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In Reply to: :Downfall" - the Hitler's final days posted by Victor Khomenko on August 28, 2005 at 12:45:56:
the secretary wanted to make him one-dimensional or if the director did. But the fact is, this portrait shows nothing new about him.
Of course, to humanize the man would be too scary: we like our monsters to be kept a safe distance from the rest of us. Unfortunately, for film's sake, it also makes for a very trite portrayal: what you are left with is what you always have known, and become comfortable with.
It's strange that the secretary was so insignificant in it: it was based on her recollections. Did she distance herself for "guilt"purposes?
Not a terrible effort, certainly, but Hitler is the reason one wanted to see the film and curiously his part is under-written.
A man doesn't lead as he did, and inspire such crazed loyalty, and "act" the way Ganz did. Again, by making him seem so distant and un-charismatic (to make him seem less "appealing") the viewer is left with... an unreasonable vacuum.
Follow Ups:
I do not think that the purpose of the film was necessarily to educate the viewer about Hitler, but rather to put us in the bunker with him during the last days. Much has been written about Hitler during his rise, and fall. But what transpired within the bunker has, in any real detail, been a mystery. Particularly because, as he became more paranoid about those around him, his circle of confidantes became smaller, and towards the end, there was no real recitation of events, until his secretary came forward.I have seen a fair amount of films about Hitler, but I do not recall such a film with such an authoritative and believable point of view, about only HItler. They are mostly about his ideology, and how those beliefs affected his policies. Many are theoretical, some show glimpses. But I am not familiar with a film that shows him, only. Most show Hitler as being incidental, but the real films are about the exterminations, or the assassination attempts, or the snipers, or Normandy, or the French invasion, or how the Brits treated Hitler. But very few about the man. And almost none about what transpired within the bunker.
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