Faces of Evil

Marv and I went to see Downfall last night. It was amazing! Bruno Ganz's performance as Hitler was just incredible. Actually, all the performances were great. The film portrays the final few days of Hitler's life in April of 1945 as he's hunkered down in his bunker in Berlin. With him are military leaders, government officers, and their families and staffs. Among the latter is Traudl Junge, Hitler's stenographer and the movie is based on her memoirs. Since the film mostly takes place in the bunker, there's a palpable feeling of claustrophobia that is occasionally lost as the scenes wander out into the streets of Berlin as ragtag German troops (with children among them) try to fend off the advancing Soviets.



As I said above, Ganz gives a killer performance here. There were scenes when Hitler was in a room with his generals and he'd tell them to have a commander in the field come to the aid of Berlin. Then a general would inform him that there are not enough soldiers or that the unit's flank would be exposed or something similar. Hitler would erupt in anger, yelling that he was in command and how dare he disobey a direct order. Spittle flying out of his mouth, his head flailing - it was just very, very intense. I think it was the first film I've seen to be about Hitler as a man as opposed to a monster. The film didn't concentrate on Hitler as he plotted a war and a genocide, it portrayed him as a man decaying - his sanity, his grasp on reality leaving him. Marv and I talked about the film on the ride home and he commented that it was the first film about Hitler that he'd seen that actually tries to give you a sense of his humanity, however twisted or depleted. One film that comes to mind as being similar in certain ways and in great contrast in others is Nixon. Both films portray powerful men. (Not that I'm trying to make the case that Richard Nixon was an Adolph Hitler, mind you. But they were both very powerful men who fell from power and who were disgraced.) Stone's film showed Nixon at most points in his life, as a boy growing up through the various stages of his political career. Stone was interested in showing Nixon in a larger picture so, not only do we get an overview of Nixon's life, but we also see him put into the context of the larger power structure of Washington D.C. as Stone sees it. Downfall, on the other hand portrays only the last few days of Hitler's life and confines him to a bunker. Both films have a figurehead in the center with other people like moons in orbit around him. Whereas Nixon shows that there are other figureheads and that they compete, Downfall has only one. Aside from the film as a brief character sketch of Hitler, it is also about the relation of his subordinates to him. The loyalty to him of various people - from generals to children - is central. They want to go down with the ship and its captain. A boy fights to the death for the Reich outside on the streets of Berlin amidst the rubble. There's a scene where Magda Goebbels poisons her daughters so that they don't get captured. To say it was disturbing is an understatement. A couple generals protest plans that would leave civilians - innocent women and children - to starve and Hitler remarks that there are no civilians in this war. Various people commit suicide rather than surrender to the Soviets. Even after Hitler kills himself, others do so rather than abandon him.

It was neat how, as the film, progresses, Hitler's physical appearance degrades. His hair gets a bit greyer, his face seemes more wrinkled, and his hand shakes ever more violently from Parkinson's disease. These are potent reminders that, however monstrous Hitler was, he was still just a man. He was kind to Junge but the personification of evil to Jews, for example. He is shown petting his dog in one scene and then flying off into a raging fit in another. Evil has a very human face. And the loyalty of his minions goes to show that evil isn't just for dictators.