Category: Feature Film-drama - Foreign - Foreign Film [Dub Or Subtitle] - International - Movie
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DVD Downfall
The riveting subject of Downfall is nothing less than the disintegration of Adolf Hitler in mind, body, and soul. A 2005 Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film, this German historical drama stars Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire) as Hitler, whose psychic meltdown is depicted in sobering detail, suggesting a fallen, pathetic dictator on the verge on insanity, resorting to suicide (along with Eva Braun and Joseph and Magda Goebbels) as his Nazi empire burns amidst chaos in mid-1945. While staging most of the film in the claustrophobic bunker where Hitler spent his final days, director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Das Experiment) dares to show the gentler human side of der Fuehrer, as opposed to the pure embodiment of evil so familiar from many other Nazi-era dramas. This balanced portrayal does not inspire sympathy, however: We simply see the complexity of Hitler's character in the greater context of his inevitable downfall, and a more realistic (and therefore more horrifying) biographical portrait of madness on both epic and intimate scales. By ending with a chilling clip from the 2002 documentary Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary, this unforgettable film gains another dimension of sobering authenticity. --Jeff Shannon
So much more than just a canvas for Bruno Ganz Oscar caliber performance `Downfall' earns a spot on my top five favorite films of 2005. With its wonderful direction and effortless story telling `Downfall' delivers a tragic tale we don't all too often consider. A lot of people have balked that this plays too much a sympathetic ear when considering the final days of Hitler's life, but it's that sympathy that we have yet to feel and so it's that key difference that stands this film apart from the rest as a landmark film in my eyes.
Powered of course by Bruno's forceful performance (complete with subtle conversation, extreme outbursts, ticks and physical transformation...I mean really the whole package) as the hated leader of the Third Reich, `Downfall' focuses on those final days as Hitler's mental state worsened and the very thought of surrender and or hostile takeover drove him to suicide. `Downfall' to me is less like `American History X' and more like `United 93' in that we never once get the feeling like we're being coerced into believing his prejudice (was it just me or did Edward Norton's character start to make his point after a while) but more or less are just given their viewpoint, as wrong as it may be, without sugar coating or biased conversion. Hitler is painted as Hitler, nothing more and certainly nothing less. What I appreciated was that instead of creating this undeniably horrid man we are just given facts and interpretation is left solely to the viewer.
`Downfall' carries with it an epic feel and serves as a brilliant biopic upon all biopics. With acting that surpasses most nominees that year; `Downfall' was sorely overlooked come the big race but deserves your consideration now. Don't hesitate for fear you'll be shown a film bent of `humanizing' a monster, watch it for the sheer satisfaction that not all of Hollywood is bent on giving us stereotypes and thus they are willing to `humanize' him because as we should all know there is no such thing as monsters, just human-beings gone terribly wrong.
The Upside of "Downfall"
There is so much hatred of Hitler in the world today, it is easy to forget that he was a powerful national leader who was much loved by the German people during his time. Although this film focuses on the emotional, mental, and physical degradation of Hitler in his final days, it also brings out the enormous loyality he inspired in those around him. Aside from the appeal of the historical accuracy of the film, I was impressed with the quality of the acting and the detailed account of the many subplots that whirled around Hitler in those final days. The portrayal of Hitler by Bruno Ganz was extremely convincing. The New Yorker put it best: "The great Swiss-German actor Bruno Ganz gives a staggering performance as Adolf Hitler in this full-scale realist German production detailing the last ten days of the Third Reich. As the Red Army rampages through Berlin, Hitler and his staff have retreated to the bunker under the Reich Chancellery. They are all here-Himmler, Goebbels, Speer, the entire fascinating, loathsome crew of commanders, mad visionaries, and toadies (all brilliantly acted)-and, leading them still, a man so physically ill and constricted in movement that he looks like a broken-down puppet from a Bavarian travelling circus." Thie quality of the movie makes you forget about the English sub-titles.
Incredible. Thought provoking.
German language with subtitles. Covers the last few days of Hitler in his bunker. Historically accurate to the best of my knowledge. Told from the perspective of Hitler's secretary. Watching the situation, one realizes how human some of these men really were while they maintained their vicious and cruel worldview. If one loves history or war movies, this is a must-see.
More than any previous documentary about the Holocaust, Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State reveals the inner workings of the Nazi implementation of Hitler's infamous "final solution." Drawing on the latest academic discoveries, this remarkable BBC series presents a wide-ranging, meticulously researched biography of the titular "killing factory" and its evolution into a highly efficient location for industrialized extermination of well over one million Jews, gypsies, and other so-called "mongrel races" between 1940 and 1945. From "Surprising Beginnings" to "Liberation & Revenge," the six-chapter program chronicles the gradual process that escalated into the Holocaust, focusing its expansive European timeline on the detailed movements of preeminent (and highly corruptible) Holocaust... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Laurence Rees DVD Release Date: Released the 29 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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At its core, Munich is a straightforward thriller. Based on the book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas, it’s built on a relatively stock movie premise, the revenge plot: innocent people are killed, the bad guys got away with it, and someone has to make them pay. But director Steven Spielberg uses that as a starting point to delve into complex ethical questions about the cyclic nature of revenge and the moral price of violence. The movie starts with a rush. The opening portrays the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes by PLO terrorists at the 1972 Olympics with scenes as heart-stopping and terrifying as the best of any horror movie. After the tragic incident is over and several of the terrorists have gone free, the... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Steven Spielberg DVD Release Date: Released the 09 May 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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If someone had told me that I would enjoy watching a documentary that was basically a very long interview conducted in German (a language I don't speak), I would have been skeptic. Alas, I would also have been wrong.
"Blind Spot" is an interview with an old woman, Traudl Junge, who a long time ago was one of Hitler's secretaries. Trauld worked with him from 1942 to1945, and was the person to whom Hitler dictated his will before committing suicide. She was part of his inner circle, and as such recounts to the directors of this film (André Heller and Othmar Schmiderer) many events that help the spectator to understand at least a little how Hitler was in private, and how he reacted in different circumstances.
It's hard to believe Ridley Scott's handsome epic won't become the cinematic touchstone of the Crusades for years to come. Kingdom of Heaven is greater than the sum of its parts, delivering a vital, mostly engrossing tale following Balian (Orlando Bloom), a lonely French blacksmith who discovers he's a noble heir and takes his father's (Liam Neeson) place in the center of the universe circa 1184: Jerusalem. Here, grand battles and backdoor politics are key as Scott and first-time screenwriter William Monahan fashion an excellent storyline to tackle the centuries-long conflict. Two forward-thinking kings, Baldwin (Edward Norton in an uncredited yet substantial role) and Saladin (Ghassan Massoud), hold an uneasy truce between Christians (who hold the city) and Muslims while factions... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Ridley Scott DVD Release Date: Released the 23 May 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The Constant Gardener is the kind of thriller that hasn't been seen since the 1970s: Smart, politically complex, cinematically adventurous, genuinely thrilling and even heartbreaking. Mild diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes, The English Patient, Schindler's List) has a loose cannon of a wife named Tessa (Rachel Weisz, The Shape of Things, The Mummy), who's digging into the dirty doings of a major pharmaceutical company in Kenya. Her brutal murder forces Justin to continue her investigation down some deadly avenues. This simple plot description doesn't capture the rich texture and slippery, sinuous movement of The Constant Gardener, superbly directed by Fernando Meirelles (Oscar-nominated for his first film, City of God). Shifting back... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Fernando Meirelles DVD Release Date: Released the 10 January 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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