A really vivid and detailed film about the final days of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, that is crumbling as the Russians close in on Berlin in 1945.
Told through the eyes of his young secretary Traudl Junge. Hitler is stoic, defeated, yet defiant with many rants and rages at the failure of his military machine to protect Berlin. Hitler sometimes sees a brighter future, talking of rebuilding the air force, or of some general mobilising his forces to save Berlin. Of course those around him and in the high command knew the game was up, but no one could quite come to tell Hitler this fact (he too must have known).
Determined to stay in Berlin, noble in itself - but cowardly hiding behind the German people insisting they should die too because they should have been stronger.
What I found difficult to reconcile was the unshakeable belief of the Germans in the leader or the absolute surprise after the war of some of the tyranny. It has to be that the crimes were known or suspected, but what can a single individual do in such a regime? The population by and large let it happen, and this allowed the regime to thrive.
Traudl Junge herself is interviewed at the end, and does say her youth was not an excuse, and she was not a willing Nazi.
A well shot film, leaves the thought in your mind of how you would react if your country became ruled by such a powerful and evil movement.
9/10
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