Downfall

This movie certainly requires a lot of the viewer. It is a German docu-drama about Hitler's last days. It does have subtitles but to really understand how well this movie was made you really need to be able to understand German. If you can get beyond this movie being in a foreign language and it being about a historic tragedy it is a must see.

It is quite possibly the best told story of Hitler's last days. In the few documentaries in which I have heard Hitler speaking the actor who played Hitler seemed so like him I watched thinking this is really what he was like. His Austrian German sounded like Hitler's, his mannerism were like Hitler's, as were the Parkinson symptoms, and his fits of rage. He nailed every aspect of the furher's life. When the film was made they included some brief conversation with Hitler's actual secretary too. I do not know but I imagine they got many of there facts about who did what from her. There is no way to get any closer to what his last days must have been like than this movie does.

Unfortunately Downfall does not show the whole story. It only covers the last days of Hitler's life. It does not teach us how to avoid repeating this terror. For that you will need to see "A warning to all nations". In fact I would recommend seeing a warning to all nations first to set the stage.