Just been told it came out on DVD. I saw it in the theater 3X. What an awesome flick! The guy who played Adolf sure was a great actor... I was so astonished as to the likeness of character. And Goebels and his wife, amazing! Couldn't believe watching her poison her kids, each time it put a lump in my throat. Albert Speer was a cool dude, I'd personally want to be his friend. And that main character is one sexy girl. And that little blonde Hitler Youth girl when she lets her life be taken - what a gorgeous teen babe in cool uniform. Man that film rocks! Beats all that useless Hollywood SHIT that they keep churning out of their asses.
Der Untergang / The Downfall
- Thread starter georgebushmoron
- Start date
yeah i wanna see this one too. think i'll cruise by best buy and see what they have. haven't been there yet so i'll maybe kill two birds with one stone. 
This is a great movie. Before seeing it I wasn't sure if they were going to be able to pull off a movie that was limited down to just a few days real time, but I can remember thinking at least 2-3 times while watching it "this is just fascinating!" One of the best war movies I have ever seen, and something which would never get made in Hollywood. That alone is probably reason enough to see it. If Hollywood made this flick they would have to have Hitler as some stock bad guy, and then an American band of earnest misfits would come charging over some ridge at the end and blow him up or something. It's nice to watch a movie once in awhile that isn't some cornball propaganda for the next foreign war.
This movie is just a truely compelling piece of artwork though. My then GF thought parts of it were a little harsh, but I don't know if I'd agree. I like the ending in particular (no not the part where Hitler dies! that's like 20 min. from the ending), the thing with the bicylce (I won't spoil it if you haven't seen it). Just a real beautiful ending.
Easily a 5 out of 5 in my book.
This movie is just a truely compelling piece of artwork though. My then GF thought parts of it were a little harsh, but I don't know if I'd agree. I like the ending in particular (no not the part where Hitler dies! that's like 20 min. from the ending), the thing with the bicylce (I won't spoil it if you haven't seen it). Just a real beautiful ending.
Easily a 5 out of 5 in my book.
With all the stereotype crap made about Germans in WW2 from Hollywood, it's good to finally see the topic of ww2 be interpreted through a German movie production. I seen that film with an older aquaintance of mine who was there in the dieing days of ww2 as a young teenaged Volksturm "soldier". He said it was accurate.georgebushmoron said:
Almost all of the Nazi hierarchy died shortly after ww2 with grizzly deaths either by judicial hangings or suicide, but it was Albert Speer, the Armaments Minister and Architect of almost all of the Nazi monuments who survived the war and lived long in life and then only perished late into his 70's in the arms of a beautiful young lady in a London hotel room. What a cool way to go.
there have been a number of excellent German 'war' movies, but most have not been released or distributed here ... Das Boot is one notable exception.gotsome2004 said:
yeah, drove me nuts the first time i watched it ... but translations never can catch the nuances of a language ... i finally just watched the movie and listened to the German and ignored the subtitles.hifisex said:
i also watched the director's cut which didn't add a lot to the story but demonstrated just how tedious and terrifying it could be on a sub at times.
yeah Conspiracy was good too. i make a consious effort to by bass hollywood as much as possible. not to go too far off topic but another great non hollywood movie was "city of god".
I thought they used cameras, you uninformed anti-semite.dcuplover said:
(Or shound that be uniformed anti-semite? Do you belong to a neo-nazi organization that like to play dress-up?)
I thought one of the very interesting things about Downfall was the very sympathetic portrayal of Albert Speer. Here he is (hope this pic stays up, it's from Wik):
I find one of the hardest issues to grapple with when thinking about this topic is, were they all monsters? And if they weren't all monsters, how did they contribute to a regime which committed such horrors? The normal Anglo-French-American approach is to say that they were all monsters. But, even in my own life, I personally know that not every German of that time was a monster. In fact I would think most weren't. Were all the Nazi party members monsters? Maybe, but probably not. Even the Pope (of today) was one of them! Were their some good Nazis? I don't know. Was Speer one of them...? ...it's so hard to get at the truth when most of our information comes from films and history books written by people who want to present a certain view of things.
My own uncle (grandfather's brother) died fighting these guys, and my grandfather came home with pieces of metal in his body and was traumatized by his time in Europe for the rest of his life, and I have no doubt that the most horrible memories he took to his grave. Many of the stories only came out very late in his life. And yet I really feel for the German people when I watch a movie like this or learn about how they suffered in the time period in which Downfall was set (and after). The utter devastation, murder, rape and plunder that was inflicted on that country... not to mention the carving up of the country itself. I know that the Nazis did all that and probably much worse in their war against Russia on the Eastern front, so some might say they got what they had coming. The Nazis maybe did get what they had coming, but as one post pointed out, virtually all of them were dead before the war ended or shortly afterward. But the German women and the childeren, the elderly, regular civillians... I dunno... I guess that's war. I suppose that is a big part of what makes Downfall so fascinating. It really makes you think.
I find one of the hardest issues to grapple with when thinking about this topic is, were they all monsters? And if they weren't all monsters, how did they contribute to a regime which committed such horrors? The normal Anglo-French-American approach is to say that they were all monsters. But, even in my own life, I personally know that not every German of that time was a monster. In fact I would think most weren't. Were all the Nazi party members monsters? Maybe, but probably not. Even the Pope (of today) was one of them! Were their some good Nazis? I don't know. Was Speer one of them...? ...it's so hard to get at the truth when most of our information comes from films and history books written by people who want to present a certain view of things.
My own uncle (grandfather's brother) died fighting these guys, and my grandfather came home with pieces of metal in his body and was traumatized by his time in Europe for the rest of his life, and I have no doubt that the most horrible memories he took to his grave. Many of the stories only came out very late in his life. And yet I really feel for the German people when I watch a movie like this or learn about how they suffered in the time period in which Downfall was set (and after). The utter devastation, murder, rape and plunder that was inflicted on that country... not to mention the carving up of the country itself. I know that the Nazis did all that and probably much worse in their war against Russia on the Eastern front, so some might say they got what they had coming. The Nazis maybe did get what they had coming, but as one post pointed out, virtually all of them were dead before the war ended or shortly afterward. But the German women and the childeren, the elderly, regular civillians... I dunno... I guess that's war. I suppose that is a big part of what makes Downfall so fascinating. It really makes you think.
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Never saw the movie, but generally speaking I believe the German people were held captive by the Nazi's like everyone else. We tend to believe that we are the government, and in a free and democratic society that's true. But in a totalitarian society, which usually controls the army and the police, that's not the case. They simply rule by fear. Don't want to cooperate, let's shoot him in public view..now who else doesn't want to cooperate? Even worse, psychologically speaking, is to have people simply disappear.ghostie said:I thought one of the very interesting things about Downfall was the very sympathetic portrayal of Albert Speer. Here he is (hope this pic stays up, it's from Wik):
I find one of the hardest issues to grapple with when thinking about this topic is, were they all monsters? And if they weren't all monsters, how did they contribute to a regime which committed such horrors? The normal Anglo-French-American approach is to say that they were all monsters. But, even in my own life, I personally know that not every German of that time was a monster. In fact I would think most weren't. Were all the Nazi party members monsters? Maybe, but probably not. Even the Pope (of today) was one of them! Were their some good Nazis? I don't know. Was Speer one of them...? ...it's so hard to get at the truth when most of our information comes from films and history books written by people who want to present a certain view of things.
My own uncle (grandfather's brother) died fighting these guys, and my grandfather came home with pieces of metal in his body and was traumatized by his time in Europe for the rest of his life, and I have no doubt that the most horrible memories he took to his grave. Many of the stories only came out very late in his life. And yet I really feel for the German people when I watch a movie like this or learn about how they suffered in the time period in which Downfall was set (and after). The utter devastation, murder, rape and plunder that was inflicted on that country... not to mention the carving up of the country itself. I know that the Nazis did all that and probably much worse in their war against Russia on the Eastern front, so some might say they got what they had coming. The Nazis maybe did get what they had coming, but as one post pointed out, virtually all of them were dead before the war ended or shortly afterward. But the German women and the childeren, the elderly, regular civillians... I dunno... I guess that's war. I suppose that is a big part of what makes Downfall so fascinating. It really makes you think.
In situations like this, especially when you have a regime bent on taking over other countries, everybody looses.
I saw a movie some may like and I'm sure others will categorize as Hollywood pablum but it was called Swing Kids.
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ghostie said:I thought one of the very interesting things about Downfall was the very sympathetic portrayal of Albert Speer. Here he is (hope this pic stays up, it's from Wik):
I find one of the hardest issues to grapple with when thinking about this topic is, were they all monsters? And if they weren't all monsters, how did they contribute to a regime which committed such horrors? The normal Anglo-French-American approach is to say that they were all monsters. But, even in my own life, I personally know that not every German of that time was a monster. In fact I would think most weren't. Were all the Nazi party members monsters? Maybe, but probably not. Even the Pope (of today) was one of them! Were their some good Nazis? I don't know. Was Speer one of them...? ...it's so hard to get at the truth when most of our information comes from films and history books written by people who want to present a certain view of things.
My own uncle (grandfather's brother) died fighting these guys, and my grandfather came home with pieces of metal in his body and was traumatized by his time in Europe for the rest of his life, and I have no doubt that the most horrible memories he took to his grave. Many of the stories only came out very late in his life. And yet I really feel for the German people when I watch a movie like this or learn about how they suffered in the time period in which Downfall was set (and after). The utter devastation, murder, rape and plunder that was inflicted on that country... not to mention the carving up of the country itself. I know that the Nazis did all that and probably much worse in their war against Russia on the Eastern front, so some might say they got what they had coming. The Nazis maybe did get what they had coming, but as one post pointed out, virtually all of them were dead before the war ended or shortly afterward. But the German women and the childeren, the elderly, regular civillians... I dunno... I guess that's war. I suppose that is a big part of what makes Downfall so fascinating. It really makes you think.
I agree with most of the above.. but do not forget.. the German people put hitlet in power. the german people supported hitler.
So they were faced with reality when war finally came to their doorsteps.
Yes, they suffered when the russians arrived. But how many russians died defending their homeland .. 20 million + russians did!. They were slaughtered like pigs and way more russians died in the hands of nazy germany than the other way around.
i saw swing kids. it wasn't bad. how bout the part when the kids have to join the hitler youth and they give that one kid the task of delivering those boxes to these households and whats inside the boxes is the ashes of the womans husband with the dudes wedding ring just to make sure she knows whats up. guess thats what happend to people that said shit against the regime.noneasgood said:
also i'm not so sure if i agree with the statement that the people put hitler in power. he kinda just took it. he used the rules of government to get power and then once he had it, he abolished all those rules. the germans didn't really have a choice in the matter. they were destitute at the time and had nothing.
Swing Kids was a pretty lame movie, but has a GREAT 40's soundtrack. Reminds me, I'll have to dig it out and have another listen.
What a piece of shit. Please don't mention it in the same breath as Der Untergang.smackyo said:
lol, i wasn't comparing the movie at all because i've never even seen downfall. just said it wasn't bad. it's not a movie that i'd go out and buy on dvd and i'll probibly never rent it again but if it were to come on tv and nothing else was on then i'd probibly watch it again. you could do much worse in a movie thats for sure.georgebushmoron said:
plus the movie wasn't really about war, it was about life in germany during that time and kind of gave a different perspective. thats all i'm trying to say.
Oh ok... my apologies. I saw the Swing Kids, and I turned it off after half an hour sorry.... it disgusted me that's all.smackyo said:
While we're on the subject of modern WW2 flicks, I was really disappointed with "Enemy at the Gates" - a piece of Hollywood shit. "Das Boot" was superb, and "Stalingrad" was not bad. Of course these were German productions.
But "Der Untergang" was, I felt, revolutionary. Unfortunately, a number of Jewish groups protested the movie saying it showed the "human side" of Adolf Hitler. It's too bad that they have so much victim mentality that they have to make a demonic monster out of what was essentially an evil human being. To do so risks never understanding the full spectrum of human good and evil.
But "Der Untergang" was, I felt, revolutionary. Unfortunately, a number of Jewish groups protested the movie saying it showed the "human side" of Adolf Hitler. It's too bad that they have so much victim mentality that they have to make a demonic monster out of what was essentially an evil human being. To do so risks never understanding the full spectrum of human good and evil.
