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The Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich

Der Untergang

2004

Oliver Hirschbiegel

Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Matthes ...

7.4

62,873

Drama. War Berlin, april 1945. The war is almost over. Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara), the final stenographer for Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz), tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.

	Author	Review
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Oliver Hirschbiegel's film has been criticised for 'humanising' Hitler. It does precisely this (...) But Hitler has never looked more noisome, a tatty charlatan (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Desson Thomson The Washington Post	"The film's most powerful elements are Ganz's persuasive performance as Hitler, a figure of gentility and irrationality, and the film's candor"	POS
United States	Mick LaSalle SFGATE	"Ultimately, it was up to the Germans to make the first great Hitler movie"	POS
United States	Claudia Puig USA Today	"The film's only flaw is its length: just under 2½ hours. But perhaps it is the unsettling nature of the film's seeming authenticity that makes the length so tough to bear (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Jack Mathews New York Daily News	"The very thought of humanizing Hitler makes me queasy. If he had a good side, I don't want to know about it."	NEU
United States	A. O. Scott The New York Times	"It is fascinating without being especially illuminating, and it holds your attention for its very long running time without delivering much dramatic or emotional satisfaction in the end."	NEU
United States	Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times	"Any film that reminds us what our darkest nature looks like has value for that reason alone."	POS

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