#THE LAST DAYS OF THE THIRD AGE SECRETS MOVIE#

The film ends with video footage of the real Traudl Junge talking about her feelings towards the war and he involvement with the Nazis. Downfall is an amazing and powerful film, documenting an unseen side of a major historical event.

It also shows their fanatical devotion and blind faith in their goal, led to their downfall, both as a movement and as human beings. It shows how they did not believe what they were doing was wrong, in their minds they were paving the way for their glorious future. It shows how real people, people who tell jokes, drink, socialise, listen to songs and dance, also followed national socialism with a devotion that drove them to do the terrible things they did. Ultimately, Downfall shows the human and personal element of the end of the war for Hitler and the Nazis.

The film shows these often horrifying moments and realisations in all to realistic detail. Some are not so sure and see the cracks in the beliefs they were fighting for. Some accept that their leader has lost his grip, but follow with blind devotion anyway. Some have blind and fanatical faith that Hitler will act as their saviour and devise a scheme to turn the battle around. The film also shows Hitler's closest officers and staff, it shows how they react to the downfall. He had lost the war, he had lost the respect of several of his commanding officers and he had lost his grip on reality. This film raises the question, was Hitler an evil man who practised evil deeds through his beliefs? or were his evil deeds a result of his absolute pursuit of his beliefs? Watching Ganz's performance, you get the feeling all Hitler had left before he took his life, was his ideals (not that this is anything to be proud of). It shows a man willing to send young children into the street to resist enemy advancement, it shows a man who believes that the civilian population would not be evacuated, as it was their chance to rise up (women and children, the old and sick, un armed) and prove they deserved victory. A man who was kind, considerate and caring to children, his dog and his civilian staff, but who also attempted to wipe out an entire race of people and was proud of himself for doing it. He plays the roles as an ageing leader, loosing grip on his health, his sanity and his conquest. He resists the temptation to play Hitler as an uber-evil super-villain, disregarding all life who opposes him and wiping out humans at a whim. He plays the role as, what I feel, accurately and realistically as possible. Bruno Ganz, does a magnificent job of playing one of history's most notorious and documented individuals. The people who followed Hitler may have no entirely agreed with everything he said, may have not hung on his every word, but believed that he would lead them to a greater future, as such they followed. What we get throughout this film is a more realistic viewpoint of people's attitudes. All to often in films concerning Nazi's, they are portrayed as evil personified, killing for killing's sake, being evil for the sake of being evil.

This gives us a brief insight into the belief of his followers that what they were doing would lead them to a golden utopia, a better world. This key scene at the beginning of the film shows how people reacted to their leader with fanatical loyalty, holding him high in reverence. I had to think to myself, do I really want to attach a human element to people who history has painted as monsters? The film begins with Hitler recruiting Traudl Junge as a new secretary in 1942, from this point onwards the film is predominantly (but not entirely) seen through her eyes. I was concerned that the film may be an attempt to show the human side of the Nazi party, to make us sympathetic not to their cause, but to their human nature. Before watching this film, I had reservations over how much I would enjoy it and what I might gain from it.

#THE LAST DAYS OF THE THIRD AGE SECRETS MOVIE#

Now here is a novel idea, making a movie from the 'enemy's' point of view, attaching a human face to probably the most notorious institute of evil in human history.

The last days of the third age secrets