Der Untergang/Downfall (2004)

You may have come across a meme showing Adolf Hitler screaming at several of his advisors in a crowded room.  (I think the name usually starts with something like “Hitler reacts to…”.)  There are a variety of topics, from Hitler finding out his Xbox account was banned to having to see Don’t Mess With the Zohan.  The clip comes from a movie called Downfall.

According you Know Your Meme, the director was amused by the usage.  The studio, not so much, although they seem to have eventually relented.  (There’s even one of Hitler trying to have the various parodies taken down.)  I have to admit that I’m somewhere in between.  Some of the videos are funny, but we’re talking about Hitler during the final days of WWII.  It’s a pretty heavy and loaded subject.

While looking through Netflix for movies to stream, I came across Downfall.  I immediately recognized this as the movie that spawned the meme.  I decided to watch the movie to put the clip in context.  (I noticed that the movie ran for over 2½ hours, so I decided to save it for later.)  I’m not sure that this should be your only reason for watching it.

The movie is primarily about the last days of Adolf Hitler.  He, Eva Braun, his closest advisors and a few others spent them in a bunker underneath Berlin.   Germany was losing at that point.  It was a matter of time before they’d have to surrender.  Almost everyone in the bunker was advising Hitler to leave Berlin, but he would have none of it.  Anyone who didn’t obey his orders was less than scum.

Outside the bunker, Berlin was in ruins.  (This suited Hitler just fine.  It would be that much easier to implement his  plan for an even better Berlin.)  People are hurt.  Troops and civilians alike are injured or dead.  Children are fighting for Germany.  Hitler even gives out medals to some of them.  He refuses to leave.  He refuses to surrender.

This is one of those movies where a spoiler alert isn’t really appropriate.  Anyone familiar with World War II should know the basic plot of the movie.  For those that don’t, you may want to stop reading.  This isn’t necessarily for fear of ruining the movie, but because the movie does go into some detail.  We see a doctor assist Joseph and Magda Goebbels in killing their children.  This isn’t even the scene that I find most disturbing.  We also see Hitler test a cyanide pill on his dog.  (The movie doesn’t show the dog actually dying, but it’s still clear what‘s happening.)  There are also several suicides towards the end of the movie.

As you might expect from the meme, there are a lot of scenes with Hitler yelling at people.  Those that follow his orders are golden.  Those that don’t deserve to die.  There are also scenes with him being kind to people.  The movie uses clips from an interview with Hitler’s secretary, Traudl Junge, as bookends.  (In the movie, she’s played by Alexandra Maria Lara.)  Hitler is somewhat pleasant with her.  There are several scenes where he is charismatic.

This isn’t to say that he was a nice person.  Hitler was someone that knew how to manipulate people.  What might appear to be kindness would have simply been a means to an end.  Bruno Ganz was effective as Hitler in letting that manipulative nature come through.  Hitler may be spouting pleasantries, but there’s still an underlying sense of malevolence.  (And then we’re right back to him screaming at people.)

I would set the movie aside for when you have a few hours to watch the whole thing.  It’s a long movie and is pretty densely packed.  It didn’t seem to drag so much as I would occasionally feel like I had watched an entire movie in over the course of 15 minutes.  It’s also a German film in German with subtitles.  (Netflix didn’t offer English audio, not that I would have used it.)  You may be able to watch the entire movie, but I had to get up a few times to walk around.

If you’re looking for movies dealing with Hitler, a few other movies come to mind.  One is Look Who’s Back, which deals with Hitler mysteriously appearing in modern Berlin.  There’s also Hitler’s Children, which looks at relatives of some of Hitler’s inner circle.  Downfall may be too intense for some.  I know my mother wouldn’t like it.  My father, who has an interest in World War II, probably wouldn’t be able to watch the entire movie.  As I said, don’t rent this just to see the one scene from the parody videos.  It does come early in the movie, but there’s a lot more to it than just that.  In that regard, it’s difficult to recommend the movie.  It was done well and I do think it’s something people should watch, especially if they have an interest in the movie.  Not everyone will be able to handle it, though.

IMDb page

Er ist wieder da/Look Who's Back (2015)

It would be interesting to see how various historical figures would react to today’s world.  Would Johannes Gutenberg be impressed by how easily words are printed?  How would Jonas Salk react to the anti-vaccine movement?  There’s a Doctor Who episode that has Vincent Van Gogh looking at an exhibition of his work.  Plenty of common people have been pulled out of time in movies.  Just ask Bill and Ted.  Look Who’s Back wonders what would happen if Adolf Hitler suddenly showed up in modern Germany.

It starts with Hitler on the ground wondering what happened.  Where are his trusted advisors?  How did he end up in a park?  Not to far away, Fabian Sawatzki filming some kids for a project he’s working on.  His boss, Christoph Sensebrink, doesn’t like it.  In fact, Sensebrink fires Sawatzki.  It isn’t until later that Sawatzki realizes that he has Hitler on tape.

Sawatzki is able to find Hitler, knowing that he has something that might get him his job back.  He assumes, along with everyone else, that what he has is actually some sort of actor performing satire.  It's like how we all know Borat is really Sacha Baron Cohen.  Hitler obviously must be someone trying to make a point, however distastefully he might be doing it.  Sawatzki has no problem becoming his unwitting accomplice, filming Hitler around the country.  (They decide to make a political documentary.)

It’s a sensitive topic for Germany and the rest of Europe, so there is an inherent danger in doing this.  (Various movies have had problems filming Nazis, as they couldn’t show symbols of Nazi Germany.)  One person even approaches Sawatzki and Hitler to tell them how horrible they are for doing this.  This makes it all the more unnerving that Hitler never breaks character.  Then again, why would he?  He’s Hitler and he’s intent on getting back his former glory.

The movie does take a few liberties.  It is correct that Hitler didn’t do too well as an artist.  However, the movie shows him drawing poorly, whereas Hitler seems to have focused more on painting.  Also, Hitler is said to have possible suffered from Parkinson’s late in his life, with there being reports of his hand shaking.  In the movie, he seemed to be in relatively good health.  Hitler also seemed surprised in the movie that Germany had lost World War II.  He knew that things weren’t going well for Germany.  He eventually shot himself and his wife, Eva Braun, took a cyanide pill.

One statement that had me take to Google was where Hitler says that he was elected, implying that it’s the electorate’s fault.  I’ve heard that he wasn’t really elected, but this may stem from the fact that elections in Germany at the time weren’t what Americans would think of as an election.  His first few public offices seem to have been appointed.  He does seem to have gained office through elections, but it seems that in those instances, it had to do with the fact that his party had the most seats in the Reichstag.  Whichever party got a plurality/majority generally had their leader appointed chancellor.  (If someone can clarify, please leave a comment.)

This is not a movie for children due to the topic.  I’m not even sure it’s a movie for most adults.  This is one of those movies where context will carry a lot of weight and this is reflected in the movie.  In the movie, many Germans are shown interacting with Hitler, some of them saying that they might vote for him.  (I’m not sure if these are actors or actual people hoping to make the final cut.)  In one scene, an elderly Jewish woman recognizes Hitler and yells at him, as she knows exactly who he is and what he‘s done.

That, to me, is the irony of the movie.  There is a level of discomfort watching it.  Writers for a talk show are tasked with making racist jokes.  We feel uncomfortable as the writers go through a few of them.  We’re aware of the historical context, but someone who lived through it knows the context and will have an entirely different reaction.  It would be interesting to watch the movie with someone who lived through that era just to see what they thought of the movie.  (Again, I’d welcome comments.  I’m sure that a few things in the movie went over my head.)

I would say that those involved in the movie did well.   The political element wasn’t forced, but was used to show that Hitler could regain power.  If there’s one thing I’ve constantly heard about him is that he knew how to manipulate.  He came into power not by promising to kill people, but rather by promising a better life for people.  His tactics might be different, given that he didn’t have Google and YouTube in 1945, but his ambition would be the same.

IMDb page

Hitler's Children review

Hitler's Children (2011)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Many years ago, I was thinking about how uncommon Hitler is as a last name.  I’m not sure if people with that surname changed it to avoid the negative association or if it simply wasn’t that common to begin with.  I don’t imagine it would be easy to have that as a last name, even if you weren’t closely related.  People would probably look at you, too afraid to even ask.

Hitler’s Children takes on several similar situations, looking at relatives of several people that were close to Hitler.  Rudolph Hoess, for instance, was commandant of Auschwitz.  His grandson, Rainer, made a trip to the former concentration camp to meet the descendants of survivors.  Monika Goeth, daughter of Amon Goeth, met a bartender who was in Plaszów.  When the bartender found out that her father ran the concentration camp, he became upset.  As a child, she had no idea what went on.

The movie is about how the relatives deal with being related to someone who committed atrocities.  Niklas Frank, whose father was the governor-general of occupied Poland, wrote a book condemning his father.  He tried to find instances where his father may have helped someone to no avail.  His siblings weren’t always that supportive.  Much of what is shown of him in the movie is his speaking to groups about the book.  Two of Himmler’s grandchildren had themselves sterilized so as not to continue the line.

It’s hard to condemn the descendants as they really didn’t do anything.  Rainer Hoess wasn’t even born when his grandfather was in command of Auschwitz.  Monika Goeth asked questions of her mother, but her mother was evasive about what was going on.  However, there is that sense of guilt and shame of knowing your relatives caused such devastation.  I’m not sure how I would explain to my children that I had an ancestor that committed war crimes.  It’s not the kind of thing I’d be able to really hide.  The Nazis wanted to eradicate anyone that wasn’t part of their grand plan.  (13 million people were killed, 6 million of whom were Jews.)

I think that a movie like this is going to be different depending on which generation you’re a part of.  People of my generation may know the names, but people of my parents’ generation grew up watching reports of World War II on the news.  Those of my grandparent’s generation may have even fought in the war.  The names will be more recognizable to some.

I do recommend watching the movie.  If you’re planning on watching it with your children, it should be safe for those 13 and above.  The only thing I might recommend doing is looking up some of the history.  The movie doesn’t really go into detail about the people involved, other than to say who they were and what the family member did during the war.  It’s assumed that you know a certain amount of information.  You might find yourself having to explain some of the context.

The interviews are mostly in German with some English.  I was able to watch the documentary on Netflix.  Some of the reviews on Netflix were complaining that they couldn’t get the subtitles, but Netflix does have them.  You just have to be sure to turn them on.  It’s also available on DVD through Netflix, although I’m not sure about subtitle availability.  (I’d imagine that they do have it.)