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DOWNFALL 5 stars *****


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One of the best WW2 movies that I have seen in a long time

 

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I would put it in my top 10 for sure.

 

Excellent casting.

 

It really showed the insanity of the last days.

 

The actor that portrayed Hitler was awesome

 

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Blockbuster only carries 1 copy of it and it is a German movie with English subtitles, but it was no problem reading and viewing

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It's where all those funny Hitler parody videos are made from. I've wanted to see it since i first saw those, the acting looks pretty solid. Will have to get myself a copy. Ebay is your best bet

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I have to agree, this movie was actually much better than I expected and I really enjoyed watching it. You don't see if for sale often, but Amazon.com has it for $9.99, and you can't go wrong for that price.

 

Vance

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Top-rated movie for sure. I use certain parts of this movie in my History II class most of my students end up renting it and have the same conclusion. :thumbsup:

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  • 4 weeks later...

I love this movie because it is arousing to see various of TR uniforms! :lol:

 

Funny enough, I don't even collect TR stuff even though I love them.

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  • 1 year later...
who wouldnt enjoy a bunch of nazis killing themselves

I read this and just had to log in and say, that you have made one of the funniest comments I have ever read in the forum!

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Thanks for the interesting discussion.

 

My big issue with the film Downfall, is the outright changing of the facts as to the outcome of many of the main characters in the film--including Junge.

 

The first time I saw the film, I was entranced, but then the part where Junge and the young boy manage to walk through the Red Army soldiers unscathed and then literally ride off into the German sunset seemed a bit odd, given what we know was the fate of over a million German women in 1945.

 

The reality was wholly different from the fictionalized ending as portrayed in the film. Together with others in the bunker, Gerda Christian, Traudl Junge, Else Krüger and Constanze Manziarly left the bunker on May 1st led by SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke. This group slowly made its way north hoping to link up with Heer holdouts on the Prinzenallee. Hiding in a cellar, they were captured by the Soviets on the morning of May 2nd.

 

Like thousands of other German women during the fall of Berlin, Gerda Christian was repeatedly raped by soldiers of the Red Army in the woods near Berlin. And despite the film stating that Manziarly vanished in 1945, Junge recounts Manziarly being taken into an U-Bahn tunnel by two Soviet soldiers, reassuring the group that "They are just going to see my papers."

 

And while Junge does not mention it in her autobiography, she herself suffered a fractured jaw when she was raped repeatedly by Soviet soldiers and kept as a "personal prisoner" of a Soviet officer well into 1946.

 

I find it fascinating that the filmakers had no issue with depicting some of the brutality of the fall of Berlin, but then made a conscious effort to conceal other major facts

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  • 2 weeks later...

The only reason I can think of for not including the reality of the violent raping by the Soviets is maybe because, this being a European movie, they did not want to anger the Russians by portraying that. Otherwise, it was very well done.

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X_redcatcher

when it comes to WW2 the germans from today are not thrilled about it. I have lived in Germany since 1987, and I have been surpried on just what is not said about the war. This does not surprise me that one thing happened and it was filmed a differnt way, kind of like a happy ending.

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Thanks for the interesting discussion.

 

My big issue with the film Downfall, is the outright changing of the facts as to the outcome of many of the main characters in the film--including Junge.

 

The first time I saw the film, I was entranced, but then the part where Junge and the young boy manage to walk through the Red Army soldiers unscathed and then literally ride off into the German sunset seemed a bit odd, given what we know was the fate of over a million German women in 1945.

 

The reality was wholly different from the fictionalized ending as portrayed in the film. Together with others in the bunker, Gerda Christian, Traudl Junge, Else Krüger and Constanze Manziarly left the bunker on May 1st led by SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke. This group slowly made its way north hoping to link up with Heer holdouts on the Prinzenallee. Hiding in a cellar, they were captured by the Soviets on the morning of May 2nd.

 

Like thousands of other German women during the fall of Berlin, Gerda Christian was repeatedly raped by soldiers of the Red Army in the woods near Berlin. And despite the film stating that Manziarly vanished in 1945, Junge recounts Manziarly being taken into an U-Bahn tunnel by two Soviet soldiers, reassuring the group that "They are just going to see my papers."

 

And while Junge does not mention it in her autobiography, she herself suffered a fractured jaw when she was raped repeatedly by Soviet soldiers and kept as a "personal prisoner" of a Soviet officer well into 1946.

 

I find it fascinating that the filmakers had no issue with depicting some of the brutality of the fall of Berlin, but then made a conscious effort to conceal other major facts

 

 

I have to agree with the above post,,,but we do have to be at least a little PC nowadays,,,It was a brilliant film nonetheless,,I like it best when Hitler finds out

Himmler betrayed him!

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Ive never seen the whole movie but i do love the "Hitler finds out..." spoofs that were going around awhile ago, laughed so hard at all of them!!!!!...good stuff!.....mike :lol:

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  • 1 month later...
The only reason I can think of for not including the reality of the violent raping by the Soviets is maybe because, this being a European movie, they did not want to anger the Russians by portraying that. Otherwise, it was very well done.

 

I think the reason for not showing the raping by russian soldiers, is an commercial one. Films with these cruel scenes dont work for the studios. We Germans got many "history lessons" via television and cinema. Until the early 90´s the WWII was a no go era. Now there are many movies, documentations and books about this topic.

If you want to see a rougher movie, you have to see this. Its hard stuff.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6Ill1r1TvA

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I think the reason for not showing the raping by russian soldiers, is an commercial one. Films with these cruel scenes dont work for the studios. We Germans got many "history lessons" via television and cinema. Until the early 90´s the WWII was a no go era. Now there are many movies, documentations and books about this topic.

If you want to see a rougher movie, you have to see this. Its hard stuff.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6Ill1r1TvA

 

A very interesting movie trailer. When I was stationed in Berlin in the 1980s we had a female civilian employee who talked about this time. Whenever she heard "Frau komm" she said she had a mix of panic, terror and deep shame for not being about to fend off her attackers. I imagine it was even worse in the Soviet Occupation Zone where even years later women couldn't talk about being raped because the Russians were considered liberators and class brothers by the East German government.

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I think the reason for not showing the raping by russian soldiers, is an commercial one. Films with these cruel scenes dont work for the studios. We Germans got many "history lessons" via television and cinema. Until the early 90´s the WWII was a no go era. Now there are many movies, documentations and books about this topic.

If you want to see a rougher movie, you have to see this. Its hard stuff.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6Ill1r1TvA

 

That does look rough. As reflective of the period as it might be, I'm not sure I could sit through it.

 

I remember reading Leon Uris' "Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin" when I was a teenager. It gave me a completely different perspective on WWII then I'd been taught in school. Until then I had never really considered the consequences of the war for the Germans.

 

When I was stationed in Germany during the early 1980's, I remember seeing imported US movies on WWII showing in the theaters, but nothing being made locally.

 

Getting back to Downfall, I found that tough to watch as well, especially knowing how it would end.

 

One interesting thing about the film was the interviews with the actors. Every one that I watched, they all described struggling with portraying their characters. I am sure their sentiments were quite genuine.

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A very interesting movie trailer. When I was stationed in Berlin in the 1980s we had a female civilian employee who talked about this time. Whenever she heard "Frau komm" she said she had a mix of panic, terror and deep shame for not being about to fend off her attackers. I imagine it was even worse in the Soviet Occupation Zone where even years later women couldn't talk about being raped because the Russians were considered liberators and class brothers by the East German government.

 

Thats the way russians behave, it really had nothing more to do with other the savage nature of these people. In WWII in yugoslavia they pulled the same thing, this being a occupied land AND I don't mean Croatia which was a German ally (It got the extra special treatment from both the Russians AND Tito's Army), Indeed it happened everywhere they went, Rumania, Hungary, friend or foe. HISTORY___ In the Napoleonic War right before the Battle Of Austerlitz in December 1805 a Russian Army under the command of the Czar himself entered Hapsburg lands to bolster the Austrians in checking Bonaparte's victorious drive east since his victory at Ulm earlier in October. The moment the Russians entered Habsburg territory they started behaving BADLY, you know the usual stuff Stealing, indiscriminate murder AND Molestation and Rape, this done to the subjects of a allied nation. The Austrians are like KFC over !, and the kaiser himself (who was also in the field) had to go directly to the Czar and say what the hell is going on here, stop it !, your killing people and raping my women folk !, for the love of god stop it !, the Czar ( who was really of German descent ) intialy didn't seem to think it was a big deal, HUH ? thats right. The whole thing basicaly came to an end when the french arrived, and the russians now concentrated on real soldiering ( they and the Austrians where defeated any way ). This story is just one of many throughtout history.

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I thought the film was pretty good, I really liked the part when Adolph "loses it" towards the end, excellent acting by Bruno Ganz, had a boss who was kind of like that.
My wife's aunt & uncle live in Berlin, they took us to the Soviet Unknown Soldier Memorial in the Tiergarten, which is also known as "The Tomb of the Unknown Rapist"

EDIT: Picture is lost

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As if the Germans were little angels on the Eastern Front .... NOT!

You keep going on and on about the raping of German women by Soviet Forces but tend to forget what horrors the German armies brought in Eastern Europe and Russia.

History has two sides, remember.

 

Besides ... I thought this was a discussion about "Der Untergang"????

 

Erwin

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Since I saw it the first time (most of which in slaw-jawed amazement at this really powerful film), I’ve been thinking of buying a copy of it. The part that really wrung me out was the fate of the Goebbels children. The scene where Helga struggles as she full knows what was about to happen to her and fighting all the adults who were calmly going to kill her, that part makes my blood run cold at the thought of it.

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