"Downfall"
Having just spent the last 2.5 hours of my life essentially immersed in the Nazi headquarters during the final days of WWII; witnessing aspects of human behavior (so powerfully displayed by Bruno Ganz's disturbingly virtuoso performance) and societal consequence that it makes it difficult for me to look at another human being without pure sadness permeating through my very core... all that I can really say, in my extremely drained emotional state, is this:
"WORST. WESTERN. EVER."
"WORST. WESTERN. EVER."
posted by Jienan @ 4:54 AM
3 Comments:
At 8:29 AM,
chris said…
wasn't there a big controversy about this film in germany (not surprisingly)? i think that wim wenders essentially criticized the film for, in some ways, subtley glorifying hitler. although i only read a summary of his remarks, it did seem like there was something to it. not a good date flick.
At 2:12 AM,
Jienan said…
well, all of the knee-jerk reactions to the movie, i think, all stem from any 'humanistic/realistic' depictions of Hitler as anything less than a monster/svengali/rasputin/Gargamel-esque character.
the way i viewed it was as a really really, almost verite (but without verite-type cinematic language) historical portrait of:
1) what hitler was really like, outside of newsreel footage
2) how non-politicos could be attracted to him as a person
3) how the nazis weren't just the result of hitler alone but the complacency of the german people
4) how it takes more than one nazi with a funny haircut and whacky moustache to be the biggest psychotic assholes of the last few centuries (i mean, if your leader was telling you to burn the country down, would you still do it, ya dumb fuck?)
5) bruno ganz is no lee van cleef and jack boots are a terrible substitute for a 10-gallon hat and double-holsters.
but one thing that annoys me about wenders is that dude, why don't YOU try and make something about that era and stop making lame-o cultural tourist documentaries and dreck like 'the end of violence' and 'million dollar hotel'?
though, he always is pretty reliable for a good soundtrack comp...
At 5:37 PM,
chris said…
well, i agree there's a real lack of interesting material about that era in Germany. werner herzog is probably my fav. german director (shocker) and is total pants when it comes to anything vaguely political. i like some of wenders's stuff, but i guess i don't really "get it" especially when it comes to the commentary aspect... i mostly got into it for the nick cave songs, to be honest.
what you mention about the portrayal of hitler as a human is one of the good things about the movie. i think that wenders argument is more about the more technical elements of the film. one good example is the hitler suicide scene, even though the complaint may seem obscure at first.
rather than showing hitler shoot himself, it cuts away to (if memory serves) the shot resounding through the bunker and various characters reacting to it. it does seem pretty unforgivable to me, to mystify him at the very last, almost as if it were trying to salvage some kind of dignity for him. he committed suicide rather than face judgment for what he did, and it should have been shown... it's not like there weren't many comparable scenes of violence in the film.
anyway, i'd argue that the film actually turns away from hitler-as-a-person in some key situations (like that one.)
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