(viewed on 8/1/11)

I capped off my first WWII series (there are enough movies on my list to do another) with Downfall.  Most people know this film from the multiple Hitler-freak-out parodies that have been made over the years.  I really enjoyed the Carmageddon one. 

It wasn’t until my cousin Erica suggested Downfall to me this summer that I even thought about apart from the parodies.  It’s a rare thing to find Hitler portrayed in a film, let alone the subject of it.  The actor who plays Hitler is fantastic.  Can you imagine taking that role?  What’s worse: your first big tv role is a naked prostitute on Game of Thrones, or you get the role of Hitler that will be parodied thousands of times?  Either way, it’s not a fun call to your friends and family. 

The story of Hitler’s last days in his bunker is told mainly through the eyes of his secretary, Traudl Junge, a woman in her mid-20s.  I have a real problem with this lady.  She claims that she always thought she was just too young to realize what was going on and what Hitler was doing, until she saw Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, and realized that she WASN’T too young and she should have never been Hitler’s secretary or should have questioned his work a bit.  I tried so hard to put myself in this person’s shoes, but I can’t seem to understand.  Maybe you need a concrete system of denial to get through life after being Hitler’s secretary, otherwise you’d probably die of guilt.  She was 25, not 12!!  Ugh.

At least the film was made.   It’s a terrifying display of what people are capable of when they BELIEVE.