct and metaphoric representation of the state of Germany at the time. The apocalyptic microcosm of the Nazi officials sinking into the abyss that is the bunker and metaphorically the war itself. This film is about the downfall into such abyss. It is a civilisation crumbling but still desperately hanging on. The claustrophobia further gives to the rising madness of everyone inside the bunker, the absurd discussions of cyanide, the wedding, etc. The best sequence that shows this visually is when General Weidling descends into the bunker. We go through each checkpoint and every minutia of the landscape as if he and his adjutant are slowly stepping down into hell itself.
The other thing that I like about Downfall is that it is also just as much a portrait of the German people at the time as one of Hilter himself. It is not just Hitler's own downfall into the abyss, but everyone around him and the whole of the German people. There are so many side-characters, subplots, vignettes, etc. that get forgotten but are just as good as the main plot of the bunker. Broadly, it shows three kinds of Germans in the last few days.
There are the fanatical, the Goebbels, Eva Braun, the crying nurse, the teenage girl at the AA gun, Reitsch the ace pilot, etc. These represent the part of Germany that would gladly get shot, swallow cyanide, or shoot themselves at the very end along with the Führer himself, the sector of German society that would gladly sink with him into the abyss.
Then there are the pragmatic yet steadfast, the professional Wehrmacht generals, particularly Weidling and Mohnke (although SS). They are not as fanatical to the Führer as the former group but are willing to stick to their oaths and to whatever end that the war may reach (albeit mistakenly as would later turn out for Keitel and Jodl at Nuremberg). We even see Mohnke clash with Goebbels over the effectiveness of Volksturm fighters; one is trying to get the best tactical chance for survival of the city, and maybe even the regime, whilst the other only cares about the symbolic glory. These of this kind have picked their nightmare and are going to stick with it until the end. They represent the vast majority (or at least plurality) of ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers, nurses, etc. who, although not willing to go all the way into the abyss with Hitler, are actively trying to crawl the country out of it even if it means falling into it by failure.
Then there are realists, Dr. Schenk, the one-armed veteran, and even Speer somewhat, who see the end for what it is. They have decided that oath and personal loyality to the regime no longer matter and that pure survival of themselves and others around them do. They are getting out of the abyss altogether and are not looking back, if only to save a few behind. These are the good ones who mostly have good convictions like Schenk who try to save as many civilians. But there is also a subgroup of this kind, the bad ones, the selfish survivors, Himmler, Göring, etc.
There is one final kind, Traudl and the boy, the lost impressionable ones who found themselves out of the abyss but could have fallen in with the fanatics. They represent the majority of civilians who were charmed by Hitler but emerge at the end outside in the sunset among the ruins. They would build a new Germany in the wake of the old one that sunk with Hitler and the rest in the bunker.
We must never forget that he was human. He didn't have anything special that made him any different from you or me. Thats the lesson, and the warning
True. Except he was not an ordinary person. He was a narcissit with unshakable self-confidence.
@@mrplayfulshade1038 Bruh
@@monty7342 the same jews are now trying to take palestine from muslims
@@scottslotterbeck3796that's a human quality that anyone can possess.
@@scottslotterbeck3796Um, look at a lot of content creators and social media influencers... literally the same.
I was once accused of "not being a Team Player".
I took that as a great compliment.
Plot twist: it was not being a part of an anti-nazi team 😮
"shows us the danger of believing in people who believe in nothing but themselves."
Why does this all feel so familiar... just like when I saw the movie itself. I mean,
god-damn, if THAT doesn't also describe america's former (and future, it seems,) dictator, I don't know what does.
People often enjoy the thought of killing Hitler as a child or a baby. When in fact it was his history that led him to become what he was, it was a series of bad experiences that no one would like to happen to them.
We can talk about hating Hitler, but for some reason we are silent about giving people beautiful lives in general. I've slowly come to conclude that we as humans should stop relying on scapegoat and look into ourselves and others who need help instead.
I don’t hate Hitler
People prefer simple solutions. You don´t have to be a bad person to enjoy the thought of eliminating hitler to safe millions of lifes when turning him to a good person appears to be a much more troublesome attempt with unclear outcome.
Scapegoats have been around for almost all of human history and more often than not they only lead to a bad perspective of reality. If one day this issue gets better it will be not by getting rid of scapegoats, as human nature naturally tries to find a scapegoat, but by treating scapegoats less seriously.
Also a good point BlueCrate has is that it is important to learn about the bad things that happened but even more important it is to learn what lead to these things happening.
However, the sad truth is that we will never get rid of scapegoats, making all people's lives better will be extremely difficult. There's always a 'reason/cause of' why things aren't able to get better. But I hope for our future that we can finally bite the bullet and push past the reason/cause for a problem and find the solution to the problems.
Understand why the bad influences cause bad things to happen, but do not excuse not blame, *Solve*.
_This has been my TED talk_
@@freeeggs3811 then you are insane
@@vmonk2 thank you
I always fight back when someone calls a criminal like Hitler a monster. There are no real monsters. It's exactly because those people are humans that they have such capacity for evil. This is one of the most important films. It really gives you that feeling of being there with the people portrayed because you know all of this really happened.
Demonizing someone is a way for us to cope with actions we do. Sometimes people do bad things but say “well I’m not as bad as ____”
I always think about downfall when the bosses at my firm talk about all introducing all these profitable new initiatives whilst cutting costs and staff.
I’ve watched countless documentaries and film from WWII featuring Hitler. I was astounded and transfixed by the performance in this film. To me the actor WAS Hitler, the look was right, his mannerisms were there. I recall the well know medal scene with the Hitler Youth, how they had the camera in the precise position the historical footage was shot from. Complete with his hand tremors. Simply perfection and one of my top recommendations for WWII films.
This movie is great. However, Anthony Hopkins gave a terrific portrayal of Hitler in the TV movie, “ The Bunker.” He must have watched hour upon hour of newsreel footage of Hitler making speeches, etc. I’ve watched hours upon hours of that stuff, myself, and when I watched Hopkins portraying Hitler, I almost forgot it was an actor portraying Hitler, because he got the gestures and mannerisms so perfectly, it was almost as if I were seeing the Fuehrer himself. That’s acting on such a high level, it’s almost eerie. 😮
@@valerietaylor9615 thanks for the comment I’ll have to check that one out!
Never forget he was human. Know that the line between good and evil runs through the hearts of every human.
The problem of man is the sinful nature we all have i herited from adam, we naturally bend towards evil and if not rescued by faith in Christ we all head to eternal damnation
It's that people have the *potential* to become 'evil' given circumstances and various life factors. Just so happened they all aligned for people like Hitler.
Agreed. Ignoring someone's humanity even if they made undeniably evil choices makes it difficult to understand what went wrong for that person to be in the positon they were in. Analysing his personality, emotions, the reason for his decisions, tactics when rising to power means we can avoid allowing people like him from obtaining power in the future.
@@alexm7627 Gtfo with that Christian bullshit
@@Python-xs2iv its funny you should say this in the comment section of a christian channel, God bless you and may you come to know His love
RIP Bruno Ganz. He was literally perfect for this role as Adolf Hitler. His performance was insanely incredible and realistic. No one will ever be able to top him in acting as the fuhrer.
Because Hitler made himself out to be a demigod, it is important to rehumanize him, show him as he was. This movie does an amazing job with this. Future generations now have a graphic accurate portrayal of the carnage and an in-depth depiction of the mentalities that led to it. Hopefully will happen never again.
I have a lot of reverence for this film, it is so well done.
No one can get to where he was without being charismatic. There’s a light and a dark to charisma.
rizz
Well he also had a pretty cool mustache as well
He was well known as a great orator. There is a famous picture of him practicing a speech.
Chaplin’s stache was better!
The dark side of rizz
"...What Downfall is Really About..."
About 37578 memes.
Adolf Xitler Jinping!!
@@matpk what the fuck?
????????
@ThxGod It'sOver what in the everlasting fuck
@@epitaph3175 help
Downfall was a fantastic, I had see that meme for years of the bunker scene with different words for the translation, then one Sunday, I was at my brother's for dinner and we watched the whole movie on Prime. Yes, that's how I felt too, it was showing the blind belief and fanatical following of a man who believed himself a god!
I watched this movie. It matched everything I have read about him as far as mannerisms, habits, speaking tone, concerns, etc. None of his personal life takes away from the crimes he committed against humanity. But this movie doesn’t glorify anything about Hitler and rightfully so. I’ve seen nearly every ww2 movie ever made and Downfall is right at the top.
“Downfall” is one of my all-time favorite films, and not just from the WWII genre. It is a fascinating character study, brilliantly executed, and yes, laden with warnings about how easily millions of good people can be led into disaster.
9
sry easy? it wasnt easy for hitler...ww2 happened because of ww1...without the treaty of versailes hitler never had become enough followship.
the treaty of versailes was the amber that ignited ww2...the perfect justified motivation to fight again from a german viewpoint.
@Rain89 Skarlet
Hitler didn't rise from the Treaty of Versailles alone, if that was true, the Nazis would have risen in the early 20s.
Plenty of factors led to Hitler's rise, the great depression and political instability.
Dictators and tyrants operate through chaos. They stir it up just so they can say they can fix it. And that's what downfall and other works warn against. Beware of putting too much faith in one leader.
@@rain89skarlet80 it is a bit more complicated. It played a part, but there were several reasons
That was a brilliant video! Very well written and definitely makes me want to go back and re-watch this one again.
Racist
@@vincedhilandulay7798 ?
@@vincedhilandulay7798 what.
Fancy meeting you here sir.
The race commie is here what a surprise in the comments of another person who likes to say “everyone racist” I just watched your vid that got more dislikes then likes of you “reviewing” “ain’t I right” you are commie trash and deny it
My mother used to tell me “Sometimes man is scarier than monsters, those children books you read showing trolls hiding under bridges and wolves dressing as grandmas are nothing compared to the atrocities man can commit.”
Russell's quote at 8:11 echoes Yeats' poem The Second Coming from 1919: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."
Traudl Junge was released by the Russians, who declared her a "Young Follower," rather than a war criminal. In an interview, she said that she also attributed her willingness to work for Hitler as due to her youth. Then, she said, she came across a monument in Munich to Sophie Scholl, and 2 others who were executed for taking a stand and trying to tell people the truth about the war. She saw that Scholl had been the same age at her death, as Junge was when she went to work for Hitler. Traudl Junge realized that her youth had been no excuse. May she rest in peace.
I wish Spielberg or other filmmakers would make a movie about the heroism of Sophie Scholl.
@@TheMotz55 'The Final Days of Sophie Scholl' is on CZcams. Excellent movie.
@@TheMotz55there is a great German film about the Scholl siblings
The most important lessons are made from the worst mistakes.
Sad but true. 😢
I had to make a whole presentation about him in 9th grade (I'm German btw) and stumbled on a lot of events, that happened in his live. It's unbelievable, that no one gets teached in school, how much of a broken man he was, on top of the narcissism & nationalism
He was your average incel, with a shity life that made him revolted. But surviving the war give him confidence to spread his radical ideals, and a lot of people bought it because of how much germany was suffering in the post war.
@@TheEmolano how was he an incel?
Nothing wrong with nationalism. Community , home and family always come first.
In addition, and I speak as a college professor, the Treaty of Versailles was entirely unfair to the people of Germany. Let’s not forget that the Allies created the given circumstances where a character like Hitler could rise to power. I’m not justifying the Holocaust. Not in the least. But there is so much more to the story than what is written in history books.
@@mizubiart6230 false
A very interesting presentation.
Not only was Downfall a masterpiece, it was very important that it came from German hands. This was their story to tell, and concindering its their role in history that was on the line, they made a amazingly truthfull portrait.
Convincing the German people he wasn't human is what paved the way for his crimes.
Lets learn from these mistakes.
Very good very well made analyse
I've heard about this man's backstory, and he was a troubled person. His father was unkind to him, society didn't take him seriously, and he came home from war defeated. I wonder if someone were to go back in time, give him some useful life advice, possibly even be his friend and lead him away from the dark places in his mind, would he turn out to be a more pleasant person.
Yes , his father punished him severely.
@@laza6141 on a serious note,
His father punished him severely.
Maybe Kanye West would be the best friend he always needed?
😁
@@Menaceblue3 Kanye Hess
@@saladsnake8289 These insults enraged Adolf's father, who punished him severely.
It's much easier to just slap a "monster" label on Hitler, or any other genocidal dictator for that matter, and call it good, but doing so misses the chance to learn. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were undeniably awful people, but they were people nonetheless, people that others genuinely believed in. To pick them and their popularity apart, to portray them as we would another person and not just a demon wearing a human mask allows us to understand how they got to where they did so we can avoid such catastrophic mistakes in the future.
What about Bush and Blair both war criminals should have been sent to independent war crimes Tribunal 🤔
@@TheMiketyson9 which bush?
@@plorabare Only one Bush has been convicted of War Crimes, so which one do you think???
@@plorabare Doesn't matter. Bush 1 invaded Panama, Bush 2 invaded Iraq. Both unjustified, both killed lots of civilians, both war criminals.
Hmm yes morality is human
Great video and analysis!❤
What makes Stalin any different though
What I found interesting in Downfall that wasn't touched on here...
...was how self-selecting the bunker occupants were. The people closest to Hitler at the end were those who did not want to lead and were happy to let the man with full confidence lead. This isn't just that everyone has that weakness...it is that these people got those positions BECAUSE they were willing to let Adolf lead.
They had committed to it. They had wrapped their lives around it. They had, in many cases, done horrible things to get to the bunker and stay in Adolf's inner circle. When it becomes obvious that it is all going to end...it's not just the nation that is dying...and its not just their neighbors that will die. Their dreams, their life's work, EVERYTHING is going to go up in smoke.
PLUS, the Russians and those who they oppressed to get and stay near Adolf are going to come and get their revenge. By the time of the film, there really was no real choice for most of these people but to continue to support Hitler until they personally died. Because that death would likely be better than the one they would be subjected to if they tried to run or retreat.
That is definitely worth pointing out. Many of the ministers cut and ran the first chance they got. And they definitely had no good option left, that’s for sure.
The post is about Hitler, not Downfall. See if you can separate the two in your mimf.
Uh no that's not what happened at all. In the last few weeks Hitler and his inner circle were trying to get others to flee to the West away from the Russians. They weren't scared that Hitler was going to shoot them for trying to leave. Where do you people come up with this nonsense?
A lot of them fled Germany