Great Film overall

As Good As It Gets

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Unfortunately there are still many people around the world in denial that these atrocities ever took place. Today's youth don't even know much about WWII (if at all) and when asked who Hitler was, quite a number think that he is a current president of some country, but most just don't know.This movie is probably the best and most accurate portrayal of the last days in the bunker based on the book written by Hitler's secretary. Most other war films are fictional and dramatized and eye account documentaries on this subject become scarcer as time goes by.Important lessons are learnt from history, but without this acquired knowledge wars reoccur and many are raging around the world as we speak.

I never even heard of "Downfall" before, guess it played in very few American theaters. It was on Netflix a few months ago, I was wondering if I should even bother with it, looked up the trailer on YouTube, thought it was worth my while & sat down with a bowl of popcorn. I was blown away by this movie, everything about it was great, even though the people around Hitler weren't readily identified (such as in "The Longest Day," another great film), you could pick out Josef & Magda Goebbels, Henrich Himmler, Eva Braun. It's like you, the audience, is there in the bunker with Hitler, watching/listening to him rant & rave to his generals. I would have loved to have seen what life was really like during the last few weeks in Hitler's bunker, but "Downfall" probably comes closer than any other movie. Bruno Ganz should have at least been nominated for an Oscar. The Academy blew it, though (not unusual).This amazing movie didn't get the publicity it deserved when it released. I have never cared for western or war movie genres but there are some exceptions and "Downfall" is one of them. Other war movies I've enjoyed--just for the record--are "Das Boot" (another great German film), "Hacksaw Ridge," "Schlinder's List," "The Pianist," "Saving Private Ryan," "The Longest Day," "The Great Escape," "Valkyrie," "Conspiracy," and "Tora! Tora! Tora!" Haven't seen much beyond that (wait, does "The Final Countdown" count?)Anyway, check out Downfall!

I've seen this movie 3 times and every single time I'm left with a heart pounding with emotions. This is not a work of fiction; it's the biography of a young and innocent girl who gets hired to be one of Hitler's secretary.The entire movie is seen through her eyes and that's why you discover more intimate aspects of Hitler who is capable of infinite kindness towards the women surrounding him but can snap into a complete maniac in a matter of seconds with his soldiers. It's a psychological movie about human nature, power and a sense of unity which can carry people beyond total madness. The last minutes of the movie are the most intense because everyone is aware that they are about to die; they have lost the war yet nobody has the courage to tell Hitler the truth: he can't handle it!

Overall, the movie has good storytelling. The acting is solid and the whole war sequence is well- filmed. The only downside perhaps is that Hitler is represented in a more humane light than he likely deserves. It appears that the idea was to show him from the eyes of his followers, which the movie achieves but there is little coverage of his hateful ideology and quite a bit of romanticizing. As a viewer, I continued to be puzzled by his halo effect on those around him. Obviously his character continues to be a bit of a mystery in the sense that so many romanticized him and did not truly acknowledge the extent of terror that his regime inflicted- some even to this day. It does appear that people will continue to look for false messiahs- and he must have been the proverbial "wolf in sheep's clothing" to his followers and much worse to everyone else.