The story concept for Downfall is fantastic, and I understand completely why such a project would have been green-lighted. Downfall is largely a film version of last year’s Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary. The documentary was of a woman named Traudl Junge, who worked as a secretary for Hitler. It’s an interesting story, with a fascinating depiction of Hitler as a man who is very warm and kind when he’s not giving orders.

Downfall brings Tradle’s story to the screen very much as she told it, while adding many other things, known historically, in order to create a full picture of those final days. Hitler (Bruno Ganz) believes his empire is going to change the world when, suddenly, he learns that his officers haven’t been fully honest with him, and the Russians are about to overtake them. It’s all very interesting…as history.

There is no story here. We get peeks into the lives of over a dozen characters, each who must face the end of the Reich in his own way. Some kill themselves, some fight till the end, one particularly disturbing scene shows a Nazi woman poisoning each of her own children and then taking her own life. It’s amazing how many of Nazi leaders killed themselves when they knew the end was near. I wonder what that says about how they perceived themselves and their ideals. I mean, I don’t think Washington would have killed himself if he were caught.

Unfortunately, Downfall doesn’t really offer anything of interest beyond the history. The one major place it could have done something interesting was with the character of Hitler. Traudle description of him in Blind Spot was fascinating, and I remember think they should make a movie of the guy. But this isn’t that movie. Downfall fails to make Hitler the interesting, complex character that Tradle described.

Rather, Downfall’s Hitler is highly stereotypical. It’s almost as if the filmmakers thought it would be offensive if they were to portray Hitler too humanly. The Hitler of Downfall is an animal. Reminiscent, in many scenes, of Orson Welles near the end of Citizen Kane, Hitler is rarely doing anything but going on tirades, insisting that everyone tell him what he wants to hear. Of course, we only see the final days. So it’s possible that the filmmakers are suggesting that this is not his normal behavior, that he is simply going mad as he is realizing the great project for his new world has failed. Even still, watching him constantly acting like a monster just isn’t that interesting.

Downfall just misses too many opportunities. If it had been more interested in exploring fewer of the characters in greater depth and allowing Hitler to be human, it could have been really good.

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