Downfall (German title: der Untergang) is a German film released in 2004 and directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. The film is based on the books of German historian, Joachim Fest, the memoir of Hitler's secretaries, Traudl Junge and Melissa Müller and memoirs of other Nazi officials including Albert Speer, Ernst-Günther Schenck and Siegfried Knappe. The production of this film, featuring the most well-known film stars in German-speaking countries, cost 13.5 million Euro and has one of the highest budgets of German film production. In return, it receives 92 million USD worldwide box office, 96% of which comes from abroad. The producer of the film claims that Downfall is completely “authentic”.The fact that the film is based upon the books of a famous historian who is credited for numerous pieces of work on Nazi German history and the memoir of Hitler's secretaries adds an authentic flair to the film. Using video clips from the interview with one of Hitler's secretaries also supports the producer's claim of authenticity. The producer also claims that the film reconstructs the events and Hitler's last days in the bunker authentically and emotionlessly. However, many of the scenes and the way in which film elements are applied in the film suggest otherwise . In this essay, three scenes are selected and analyzed to demonstrate how the film addresses the audience emotionally and guides the viewer's response to the historical events narrated in the film.This essay also discusses the functions and effects of emotions delivered by this film to illustrate its view of Hitler and Nazi Germany. The cast and budget of the film demonstrate the financial ambition of the production company. Getting the audience emotionally involved in the film is a vital element of an entertaining film. The film conspires to evoke admiration, sympathy and grief towards different characters in the film. The emotional engagement with the audience is achieved through scene arrangement, dialogue, music, costume and other tactics. What is the danger of addressing the audience emotionally about the character of Adolf Hitler, who is responsible for millions of lives lost in the Second World War,and other Third Reich officials? The film shows mainly the last days of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich and also the suffering and sorrow of non-Jewish Germans, including children, senior citizens, wounded and citizens who refused to follow Hitler's order in his final days. Through the story of Hitler's secretaries, Hitler is recreated on the silver screen as a human, who is capable of feeling. In this film, he is portrayed as a visionary, a proud dog trainer and a kind and respectable father figure. The first example of the scenes that emotionally engage the audience is the scene in which Hitler's secretaries decide to stay with Hitler till the last moment of their life after Hitler realizes that the war is completely lost. Hitler, like others, is able to have good personal relationships with others,this is most clearly shown outside of the room, where the most well-known scene of the film takes place, in which Hitler furiously rants about the incapability of his generals. Inside the room, Bruno Ganz's portrayal of the hysterically paranoid moment of Hitler almost reaches the acme of perfection. Outside that room, the reaction of the secretaries and his lover, Eva Braun, reflects that Hitler is loved and respected, two words that are not at all associated with him. That scene creates an emotional moment for the characters in the film, and the emotion is delivered to the audience through the performance of the actors/actresses. Hitler's portrayal as a human is one of the reasons why Downfall received criticisms. Christine Haase in her article Ready for his close-up? Representing Hitler in Der Untergang quoted Golo Mann's notion on this film:"It is indecent to write the biography of a mass murderer. How he spent his evenings, which music he liked, whether he preferred Bordeaux to Champagne, all that is of no interest, all that doesn't belong here." The second example that demonstrates the film address the audience emotionally is the scene in which Dr. Schenck risks his life and runs into a hospital in the Soviet zone to get medical supplies for wounded German soldiers. In the hospital, he encounters a pile of corpses and abandoned elderly citizens. In this scene, Schenck is not in this SS uniform, but a military long coat without any badges. The only thing on that coat is the Red Cross armband, which is internationally recognized as a symbol of protection and neutrality. Schenck appears many times throughout the film.He is portrayed as a doctor who is doing his best to save innocent German civilians and wounded soldiers, even though the Führer has given order to sacrifice the German people as they “have failed the test”. Dr. Schenck and General Wilhelm Mohnke are the hero figures in the film, who are used to evoke admiration and sympathy in the film. This feeling of admiration and sympathy can easily extend and be applied to other Nazi officials in the film, who appear sane and reasonable, including Himmler. The film claims that humanity existed in Hitler in spite of his inhumane atrocities that he committed. The portrayals of a number of Hitler's officials guide the audience to the very opposite of the figure of war criminals. As the Soviet Red Army marches west toward Berlin, Hitler carries out the Clausewitz Plan in which made Berlin a frontline city.Many civilians are recruited to fight against the Red Army. Those who attempt to flee the city are seen as deserters. Some civilians are killed by Soviet artilleries and some are executed as deserters. The director of the film made an extensive effort in showing the suffering of the German people. Moreover, not unlike most films, children in Downfall are used as a universal symbol of purity and innocence. The sacrifice of children in the film evokes sympathy and grief in the audience. The suffering of the children is shown in many scenes in the film, for example, the experience of Peter, the children who fight by the side of him on the street of Berlin and the murder of the Goebbels children by their own mother. While the people in Berlin suffer from the war,a group of “heroes” stands out against the order of Adolf Hitler who has decided to sacrifice the citizens for the collapse of the Reich. This group of “heroes” includes, Ernst-Günther Schenck and Wilhelm Mohnke. Who are these two “heroes ”In SS uniforms? Schenck was an SS colonel and a doctor. He was involved in the creation of a plantation in the Dachau concentration camp. In 1943, he developed a protein sausage for German soldiers at the frontlines. Before adoption, the sausage was tested on the prisoners. The test resulted in the death of hundreds of prisoners. Schenck was not tried for his crime. General Wilhelm Mohnke participated in the Polish Campaign, which marks the beginning of WWII. He also took part in the Battle of France in 1940. Mohnke was accused of the murder of 80 British POWs. Like Schenck. Mohnke was not tried for his crime,nor is his crime mentioned in the film. The fact that Schenck and Mohnke were not tried for any crime presents the possibility that even though they wear SS uniform, they are men of integrity who were simply doing their job in wartime and tirelessly try to save innocent people from the terror of war which the Red Army cast upon them, thus not only are the crimes that Schenck and Mohnke commit swept under the rug, but also their integrity is immortalized in the film. Although Junge is close to Hitler, Her conversation with Eva Braun towards the end of the Third Reich indicates that she realizes Hitler's decision to sacrifice German people is “horrible”, which is a colossal understatement. At the end of the film, after Hitler commits suicide and the Third Reich surrenders to the Soviet Union and Alliance.Junge escapes Berlin with boy who fought the Red Army on Berlin streets, Perter. Women and children are not accused and blamed for the atrocity that the Nazi regime committed all over Europe. On the way out of the city, they have to walk past the Soviet soldiers who are demonized and blamed for the suffering of innocent German civilians in the film. Although the Soviet soldiers seldom come into sight, the violence and terror they project on German civilians are present throughout the film. After Junge and Peter successfully get out of the city, they sit side by side on a ruin. Then Peter finds an abandoned bicycle from the river. At the same time, the film shows a close-up of Junge's face with a pleasant smile. With the bike Peter pulls out from the river, Junge and Peter ride off from the city and that marks the end of the film.This scene leads the audience to the feeling of restoration of hope after the end of the Third Reich. The background switches from the shamble in the ruin of Berlin to a road in the German countryside which symbolizes the escape from the terror of war, the end of the Nazi regime and the beginning of a new era. Hitler is at the centre of the story, surrounded by other characters including his secretaries, other Nazi officials and German civilians. Alongside Hitler's personality, his insanity and paranoia are illustrated splendidly by Bruno Ganz . In the film, Hitler and his insanity causes the death of people in the country he leads. He is the source of all the tragedies, including the death of civilians and the perishing of children, and the Red army is the other contributor in the film.Downfall clearly demonstrates a completely different view of WWII history than the Nasty Girls, which raises the question of only the Nazi officials were guilty of the death of millions of Jews. Downfall fails to show the suffering of millions of people who died on the battlefield, Instead, it focuses on the suffering of people in Germany and portrays the Red Army and Hitler alone as the source of tragedy in Germany. It also consciously glamorizes so Nazi officials in their actions of saving the innocents in Germany, although they did commit horrendous crimes against Jews and POWs. Even though the producer of Downfall claims authenticity, the film engages the audience emotionally. Instead of looking into the concrete facts that Nazi Germany was responsible for millions of death,the film only adumbrates and simplifies the painful atrocity in history. Under the claim of authenticity, the fixation on one part of the history, particularly the details of Hitler's personality and psychological journey towards the end of the war, is the reason why this film is criticized from a historical perspective. Reference Hasse, C. (2006),'Ready for his close-up? Representing Hitler in Der Untergang (Downfall, 2004)', Studies in European Cinema 3: 3, pp. 189–199, doi : 10.1386/seci.3.3.189/1'Ready for his close-up? Representing Hitler in Der Untergang (Downfall, 2004)', Studies in European Cinema 3: 3, pp. 189–199, doi: 10.1386/seci.3.3.189/1'Ready for his close-up? Representing Hitler in Der Untergang (Downfall, 2004)', Studies in European Cinema 3: 3, pp. 189–199, doi: 10.1386/seci.3.3.189/1
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