"The Downfall"

[Tipsy]

"The Downfall" is a moving that shows the last twelve days of the twelve year reign of the Third Reich in Germany. That alone doesn't make it very different from many other World War 2 movies, which many have been made, and many more will probably be made. But there is one thing that in my opinion separates this movie from the other World War 2 movies. In the minds of many, Hitler is the personification of evil. He is called the anti-Christ by some, and worse by others. Many people consider the Nazis and German people under them terrible people for fighting the world and so forth. This movie does one thing that makes it special, it portrays Hitler not as a demon, but as a human. It strives for the historical accuracy of how Hitler really was on those last twelve days. It does not inflate Hitler, but it tries to put it exactly as he was. Hitler isn't the strong and proud German leader, but a tired, old, and frankly scared man. The movie shows the last twelve days of the Third Reich from the German side of the story. Take a look at this website, and I really do suggest watching the trailer for it:
http://www.downfallthefilm.com/

Now onto the actual Arcane Sanctuary worthy part of this post. For the last sixty years Hitler has been the personification of evil for many as I stated above. There have been people who do horrid thing similar or worse in some people's opinions, but they are accepted as historical figures that did their part in history. They have done many of the 'evil' things that Hitler did in the past, yet they are not considered the same 'evil'. It has been sixty years, is it time that this over inflated demon version of Hitler is thrown out and the real Hitler is replaced? Is this even possible with the sixty years of constant attack and exaggeration of his image? What he did was wrong in many people's opinions, but should the fact that he did evil mean that he is no longer a human being. The question that many people have brought up after seeing this movie is, is it okay to feel sympathy for Hitler? If anything this movie is said to show you one thing, Hitler was a man. He was a living, breathing, feeling human being with emotions just like all of us.

A few things to point out. This movie was made by Germans, and came out last year in Germany. After a huge success over there it is being made English compatible and actually comes out in a few days in the United States.

Anywho, I just found out about this movie about a week ago, and I will probably go see it when it comes out. From what I have seen from the trailer it seems very dramatic. Two things that really stood out to me was in the trailer the young kid who couldn't being any older than 13 or 14 running away from Soviet soldiers invading Berlin.

 

[Forged]

The reason hitler is still seen as a demon is because it was such a recent thing. There are still people alive from the holocaust, this alone is the reason Hitler is so widelly persecuted, and obscure madmen from 1000 years ago are not.

 

[B)ushid(o]

Constant saturation of the media with biased views of WWII kind of makes it hard to get a show of both sides.

btw: I hear the chants of hundreds of protesters already.

 

[Magikarp]

What Forged said was very true: since Hitler is our most "contemporary" apotheosis of evil, he is the most useful one to use as an example.

The movie sounds very interesting. Although Hitler was a bad guy, I think a lot of people end up the way they are just from childhood expierences.. I mean, if I was raised in the exact same fashion as Hitler.. well, I would probably be him.

Of course, this doesn't excuse what he did.. but he had a lot of bad influences, and acting like Hitler was his own personal source of evil is always a bad generalization.