Downfall (German: Der Untergang) is a 2004 historical war drama film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel from a screenplay by producer Bernd Eichinger. The film depicts the final ten days of Adolf Hitler, portrayed by Bruno Ganz, and the subsequent surrender of Berlin to the Soviet Army. It was based on the books Inside Hitler's Bunker by historian Joachim Fest and Until the Final Hour by Hitler's former private secretary Traudl Junge. It also used several other accounts of the period.
Downfall | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Oliver Hirschbiegel |
Produced by | Bernd Eichinger |
Screenplay by | Bernd Eichinger |
Based on |
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Starring |
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Music by | Stephan Zacharias |
Cinematography | Rainer Klausmann |
Edited by | Hans Funck |
Production company | Constantin Film |
Distributed by | Constantin Film (Germany, Austria) 01 Distribution (Italy) |
Release date |
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Running time | 155 minutes |
Country | Germany Italy Austria |
Language | German |
Budget | €13.5 million |
Box office | $92.2 million |
Principal photography took place in Berlin, Munich, and in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with a €13.5 million production budget. As the film is set in and around the Führerbunker, Hirschbiegel used eyewitness accounts, survivors' memoirs, and other historical sources during production to reconstruct the look and atmosphere of 1940s Berlin. Der Untergang premiered in Germany in September 16, 2004. It started a debate in German film magazines and newspapers; the tabloid Bild initially asked, "Are we allowed to show the monster as a human being?". It later received a wide release in theaters across Europe under its production company Constantin Film.
The film grossed over $92 million and received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 77th Academy Awards. It was also ranked number 48 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010. The scenes where Hitler becomes angry after Steiner fails to obey his orders have been heavily parodied in internet culture; it is used in videos described as "Hitler Rants" where English subtitles are placed to humorously portray him reacting to an absurd or relatable issue instead.
Screenplay
In November 1942, at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia, Chancellor of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler selects Traudl Junge as his personal secretary. Three years later, in April 1945, the Red Army has surrounded Berlin, pushing Germany back. On Hitler's 56th birthday, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler tries to persuade him to leave Berlin, but Hitler refuses. Himmler leaves to negotiate terms with the Western Allies in secret. Later, Himmler's adjutant Hermann Fegelein also attempts to persuade Hitler to flee, but Hitler insists that he will win or die in Berlin.
SS Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck is ordered to leave Berlin per Operation Clausewitz, though he persuades an SS general to let him stay in Berlin to treat the injured. In the streets, Hitler Youth child soldier Peter Kranz's father approaches Peter's unit and tries persuading him to leave. Peter, who destroyed two enemy tanks and will soon be awarded a medal by Hitler himself, calls his father a coward and runs away.
At a meeting in the Führerbunker, Hitler forbids the outnumbered 9th Army to retreat, ordering SS commander Felix Steiner's units to mount a counter-attack. The generals find the orders impossible and irrational. Above ground, Hitler awards Peter his medal, hailing Peter as braver than his generals. In his office, Hitler talks to Minister of Armaments Albert Speer about his scorched earth policy. Speer is concerned of the destruction of German infrastructure, but Hitler believes the German people left behind are weak and deserve death. Meanwhile, Hitler's companion Eva Braun holds a party in the Reich Chancellery. Fegelein tries persuading Eva, his sister-in-law, to leave Berlin with Hitler, but she dismisses him. Artillery fire eventually breaks up the party.
On the battlefield, General Helmuth Weidling is informed that he will be executed for allegedly ordering a retreat. Weidling comes to the Führerbunker to clear himself. His action impresses Hitler, who promotes him to oversee all Berlin defenses. At another meeting, Hitler learns Steiner could not implement his orders, allowing the Red Army to move closer to Berlin. Hitler becomes angry, stating that everyone has failed him and denounces his generals as cowards and traitors before finally acknowledging that the war is lost, but that he would rather commit suicide than leave Berlin.
Schenck witnesses mass civilian casualties and executions as supposed traitors. Hitler receives a message from Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring requesting state leadership. Hitler declares Göring a traitor, ordering his arrest. Speer then admits to Hitler that he has defied his orders. Hitler, however, does not punish Speer who decides to leave Berlin. Peter's unit is defeated and he runs back to his parents. Hitler imagines more ways for Germany to turn the tide. At dinner, Hitler learns of Himmler's secret negotiations and orders his execution and also finds out that Fegelein has deserted Berlin, having him executed despite Eva's pleas. SS physician Ernst-Robert Grawitz, responsible for Nazi human medical experiments, asks Hitler's permission to evacuate for fear of Allied reprisal. Hitler refuses, leading Grawitz to kill himself and his family.
The Soviets continue their advance, Berlin's supplies run low, and German morale plummets. Hitler hopes that the 12th Army will save Berlin. After midnight, Hitler dictates his last will and testament to Traudl, before marrying Eva. The following morning, Hitler learns that the 12th Army is stuck and cannot help. Refusing surrender, Hitler plans his death. He administers poison to his dog Blondi, bids farewell to the bunker staff, and commits suicide with Eva. The two are cremated in the Chancellery garden.
Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels assumes Chancellorship and General Hans Krebs meets with Soviet General Vasily Chuikov to negotiate a conditional surrender, but returns without success. Goebbels orders that the SS will not surrender as long as he is alive. Goebbels' wife Magda poisons her six children with cyanide, before committing suicide with Goebbels; Weidling announces unconditional surrender of German forces in Berlin; Peter discovers that his parents were executed; and Germans who had worked in Hitler's bunker commit suicide after learning of the German defeat. Traudl leaves the bunker and tries to flee the city; Peter joins her as she sneaks through a group of Soviet soldiers before the two find a bicycle and leave Berlin.
- Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler. Ganz conducted four months of research by studying an 11-minute recording of Hitler in private conversation with Finnish Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim in order to properly mimic Hitler's conversational voice and Austrian dialect. Ganz also became convinced that Hitler had Parkinson's Disease, and decided to visit a hospital to observe patients with the disorder.
- Alexandra Maria Lara as Traudl Junge
- Ulrich Matthes as Joseph Goebbels
- Corinna Harfouch as Magda Goebbels
- Juliane Köhler as Eva Braun
- Thomas Kretschmann as SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein
- Heino Ferch as Oberbefehlsleiter Albert Speer
- Christian Berkel as SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck
- André Hennicke as SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke
- Götz Otto as SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche
- Ulrich Noethen as Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler
- Christian Redl as Generaloberst Alfred Jodl
- Rolf Kanies as Chief of the Army General Staff General der Infanterie Hans Krebs
- Michael Mendl as General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling
- Matthias Habich as SS-Obersturmbannführer Prof. Dr. Werner Haase
- Birgit Minichmayr as Gerda Christian
- Dietrich Hollinderbäumer as Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim
- Dieter Mann as Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel
- Justus von Dohnányi as General der Infanterie Wilhelm Burgdorf
- Gerald Alexander Held as Walther Hewel
- Donevan Gunia as Peter Kranz
- Thomas Thieme as Reichsleiter Martin Bormann
- Thomas Limpinsel (de) as SS-Obersturmbannführer Heinz Linge
- Hans Steinberg as General der Flieger Karl Koller
- Heinrich Schmieder as SS-Oberscharführer Rochus Misch
- Thorsten Krohn as SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger
- Jurgen Tonkel as SS-Obersturmbannführer Erich Kempka
- Igor Romanov as SS-Obersturmbannführer Peter Högl
- Igor Bubenchikov as SS-Obersturmbannführer Franz Schädle
- Michael Brandner as Hans Fritzsche
- Christian Hoening as SS-Obergruppenführer Ernst-Robert Grawitz
- Anna Thalbach as Hanna Reitsch
- Bettina Redlich as Constanze Manziarly
- Devid Striesow as Feldwebel Fritz Tornow
- Elizaveta Boyarskaya as Erna Flegel
- Mathias Gnädinger as Luftwaffe commander-in-chief Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring
- Alexander Slastin as Soviet Colonel General Vasily Chuikov
- Elena Dreyden as Inge Dombrowski
Development
Producer/screenwriter Eichinger wanted to make a film about Hitler and the Nazi party for 20 years but became perplexed after its enormity prevented him from doing so. After reading a publication about the book by historian Joachim Fest called Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich (1945), he became inspired by Fest's academic writings and included them in the film. Eichinger also based the film on the memoirs of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's secretaries, called Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary (1947); Inside the Third Reich (first published in German in 1969), the memoirs of Albert Speer, one of the highest-ranking Nazi officials to survive both the war and the Nuremberg trials; Hitler's Last Days: An Eye–Witness Account (first English translation 1973), by Gerhard Boldt; Das Notlazarett unter der Reichskanzlei: Ein Arzt erlebt Hitlers Ende in Berlin by Doctor Ernst-Günther Schenck; and Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936–1949 (1992), Siegfried Knappe's memoir.
After completing the script for the film, Eichinger sent it to Hirschbiegel who agreed to helm the project. Hirschbiegel said that the film-makers sought to give Hitler a three-dimensional personality, telling NBC: "We know from all accounts that he was a very charming man – a man who managed to seduce a whole people into barbarism."
Filming and design
The film was produced on a €13.5 million budget. Principal photography lasted 12 weeks, in the period from September to November 2003, under the working title Sunset. Since the film is set mostly in and around the Führerbunker, Hirschbiegel said he made an effort to accurately reconstruct the look and atmosphere of World War II through eyewitness accounts, survivors' memoirs, and other historical sources by filming in the cities of Berlin, Munich, and Saint Petersburg, Russia, where an industrial district slum along the Obvodny Canal was used to imitate the setting for Berlin.
The bunker and Hitler's Wolf's Lair was constructed at Bavaria Studios in Munich. One CGI scene was created for the Reichstag. Hirschbiegel decided to limit the amount of CGI and sets, so as not to make the set design look like that of a theatre production. He explained:
The only CGI shot that's been used in the film was the one with the Reichstag because of course we could not reconstruct that—that's the only thing. I'm very proud of that, because if you do a war movie, you cannot do that and build sets. You feel the cardboard. You feel that it's all made to entertain, and it takes away from that horror that war basically means.
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