The late Marcel Reich-Ranicki, himself a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto as a little boy, who had become one of Germany's most prominent literature critics, dismissed the criticism of the movie that you shouldn't portray Hitler as a human being "As what, then, should he be portrayed? An elephant?".
It´s especially the Survivors who are in Favour of a Humanzig Approach. I don´t know anymore who exactly said it but the Quote goes like: Those SS Guards were just ordinary Humans. It was the Mailman, the Milkman, the Farmer who killed and tortured. They were given a Uniform, a Cap with a Skull on it and that made them the Masterrace.
That’s part of what made this movie so special to me. They made hitler human and understandable, but you don’t sympathize with him. It’s often hard to do that, especially in villains.
Like many have said, Hitler has to be this murderous psychopath in peoples eyes because if we lead with the narrative that he was just a regular human being who went down a dark path than we can’t be removed from it. If there’s one thing people hate the most it’s having to look in the mirror and realize they’re not a good as they think they are, and how easily capable one is to give unto evil.
@@lufsolitaire5351 well said. It's naive for one to think that he/she is not capable of evil. Another thing that is not commonly realized is how people can think they are doing good when they are actually doing bad things, or how people just compromise their morals and brush their sins and crimes under the carpet, as if those things don't matter. We are those people. All of us. For you to claim that you are not one of those people would be arrogant and naive. Same goes for me and anybody else. We the common people think we are better than the riff raff criminals, because we are supposedly more ethical, but we are more often than likely guilty of crimes that are similar in the nature of the intent. We all feel hate, envy, bitterness, greed, lust and violent anger, and think and act in unethical ways because of them.
My highschool social studies teacher used to ask the class "What was the scariest thing about Hitler" and near the end of the semester he said "You wanna know the answer to that question? The scariest thing about Hitler was that he was only human"
@@Edax_Royeaux It’s a different kind of thing though. It’s not as shocking for something that was made to kill people to kill people. But to know that someone who is the same species of you is capable of such catastrophe and that anyone even you can be capable of one day being able to so this stuff is what makes it scarier.
@@Fulllife3.2 The only way for this to be shocking is to be totally ignorant of history. That one in 200 men today are descended from Genghis Khan isn't because he was such a nice guy. Jesus wasn't brutally nailed to a cross because he wanted acupuncture.
@@Edax_Royeaux It's easy for people growing up to dissociate from history as being full of stupid people thinking they themsleves would never believe or act with such blind faith because they are such an educated and modern person.
Downfall is a perfect movie depicting how evil a human being can become whilst also showing that they are still just humans who have friends, hobbies, and favorites. That's what people don't get about this movie, Hitler didn't shoot lasers from his eyes, or have magical superhuman powers or reptilian skin, he was a human being not a fairytale.
@@edgarkrattiger9185 Yes because demons infesting humans is so much more believable then humans simply being able to be evil and cruel just like every other animal
sadly that happens all the time to criminals, especially in america. that mentality of "people who do terrible crimes are monsters who deserve to die, they're nothing like us" is *one* of the many reasons why the rate of recidivism is so high in countries that are "tough on crime". In comparison, in the nordic countries where they focus more on rehabilitation, its less about good and evil and more about what turns people into killers or rapists, how we can prevent it in the future and how we aren't inherently better than criminals. usually...we're just luckier, when you really look at their lives in detail.
The most arrogant thing we do is call those who commit atrocious acts “monsters” and not “humans” as if we’re a seperate, less horrible species that couldn’t possibly do what they do.
I fully agree. I am Austrian, so we talked a lot about Hitler in school. I can still remember a classmate of mine saying that if he grew up back then he wouldn't have been a nazi, that it was impossible. Just looking at the stats, most of us probably would have celebrated nazi ideology if we were born in Germany at that time, and that is a horrifying, but important fact to remember.
The error we make is thinking that it takes a Hitler to do all these atrocities while in reality he is the product of the society of that time and most of us wouldn't hesitate to bring him to power and unleash him on our enemies.
I always appreciated how the circle of his control of even the bunker shrunk to almost nothing as the days went by. At the beginning, everyone had to go outside to have a smoke because Hitler hated smoking so much. And by the last day or so everybody is smoking and carousing not too far from where Hitler was. It was like Hitler had become irrelevant because everyone knew he was going to check out and they had to figure out their own fates.
Various "ministers" had "more pressing matters" outside the DOOMED Berlin. Or were trying, as the deluded Himmler hoped, to make a last-minute deal with the Allies, in hopes of having some role in post-war Germany. Whoever already didn't have their escape to South America planned had either a quick suicide by cyanide capsule or the "last bullet", or, if captured by the Americans or British, a war crimes trial and the "long drop" with a "short rope", or, if by the SOVIETS...to slowly rot in the Lubyanka, where they'd PLEAD for Beria to kill them.
@@ThxGod_ItsOver internet conspiracy weirdo detected. Seriously, take easy, enjoy life, go out.. live life instead of just waiting for the apocalypse..
When Downfall was released in Germany there was a huge debate whether Hitler should be shown as an ordinary human or being kept shown as the unbelievable monster from outer world with magical powers he was depicted as for decades. I still remember this time well and what a german satirist said regarding that discussion: "Well what else could he be depicted than a human being? He doesn't look like a carp to me, the ol' chap." Portraying him as a human being eventually helped realizing that such times in fact can be repeated and that you have to be on constant watch.
Still dumb that the debate even had to happen... meanwhile Stalin and Mao killed far more people and created far more misery and there's people that idolise one or both of them and it's considered fine
Dont forget that such times can also be repeated by the people who keep watch aswell. So who will watch the watchers so they dont do what who they watch dont do what the watchers dont want the watchers to do?
He was a monster, cuddling with kids for Eva Braun camera while in the same time other kids were entering the gas chambers. This goes beyond any human for me. He was a human being but also a very sick psychopath. But most importantly his lunacy could go forward only bc of propaganda machine, Goebbels so nicely appropriated from American father of PR Edward Bernays. Just like Trump and the clique behind him these days, AH and nazi clique behind him could mumble WHATEVER with all capital letters, and it was taken as the truth, bc billboards and all media in Germany didn’t bring anything else, which is now equivalent of online disinfo and conspiracies. Conscious German opposition was eliminated and then all BELIEVED the nonsense of Aryan mythology, which originated in occult Thule Society, also nonsensically enhanced by hijacked ancient symbol of swastika. The biggest evil of AH can be only the tool of almighty propaganda. Without it he wouldn’t be able to proceed, the same as Trump, and others, today. To find, how we can get rid of propaganda for good, would be the end of whatever dictatorships. The question is though, why it’s not possible.
Undoubtedly one of the best WW2 based movies of all time. Bruno Ganz's most remarkable performance, and definitely the best portrayal of Hitler ever. Brilliant.
Maybe one of top 100 best WW2 movies. Secondly a movie where Germany profits from WW2. That's not good as this movie made money for German studies and they still haven't paid WW2 reparations.
My thoughts exactly. This is one of the most powerful films ever made. The most terrifying thing about this movie is that Hitler is was all too human, and that as much as we may deny it, History does have a nasty habit of repeating itself. As for Bruno Ganz, not even nominating him for an Oscar shows how shallow Hollywood really is.
@CBI : Comment Bureau of Internet I think many people in the west have this weird unhealthy obsession with Hitler, compared to other dictators ( Mao, Stalin, Leopold ii, Tojo, Enver Pasha, Pol Pot, Kim il Sung, Mengistu Haile, Yakubu Gowon) he was nothing special.
Academy awards aren't always the best way to tell how good a film is. There was one time Elizabeth Taylor got the Academy Award for Butterfield 8; one gossip columnist claimed she got it for being sick, and Taylor agreed with her. A good film is tested by its impact and how it is looked at over time. In many respects the movie "Night of the Living Dead" which was seen as grotesque low budget horror, ended up becoming not just a cult favorite but also a culturally significant film. It has more impact than most Academy Award winning movies.
@@TheUstasha101 That’s because of constant bombardment from media and so on. I mean it’s not bad people are concentrated on it but it really diminishes the actions of other psychopaths.
Let's not forget that the man who played him in the movie. Bruno Ganz, pulled off an insanely brilliant performance. He is carrying the movie on his shoulders. Cheers!
Yes his performance was superhuman, but I thought all of the actors were superb, right down to the smallest parts. An amazing film, which I could ony watch for 10-15 min at a time, it was so dark and intense. I skipped over whole scenes because they were just too powerful. Only 2 other films come even remotely close: Das Boot and Conspiracy.
There no such thing as evil & good. That is given to us by the church; a really simplistic idea of the earth with binary method of judgement. Humans reflect the culture they are brought up in & live in. One could say that we are all evil. We are destroying the planet, bio-diversity, & consume everything without a care. That is because we live in a very careless money orientated society. That is our sick culture. Are we all evil? No.
@@calderarecords Of course there’s such thing as good and evil. But there’s also a lot of mixture and grey areas. If u don’t think throwing men, women and children in ovens is not evil, ur a lost soul. Humans by nature r evil, but by having a moral code, u can fight your human evil.
@@xmanc5687 According to behavioral studies, that is a projection of our own values. I know this will result in cognitive dissonance so be prepared. But take beauty for example.. some cultures think stretching the neck, the tongue, etc is beauty. Others paint their teeth black. Insert silicone into their genitals etc. There is no such thing as beauty. Good, Bad, etc. Humans reflect their culture. And like to think of their culture as the "correct one". We have a lot to learn.
Wish I could see the responses. Anyway, the film's director said it best in 2015: "Bad people do not walk around with claws like vicious monsters, even though it might be comforting to think so. Everyone intelligent knows that evil comes along with a smiling face."
@@pyromania1018 I Retort: *"There are no bad people. There are people with insufficient information to make appropriate decisions"* ~ Jacque Fresco Look him up, because he has a scientific plan to get us out of this mess. B-)
To humanize Hitler is not the same thing as portraying him as a sympathetic figure. One sees a guy who is not only evil but also delusional and pathetic. It would be hard to create a cult around the guy depicted in this film
RIP Bruno Ganz, the great Swiss actor who passed away in 2019. He had mixed feelings about the hundreds of so-called "Downfall Parodies" that spread like wildfire on UA-cam for a period. He didn't condemn them - far from it. In fact he described their creativity as "genius". Bu he also felt that they detracted from his performance, into which he had "put his heart and soul", and potentially from a very serious subject. This he also mildly regretted. As the saying goes, he truly was a class act.
That's really interesting makes sense, I've known about the downfall hitler parodies for 10 years but only watched the movie last year, I'm glad I did its probably one of the greatest ww2 films ever made.
Personally, the fact he didn't feel absolute revolt for the parodies is a testament to the scenes significance on both a personal and collective level.
Yeah it would have been great if ww2 didn't happened.... Germany might be or sure will be leading in many fields...it is what it is what more can we say, learned or repeat....a fool repeat his mistake and it takes genius to do that so not to worry much I guess...😌. Anyway appearance and worldly fames still futile to mankind, conquer it you conquer death. What did you gain if you own the whole world and lost your own soul"Lord's of lords".
I was 17 when I first watched the movie in school and Bruno Ganz played him so well I actually felt bad for Hitler for a moment. Brilliant actor, may he rest in peace.
This film really left an impact on me. It's weird because I want to hate him, I know I should hate him, and therefore I do hate him, but in this film he was so lost in the dream he was living of being a God, not understanding the world around him because he was conditioned to feel infallible. I felt bad for this horrid person, and that is a testament to how good the performance really was.
@@you_were_the_chosen_one I was feeling bad for him when he was showing his dream city and telling he wanted to make skyscrapers even though he is a villan he had a big love for Germany . Germany got developed and has skyscrapers now so his dream is fulfilled but he is the worst human as he killed 6 million Jews people
Hitler was very inspired by Napoleon's conquests and imitated him during the conquest of Europe. I know that there are only two days difference between their invasion of Russia, they reached their destination in September and and they both finish in December. Hitler aslo was very hopeful that during the siege of Berlin he would be able to die on the same day Napoleon did. Maybe he lost to England and Russia on purpose to be more like Napoleon 🤣😂🙈
REAL ISRAELITES OF THE BIBLE EXODUS 12:36-42KJV - The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. 37The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. 40Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD's divisions left Egypt. 42Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come. HITLER CAM,PERS WERE FROM 1941-45 AND FLEW TO PALESTINE UNINVITED IN 1948KJV! THEY ARE WHITE EUROPEANS PERPETRATING A FRAUD NOT THE ISRAELITES OF THE BIBLE.
@@magicfire763 The Russian invasion was actually supposed to happened 2 or 3 months prior, but the Italians, being Italians, weren't able to conquer Greece.
This guy’s analysis of key films leaves so-called film critics in the dust - their own bulldust. Spread the word about this channel. One of absolute best on UA-cam.
When I was a kid, I was taught that Hitler was such a supernaturally evil entity, that it was as though he became mythical as the devil. That is a problem, and many people still approach things in this way. This film is essential, because it dispels a fundamental myth that has been taught to us since childhood.
That's the way I was taught too. That he was the ultimate evil and in turn gained a mythic status as the ultimate evil. But people loved him, he had a way with words that people agreed with him, many people even sympathized with him back then. It's important to remember that because any one of us is capable of the same.
@@Edax_Royeaux No it's not, it's the overwhelming majority who see Hitler as a devil-like figure and they don't even have to be religions to believe it.
We likely see people "as evil as Hitler" every single day. The only difference is that Hitler had the power to do the terrible things he did. Given the chance with that power, people we see every single day would do the same.
I totally agree. People often deploy the most amount of power available to them, and over trivialities, no less. Just look at social media where words are weapons. The most powerful and damning labels are used to destroy other people. “Racist” and “Nazi” are the strongest words these people have and they deploy them in the bat of an eye. Can you imagine if those same people were to obtain real power? Say, the power to command an armed force? You can bet they would use it to its fullest extent.
@@JezaLoki Exactly. When you listen to the goons at CNN talk about "the pandemic of the unvaccinated" they sound like they'd just as soon round people up and shoot them than behave like civilized Americans. And, you know that "the pandemic of the unvaccinated" is just code for "Trump supporters." Also, "insurrectionists." When you listen to Don Lemon and Joy Reid today, it probably sounded like Julius Streicher and Joseph Goebbels back in 1930s Germany.
@@yohannbiimu It’s a pandemic of the unvaccinated because it’s almost exclusively unvaccinated people who are getting sick and transmitting it to others. It is literally a pandemic that is sustained theough unvaccinated people. That’s not even an exaggeration, let alone doublespeak. If you want to see doublespeak, just look at how right wing pundits use terms like “cultural marxism” when they really just mean “anyone who isn’t white straight and normal”.
@@jazaniac You obviously do not listen to the types like Don Lemon and Joy Reid (if not, then thankfully so) because they ALWAYS speak in terms of "us vs. them." And, "us" is always we're "listening to the science" (Joe Biden and "Dr." Fauci), and "them" is always "they're listening to Donald Trump." Joe Biden hasn't made a proper, positive decision yet, and Fauci flip-flops so often that his "medical judgment" changes literally by the hour, and typically the changes have political rather than medical consequences. The problem with this narrative is that the vast majority of people who're unvaccinated are "people of color" who were told initially that *the vaccine is UNSAFE* (2020 pre-election Democrat propaganda) by the likes of Don Lemon and Joy Reid (also, Democrats in Congress, Democrats in the Senate, and Democrat presidential and vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris). That is a fact. ALSO, there are unvaccinated people who have already survived the virus (over 99% of those who had gotten it), and they are less susceptible to the virus than those who are vaccinated. Have you noticed how many people who are "vaccinated" who're getting it? A couple of days ago, two members of "The View" were pulled off the air because they had it, and they were "vaccinated up the wazoo" (according to Joy Behar). Creepy Joe is mandating that even these people "need to be vaccinated," even though that is ridiculous. There are also people who have medical reasons to be concerned about getting the "vaccine" (of which people keep getting sick regardless of receiving it), Their doctors may also be concerned because of their patient's medical condition and how it may negatively affect them. Joe Biden's dictates do not see these considerations and conditions. Regarding cultural Marxism, that's literally a thing that disregards manners and institutions that keep healthy societies together and emphasizes sexual, racial, and cultural differences in order to divide and destroy us. Notice that it's only "enriching and strengthening" in "white" societies, but nobody is saying that to societies that aren't. I wouldn't dream of going to China or Japan and tell them that they "aren't diverse enough." I wouldn't go to Nigeria, Nicaragua, or Nepal and do that either. But, SOMEHOW, it's totally NECESSARY to do that here. Do you want to know what concerns me? I'm concerned about schools educating people to be able to operate in the real world, where they'll be able to do things that will allow them to live properly and politely with others. I want people to be proud to be good, respectable citizens. They AREN'T getting that with the "education" they're getting with the CRT bullsh*t and "diversity" training from those who are teaching kids that the lives their parents brought them up in are "racist" because it wasn't "diverse." Kids are being taught to be ashamed of things that are beyond their control, and that is evil. Marxism is evil. Its historical record is proof of that. To say so is to state a fact. Orwellian doublespeak is borne out of Marxist theory, in order to gaslight the public to believe things like "the pandemic of the unvaccinated", while ignoring the fact that the very same people said that the vaccine wasn't safe, solely because its source was tied to a hated political enemy. It's also tying things that were going well for America, like border security and energy independence, and doing the exact opposite things, simply because its sources were hated for political reasons. So, now our borders no longer exist and we're having to import oil because Biden has shut down our pipelines. We're not even a nation anymore. One more thing, nobody is telling you that you shouldn't receive government services because we do not march in lockstep with your political dogma. That is what is happening on YOUR side. The people on YOUR side are the totalitarians, not us.
@@god-hx7iw Rise of evil? I hear that the actor playing Hitler did a terrible job. Btw the original bunker film is on UA-cam for free. It’s actually not bad( Anthony Hopkins Hitler)and the book is good too. And one of the best recent documentaries would be Third reich rise and fall, American version not the British narrator. On UA-cam for free.
I particularly like the subtle acting when Hitler is interviewing the secretary candidates. He makes his way down the line, and he is ALREADY glancing toward Traudl Junge. You can tell that he already wants to hire her, and is simply being polite to the other candidates. BTW, Traudl Junge was a real person (born 1920, died 2002). She is the old woman who is interviewed at the beginning and ending of the film, and the film is based loosely on her memoir (Until the Final Hour).
Traudl Junge's father was one of hitlers earliest followers,a close friend of Sepp Dietrich and was with Hitler at the Putsch,Hitler knew exactly who she was-he would have been briefed on them all
I mean if I had the power to kill most ppl on Earth then I would so only me and my friends could enjoy all of it ourselves but maybe that's just me 🤷♂ I don't think human life is any special, just another biological system like all the other.
Its not that hitler was evil. Everything done was in the most scientific and mathematically advanced country in the world for its time. Germany was a country of science and proof of concept. Everything had to be proven true to be accepted. Yet it only took inconveniences and government policy chances on people to be swayed into a new direction. No Hitler was not evil nor his country. They were all reasonable human beings. Which makes it all the more scary; as at some point it shall happen again.
REAL ISRAELITES OF THE BIBLE EXODUS 12:36-42KJV - The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. 37The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. 40Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD's divisions left Egypt. 42Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come. HITLER CAM,PERS WERE FROM 1941-45 AND FLEW TO PALESTINE UNINVITED IN 1948KJV! THEY ARE WHITE EUROPEANS PERPETRATING A FRAUD NOT THE ISRAELITES OF THE BIBLE.
@@ThxGod_ItsOver good and dandy, thank you very much! ☺️👌 Remember: “My brethren, be not many many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation” Peter 3:1 KJV “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach patient. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” 2 Timothy 2:24-26 KJV “Screaming” and writing out random verses doesn’t help anyone. Relax dude and reflect, you might be troll and well… I hope you do well in life? Stop embarrassing yourself. Blessings!
My mom used to put on this video as background noise for a long time and I never really understood as a kid but was intrigued. As an adult it’s extraordinary. Truly Oscar worthy and I love it from beginning to end
@@deepspacedruid7673I would hope this creature meant the film and not this video in particular,otherwise that would mean the creature is an absolute tragedy
It annoys me when people say that any small moments in this film portraying Hitler being in any way “nice”, such as being kind to Traudl when she makes a dictation error, are making him seem like a good person and not a monster. That is such a ludicrous misconception. You can be evil and be polite at the same time, be generous at the same time; _you are still evil._ Evil people are not 2-D, inhuman monsters, and trying to fit them into a binary link that distorts the truth of what humans are like, and makes us fail to recognise genuine evil. Downfall shows us a flawed human being who deceived and manipulated others, and compels us to see within.
Frankly, here's a hot take. Hitler was only one piece in the litany of human evil. The fact that he is held up as the Devil is absurd. Sure, he was a monster. But so was Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, etc. History is filled with monstrous people. But whatever the monstrous deeds they did, they were human. And exploring that humanity is critical to understanding how and why they did what they did.
@@Killzoneguy117 The politicians of today are bigger "Monsters" because they sit on their hands as the human race collapses globally as Scientists shout solutions in their ears. I agree with all your points though. And recognise your abilities of Critical Thinking. Trouble is intelligence is at an all time low & hysteria is at an all time high. A race of useless mindless wage slaves at best!
If he wasn't at all forgiving and gave zero leeway he'd never had got into that position. He believed what he was saying, there's zero doubt that he was evil but he was also human with friends, family and pets which he obviously cared for but dig a little deeper like his relationship with his niece and you soon realise he wasn't entirely reasonable like a normal person. He clearly cared deeply for her but his own actions led, sadly, to her death.
@@mrcaboosevg6089 Hitler really did not have any friends. Hitler had henchmen. The closest thing to a friend Hitler had as far as anyone can tell is Speer. And that relationship wasn't really warm. Hitler just admired Speer for what Speer could do. Which was impressive. Production increased right up until the end of the war.
@@Hxhjli did you know that Hitler never hated the Jews cos of their beliefs but due to their actions namely they controlled both the financial & media sectors of Germany pre WW I thus influencing business, politics & morals. They were also responsible for the failed attempted communist coup after Germany's defeat in 1918 which was rather successful a year earlier in Russia due to the Bolshevik uprising orchestrated by Jews as well. Karl Marx the founder of communism was also Jewish hence Hitler's hatred was founded on a political motive rather than a religious one.
My grandmother grew up in Berlin during this time. She was 13 when the war ended and remembers Hitler's rise to power. He was first presented as a politician for the people, who stood up for the poor and impoverished (my grandmother and her family's class). He had a housing bill that they were able to get a better home through, she shook his hand as a little girl when he came to her school. It's how dictators can begin; as just a person, a politician, someone who may claim to be of the people. He wasn't just sprung onto the scene as who he went down in history as
If she was 13 when the war ended in 1945 it is impossible for her to remember him rising to power as he completed rising to power in 1933 when she was 1 year old.
@@rdgmobile6882 I guess I should have said "she remembers Berlin before the war and before he became known as the Hilter he is today", and maybe I have the dates mixed up, she may have been closer to 15/16, she had said that the war stopped her education because of the conflict and she had been in elementary school(or the German equivalent) But the point was she remembers Hilter before the was the one history remembers him as.
This is the best Hitler in the bunker movie because Germans had the balls to make it themselves AND they didn't shy away from what actually happened. None of that Hollywood Tarantino crap, just good acting and a story that cuts deeper than fiction.
Strongly agree. Das Boot, Stalingrad (1993), Downfall and recently All Quiet on the western Front shows that if there’s one thing German cinema knows how to do really well, it’s war movies.
Absolutely. His was the best portrayal of this Demagogue…ever played. Alec Guinness was quite good also. Mr. Ganz however takes the Prize. In fact the whole cast was Stellar. As, a historical lesson…it’s Important to view the darker side of Humanity. What leads to that situation. Hitler was created. Not Magic. Politics…Economics….The fall of Empire, All had a hand in this recipe. Today, similar seeds are being sown in America. Same recipe. Same Lies. Who might then in future times will play the Orange Narcissist? History Repeats.
Speer called him one of the most disgusting members of Hitler's inner circle. He was himmlers lapdog. So u can imagine the things he did under his orders. The theft and rape before the murders were his special touch though.
I always fight back when someone calls a criminal like Hitler a monster. There are no real monsters. It's exactly because those people are humans that they have such capacity for evil. This is one of the most important films. It really gives you that feeling of being there with the people portrayed because you know all of this really happened.
Hitler's life and persona, like any one of us, are marked by past events, traumas, loss and once the smoke of loss cleared out, a sense of hatred, anger, and revenge. It is impossible to not put so many aspects of Hitler's life into question, such as for instance: If he lived which at that point was the most terrible war to have ever been waged, how could he participate and even pour more fuel into an even bigger and more deadlier one? What Eva Braun says about him in the film says in the film is true, Hitler's dog, his sense of humor, it all feels like accessories rather than part of the actual man himself, because in a way, he was and had nothing before the First World War broke out, his parents were dead, few of his siblings were still alive and he was broke and homeless in the streets of Vienna. But when the war broke out he found purpose and wanted to enlist in the German Army, he had fallen in love with Germany despite being Austrian through his love for history, and he was once part of the masses that he would later on control and charm with his words and his goals. When Germany surrendered, it was the point of no return, he couldn't go back to the way things were, because the past was not any better than the present he lived in, and the future was going to be nothing more than a parody of what Germany once was, which is why he rejected it and went into politics. It should also be pointed out that Hitler's beliefs were constantly evolving, he did not invent general anti-semitism, many in the german population believed it firmly, which is how he bought into it, he did not invent the "stab in the back myth", Luderndorff did, it was those around him that began to mold him in a way. His biggest charateristics were both bravery (which he was decorated for in WW1) and his ability to elevate things to a mythical level that would be his biggest strength, and weakness, in 1944 Traudl Junge (Hitler's secretary who also wrote the book which Downfall used as a source) thought that Hitler was perhaps thinking about a political solution that could end the war, until Operation Valkyrie happened. After Valkyrie's failure he firmly believed that Fate protected him and that it was a message from God to keep fighting the war. All of his beliefs, and why the German people kept fighting even as the places they once called home were buried in the rubble, was the resignation of individualism, the kind of individualism and belief in democracy which was rampant in the Weimar Republic and is now the norm today, and instead working towards an ideal, something that would last even when death took them away from the world. It's why he died in Berlin instead of fleeing when the opportunity presented itself so many times. And that also captivated others who didn't betray him yet or who were fighting the inevitable outside to stay with him as long as he lived. How could it not be appealing that a boy who had nothing to live for became a man that changed the world? Perhaps that simple idea of having nothing and then having everything is enough to turn any human being into a tool, a weapon, a resource to be used. It's the most intoxicating, most beautiful, and yet the most terrible and most deadly thing to have ever happened in this world.
Maybe if Hitler was admitted to the art academy he wished, things would have gone very different. Let people follow their artistic desires even if an examiner says they have not "talent", it can save us a lot of pain.
@@andsalomoni I actually really doubt that because of the outbreak of WW1, I think he would have enlisted anyway and everything would have happened even if he had joined the art academy, one of the biggest reasons why he went into politics was because of the fact that Germany lost WW1, and the Treaty of Versailles that followed right after, aswell as the rise of communism which felt like a real threat in Germany.
When our Governments demonise an individual such as Hitler, it is a duty to question such ideas greatly. I’ve learned this throughout my life. Sadam Hussein was also demonised, he did not have any weapons of mass destruction, in fact that war was only about oil, the worry of a petrodollar replacement (potentially obtaining poppies also) and stripping further tax money for the industrial war complex. The US and U.K. government lied about that war, as they did with every other that they’ve started or been involved in one way or another. Let’s not forget that is was the US that vaporised hundreds of thousands of (at least some innocent) people. Now they do similar acts with drones. They demonise individuals just justify their morally questionable decisions to their own citizens. The masses need to start thinking more and they should distrust their government narrative as much as their government distrusts their citizens.
I’ve always thought it was arrogant to call evil people “monsters”, as though they are a different species. To deny an evil person humanity, is to deny the lesson that they inadvertently create, that is, to not become like them. Hitler, same as Stalin, Pol Pot, Mussolini, or whatever other dictator, are all human. To stop evil, we must understand evil, and that begins with accepting that these “monsters” of history were as human as you or I.
People often enjoy the thought of killing Hitler as a child or a baby. When in fact it was his history that led him to become what he was, it was a series of bad experiences that no one would like to happen to them. We can talk about hating Hitler, but for some reason we are silent about giving people beautiful lives in general. I've slowly come to conclude that we as humans should stop relying on scapegoat and look into ourselves and others who need help instead.
People prefer simple solutions. You don´t have to be a bad person to enjoy the thought of eliminating hitler to safe millions of lifes when turning him to a good person appears to be a much more troublesome attempt with unclear outcome.
Scapegoats have been around for almost all of human history and more often than not they only lead to a bad perspective of reality. If one day this issue gets better it will be not by getting rid of scapegoats, as human nature naturally tries to find a scapegoat, but by treating scapegoats less seriously. Also a good point BlueCrate has is that it is important to learn about the bad things that happened but even more important it is to learn what lead to these things happening. However, the sad truth is that we will never get rid of scapegoats, making all people's lives better will be extremely difficult. There's always a 'reason/cause of' why things aren't able to get better. But I hope for our future that we can finally bite the bullet and push past the reason/cause for a problem and find the solution to the problems. Understand why the bad influences cause bad things to happen, but do not excuse not blame, *Solve*. _This has been my TED talk_
The killing of the children was beyond horrific and tragic. The parents, not so much. A crime family meeting it’s end. Inconsequential compared to the horrors to come.
The problem of man is the sinful nature we all have i herited from adam, we naturally bend towards evil and if not rescued by faith in Christ we all head to eternal damnation
It's that people have the *potential* to become 'evil' given circumstances and various life factors. Just so happened they all aligned for people like Hitler.
Agreed. Ignoring someone's humanity even if they made undeniably evil choices makes it difficult to understand what went wrong for that person to be in the positon they were in. Analysing his personality, emotions, the reason for his decisions, tactics when rising to power means we can avoid allowing people like him from obtaining power in the future.
A film about Stalins mental insanity in his last years would be so perfect, The Death of Stalin sort of did it but portraying all the brutal court intrigue of the Soviet Union surrounding a man slowly dying, both mentally and physically, as the godlike figure that surrounds him stays erect, it’d be a great angle
Stalin was more disease addled than truly insane. In the last few months he had dementia from progressive brain disease, he was permanently in his dacha and needed help to get from his office to bed. He was lucky he lived into his 70's after all the nearly fatal diseases he had in his childhood that had cumulative affects as an adult. Stalin wasn't ever really "insane". The opposite, he was a master tactician and everything he did has a purpose. He didn't arbitrarily kill people there was always a purpose to what he did. It's what set him apart from the other dictators of his time, he was capable of rational thought and valued the importance of the opinions of others to a point. A good way to show is paranoia and vindictiveness would be Death of Lenin or Death of Trotsky. I'd love to see Death of Lenin.
For a few days in late 1941it looked like the U.S.S.R. would collapse. Stalin went to his dacha. After a few days the Soviet leadership followed him there and begged him to lead them. One would have expected them to blame him for the disaster and have him arrested. They probably could have done so. But the C.P.S.U. was so far under his spell that they had no confidence to rule without him.
@@juliaeastbourne6310 he had so fully terrorized the party with his show trials and what happened to Trotsky who had outshined him. They were too afraid to take any ounce of control for fear of drawing his jealousy and ire.
A high budget movie about the Pacific Front from the Chinese perspective would be interesting, too. I find it interesting that the vid uploader is blaming Hitler for all 50 million casualties, when at least 10 million of those are from Stalin's purge (rendering his military ineffective) and his complete disregard for human life... And another 15 million are from Japan's invasion and massacre of Chinese civilians. This was not a war of a single villain. It was a war of a lot of evil. Even the so-called "allies" left Poland out to dry. No one gave a crap about Poland and it reflects in their 17% population loss. No one. America didn't even enter the war, until December 1941.
@@manictiger TBF, the American public were still traumatized and angry that many of their boys died or injured in World War 1, a war which most Americans didn't care about and understandably didn't want anything to do with it. This is why the Democrats lost the 1920 Presidential elections and the US didn't join the League of Nations (despite being their idea) and FDR had to exploit as much loopholes as he can to aid the British.
If he had redirected all that rage and hatred, he could have easily been a person who brought good to the world. He could have been on par with Orson Welles in oration. The thing that still baffles me about Hitler, was that he loved animals. He was well known to be quite affectionate with his dog, but he had no compassion for other people People are odd, aren't we?
Hitler was a huge animal rights activist, as he banned the boiling of live lobsters, among other things. However, here‘s a weird piece of trivia. He also banned human zoos.
@@zilpzalpmukkefukk he cared for his dog like no other and kept her to the end. he treated her extremely well (up until the point where he ordered her to be poisoned shortly before him and his wife) and it's very possible she was one of the few things out there that hitler truly loved
As a student of WWII specifically Nazi history, I really enjoyed your analysis. No bias, no crass remarks, just the human nature behind the decisions and "how did we get here?"
The acting was superb but i didn't really like how hitler was portrayed as a maniac, i don't know if it's historically accurate but it felt highly exaggerated. This video talks about humanizing hitler yet in the movie it felt like the writers depicted him as a generic villain from a fictional story
@@phatlewt2932 in a bring of collapsed of his country any leader would act like that if a person he's command disobey to do what he think can make a difference
Hitler wasn’t a monster or a devil. He was just a man, and seeing him as such helps us understand the dark side of humanity. He’s remembered more for his crimes and less for who he was as a person. I think seeing him for who he really was is important for us to really be able to understand the man.
It's not about him as a person really, it's about how dangerous it is to evangelize some guy who talks cool stuff. Because humans are flawed and if you put someone on a pedesteal that had good/genius written on it you stop to observe reqlity and you're gonna excuse stupid/horrid actions. Same with another example that's (so far) somewhat harmless: Elon Musk. His fans see him as good/a saviour/a genius. They see no fault in him and excuse every dumb thing he does. And Elon Musk keeps up the propaganda that now includes his hordes of fans. He doesn't even need to cover his f***-ups. His fans will explain them away.
Yes, he was known for being polite and well mannered, at the same time as having Jews injected, gassed and being experimented on, including having babies drowned in buckets. Remember though his nazi followers were just as bad, like Joseph Mengele for instance. He was more of a monster than his boss could ever be.
The best thing about Downfall is the claustrophobic feeling throughout that steadily grows. It is both a direct and metaphoric representation of the state of Germany at the time. The apocalyptic microcosm of the Nazi officials sinking into the abyss that is the bunker and metaphorically the war itself. This film is about the downfall into such abyss. It is a civilisation crumbling but still desperately hanging on. The claustrophobia further gives to the rising madness of everyone inside the bunker, the absurd discussions of cyanide, the wedding, etc. The best sequence that shows this visually is when General Weidling descends into the bunker. We go through each checkpoint and every minutia of the landscape as if he and his adjutant are slowly stepping down into hell itself. The other thing that I like about Downfall is that it is also just as much a portrait of the German people at the time as one of Hilter himself. It is not just Hitler's own downfall into the abyss, but everyone around him and the whole of the German people. There are so many side-characters, subplots, vignettes, etc. that get forgotten but are just as good as the main plot of the bunker. Broadly, it shows three kinds of Germans in the last few days. There are the fanatical, the Goebbels, Eva Braun, the crying nurse, the teenage girl at the AA gun, Reitsch the ace pilot, etc. These represent the part of Germany that would gladly get shot, swallow cyanide, or shoot themselves at the very end along with the Führer himself, the sector of German society that would gladly sink with him into the abyss. Then there are the pragmatic yet steadfast, the professional Wehrmacht generals, particularly Weidling and Mohnke (although SS). They are not as fanatical to the Führer as the former group but are willing to stick to their oaths and to whatever end that the war may reach (albeit mistakenly as would later turn out for Keitel and Jodl at Nuremberg). We even see Mohnke clash with Goebbels over the effectiveness of Volksturm fighters; one is trying to get the best tactical chance for survival of the city, and maybe even the regime, whilst the other only cares about the symbolic glory. These of this kind have picked their nightmare and are going to stick with it until the end. They represent the vast majority (or at least plurality) of ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers, nurses, etc. who, although not willing to go all the way into the abyss with Hitler, are actively trying to crawl the country out of it even if it means falling into it by failure. Then there are realists, Dr. Schenk, the one-armed veteran, and even Speer somewhat, who see the end for what it is. They have decided that oath and personal loyality to the regime no longer matter and that pure survival of themselves and others around them do. They are getting out of the abyss altogether and are not looking back, if only to save a few behind. These are the good ones who mostly have good convictions like Schenk who try to save as many civilians. But there is also a subgroup of this kind, the bad ones, the selfish survivors, Himmler, Göring, etc. There is one final kind, Traudl and the boy, the lost impressionable ones who found themselves out of the abyss but could have fallen in with the fanatics. They represent the majority of civilians who were charmed by Hitler but emerge at the end outside in the sunset among the ruins. They would build a new Germany in the wake of the old one that sunk with Hitler and the rest in the bunker.
RIP Bruno Ganz. He was literally perfect for this role as Adolf Hitler. His performance was insanely incredible and realistic. No one will ever be able to top him in acting as the fuhrer.
I'm very much in favour in humanising Hitler , the Nazis , Mao, Stalin and even Pol Pot ect in order to better understand human nature and how to handle it in a meaningful way
I agree with this here. The big problem is human nature. Society has tried many ways to mitigate human nature over 3k years. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Marxism, social justice, fascism, nazism communism. None of these practices work when it comes to mitigate human nature and people can take things to the extreme and followers go all in it.
@@pancytryna9378 You mean a dictator funded by the CIA? Yea, he was that. He also didn't institute: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalplan_Ost en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust Which makes him more human than Hitler.
What a wonderful review. I admit that the reason I watched the movie was because of the parodies of the scene where he has his meltdown. It's a fantastic film that I would recommend to everyone.
The race commie is here what a surprise in the comments of another person who likes to say “everyone racist” I just watched your vid that got more dislikes then likes of you “reviewing” “ain’t I right” you are commie trash and deny it
“Downfall” is one of my all-time favorite films, and not just from the WWII genre. It is a fascinating character study, brilliantly executed, and yes, laden with warnings about how easily millions of good people can be led into disaster.
sry easy? it wasnt easy for hitler...ww2 happened because of ww1...without the treaty of versailes hitler never had become enough followship. the treaty of versailes was the amber that ignited ww2...the perfect justified motivation to fight again from a german viewpoint.
@Rain89 Skarlet Hitler didn't rise from the Treaty of Versailles alone, if that was true, the Nazis would have risen in the early 20s. Plenty of factors led to Hitler's rise, the great depression and political instability. Dictators and tyrants operate through chaos. They stir it up just so they can say they can fix it. And that's what downfall and other works warn against. Beware of putting too much faith in one leader.
What I found interesting in Downfall that wasn't touched on here... ...was how self-selecting the bunker occupants were. The people closest to Hitler at the end were those who did not want to lead and were happy to let the man with full confidence lead. This isn't just that everyone has that weakness...it is that these people got those positions BECAUSE they were willing to let Adolf lead. They had committed to it. They had wrapped their lives around it. They had, in many cases, done horrible things to get to the bunker and stay in Adolf's inner circle. When it becomes obvious that it is all going to end...it's not just the nation that is dying...and its not just their neighbors that will die. Their dreams, their life's work, EVERYTHING is going to go up in smoke. PLUS, the Russians and those who they oppressed to get and stay near Adolf are going to come and get their revenge. By the time of the film, there really was no real choice for most of these people but to continue to support Hitler until they personally died. Because that death would likely be better than the one they would be subjected to if they tried to run or retreat.
That is definitely worth pointing out. Many of the ministers cut and ran the first chance they got. And they definitely had no good option left, that’s for sure.
Uh no that's not what happened at all. In the last few weeks Hitler and his inner circle were trying to get others to flee to the West away from the Russians. They weren't scared that Hitler was going to shoot them for trying to leave. Where do you people come up with this nonsense?
General Guderian described Hitler as a gambler in a casino who went on an incredible run, from success to success, doubling down every time and winning for basically 16 years up until December 1941. Then when the war turned against him he simply could not believe that he was going from one failure to another. He often commented to Guderian that he could not understand how everything had gone so wrong. Guderian replied, "change your methods".
@@MoldycheeseJr Because someone says one thing that's wrong(which it may or may not be I'm not qualified to answer I'm not a psychologist or neuro-professional) doesn't mean everything they say is wrong.
@@MoldycheeseJr Freud is indeed high on his own stuffs because of his Mouth Cancer and Morphine treatment addiction to Oedipus Complex drug, but he's the father of Psychoanalysis for a reason.
I've heard about this man's backstory, and he was a troubled person. His father was unkind to him, society didn't take him seriously, and he came home from war defeated. I wonder if someone were to go back in time, give him some useful life advice, possibly even be his friend and lead him away from the dark places in his mind, would he turn out to be a more pleasant person.
It's much easier to just slap a "monster" label on Hitler, or any other genocidal dictator for that matter, and call it good, but doing so misses the chance to learn. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were undeniably awful people, but they were people nonetheless, people that others genuinely believed in. To pick them and their popularity apart, to portray them as we would another person and not just a demon wearing a human mask allows us to understand how they got to where they did so we can avoid such catastrophic mistakes in the future.
Traudl Junge was released by the Russians, who declared her a "Young Follower," rather than a war criminal. In an interview, she said that she also attributed her willingness to work for Hitler as due to her youth. Then, she said, she came across a monument in Munich to Sophie Scholl, and 2 others who were executed for taking a stand and trying to tell people the truth about the war. She saw that Scholl had been the same age at her death, as Junge was when she went to work for Hitler. Traudl Junge realized that her youth had been no excuse. May she rest in peace.
I had to make a whole presentation about him in 9th grade (I'm German btw) and stumbled on a lot of events, that happened in his live. It's unbelievable, that no one gets teached in school, how much of a broken man he was, on top of the narcissism & nationalism
He was your average incel, with a shity life that made him revolted. But surviving the war give him confidence to spread his radical ideals, and a lot of people bought it because of how much germany was suffering in the post war.
In addition, and I speak as a college professor, the Treaty of Versailles was entirely unfair to the people of Germany. Let’s not forget that the Allies created the given circumstances where a character like Hitler could rise to power. I’m not justifying the Holocaust. Not in the least. But there is so much more to the story than what is written in history books.
This analysis of Downfall is the most disturbing and precise of its kind, I have ever watched. You are spot on. Please consider to make a PDF version of it. Subscribed.
I feel like this was a way of saying “you can keep denying things like you’re the only one who’s right, or you can man up and accept that things cannot change and we have to learn from it”
It’s one of the most incredible movies I’ve ever seen. The entire cast was brilliant but Bruno Ganz was especially spellbinding. You really believed you were watching Hitler.
I think that human beings naturally imagine Hitler as an evil monster. It seperates him from the rest of humanity and allows us to think that there was just something horribly wrong with him that we could never experience. When we are forced to face his humanity it's scarier. It makes it clear that monsters are men. Any of us can fall into this same trap and become monsters ourselves..... Great analysis
No, not anyone can fall into that trap. The proof being that not everyone has. People have both individual traits and cultural norms that don't allow every kind behavior to flourish. The silliness of this video (and probably the movie) is that it's trying to separate the psychological from the political, which is impossible. These people are not just devoted to Hitler, but they may also deeply subscribe to fascistic ideologies or appreciate the changes in their economic positions or are antisemitic. Those things have a tremendous effect on personal psychology. In places where those kids of things things factor less in society (for example, few rigid hierarchies) becoming so monstrous and loving monsters is less likely. Conversely, tough times or a rough existence often can create a sense of generosity and mutual dependence. If that trap, as you call it, was easy to fall into we all would be a lot worse off. And please remember, no one is imagining AH as an evil monster. He left a lot of empirical information that he was exactly that. If anything is truly natural about human thought it's that we are informed by the reality around us.
@@Kim-bp1kb yes because I would totally fall down the trap of killing thousands. Quit talking out of your ass. Hitler may be human but he's still a fucking monster with all of the actions he did. You all are odd af in this comment section.
Der Untergang was and still is one of the greatest films ever made. Its ability to convey the true downfall of Germany was when it vested power in the hands of Hitler and the continued belief of Hitler's strength till the very end of the Reich makes the film quite exceptional. I really loved the scene with the boy Peter's father, who is clearly a wounded war veteran, challenges the children manning the AA gun as to the reality of their situation. They keep being in a state of denial, yet it is the first time in the film we see an ordinary German citizen who has had the veil ripped from their eyes and sees Hitler for what he truly was and what evil he has brought to Germany and the world. That individual's courage to face reality and to get misguided youths to see that truth is called cowardice by his own son, yet later in the film it is clear after Peter sees the German soldier who saved him die and finds the dead bodies of his friends that he himself sees his father's fortitude against the madness of the Nazi regime.
I remember going to a party, back in the 90s, and asserting during a casual conversation that Hitler was not a monster, he was a human being, and consequently being attacked ferociously for holding such an unacceptable opinion. It is cold comfort now, many years later, to realise that I am not the only one to recognise that we are all capable of the evil and depravity that Hitler embodied and manifested, that we are all sinners and saints and that it is up to us which we will manifest in our own lives.
Ok, he wasn't an actual monster, so you aren't wrong in saying that, but if you go up to people at parties and say "oh well he was just another human" I wouldn't blame them for being upset
Was Hitler evil? Yes absolutely, but Was he human? Yes again, the point in showing a less dark side of hitler is not for us to feel sympathy but rather to understand the darkest parts of the human mind.
@@roddyboethius1722And that's the thing. He was seeing everything crashing down, and basically was losing everything, all because of his decisions mind you, but still
I’ve watched countless documentaries and film from WWII featuring Hitler. I was astounded and transfixed by the performance in this film. To me the actor WAS Hitler, the look was right, his mannerisms were there. I recall the well know medal scene with the Hitler Youth, how they had the camera in the precise position the historical footage was shot from. Complete with his hand tremors. Simply perfection and one of my top recommendations for WWII films.
This movie is great. However, Anthony Hopkins gave a terrific portrayal of Hitler in the TV movie, “ The Bunker.” He must have watched hour upon hour of newsreel footage of Hitler making speeches, etc. I’ve watched hours upon hours of that stuff, myself, and when I watched Hopkins portraying Hitler, I almost forgot it was an actor portraying Hitler, because he got the gestures and mannerisms so perfectly, it was almost as if I were seeing the Fuehrer himself. That’s acting on such a high level, it’s almost eerie. 😮
Hitler didn't always seem to think he'd be hated; he stated for instance, that nobody seemed to remember the Armenian genocide and that Ataturk was simply seen as the founder of a nation, rather than a person who participated in mass murder.
Had H became a typical despot content with retaking former Imperial lands from Poland and France instead of trying to turn all of Europe into Germany he'd probably be remembered as the German Attaturk. I can even imagine Americans praising him as a necessary evil that bring Germany back from its humiliation and financial catasthrophy
@@WatchmyPlaylist. You know, i like debating. But this is undebatable. The Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, they are real. You can't just say it's been disproved. That's a lie or misinformation, either way it's wrong. Stop this. The Holocaust is one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century and for good reason.
@@ihavenojawandimustscream4681 he didnt try to retake france...germany invaded poland because they refused to give danzing back. Germany needed Danzing back to wage war agains the soviet union. Honestly its all in the german documents. No need to spew hollywood propaganda
My God man, that was an EXCELLENT synopsis! Some years ago I read _'Adolf Hitler'_ by John Toland (a two-volume set, Hardcover only). Although it was published in 1976 it is still considered the ultimate Hitler biography, and has all the sorts of personal, private details of his life NOT relating to him being _'Der Führer'_ that you would expect to find in over 900 pages of text.
@CBI : Comment Bureau of Internet I think many people in the west have this weird unhealthy obsession with Hitler, compared to other dictators ( Mao, Stalin, Leopold ii, Tojo, Enver Pasha, Pol Pot, Kim il Sung, Mengistu Haile, Yakubu Gowon) he was nothing special.
@@TheUstasha101 Nothing special? Ask all those whose lives he affected, both good & bad. Ask a Russian - who define _"The Great Patriotic War"_ as their proudest, most noble contribution to the world. Also, speak to the bulk of historians here in the USA who still call Americans that served in WW2 _"Our greatest generation."_ Don't get me wrong. I agree with YOU. *They are all wrong, and you are right.*
@@Matt_from_Florida First of all get a grip bro, second i never negated any of Hitler's crimes (my family in Yugoslavia suffered heavily during ww2), third your emotional rant speaks volumes, and it is the core meaning of my comment - no individual sparks more negativity than Hitler, but why do Stalin and Mao get a free pass despite killing more people? Why do more recent dictators like Yakubu Gowon, Mengistu Haile, Pol Pot, Kim il Sung (I'll bet you and 97% of regular people didnt even heard of them and their victims)? Why isn't your anger directed more towards north korea ( it is the closest thing to Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia we have today)? And finally American/Western obsession with Hitler is actually harmful, because it prevents other crimes (some of them bigger and more recent) from getting enough exposure - Armenian genocide, Holodomor, operation Keelhaul and numerous others + unlike Germany - Russia, Turkey, China and to some extent Japan and USA to this day deny their past crimes, why is there no outcry? Please do some actual research and thinking before commenting.
@@TheUstasha101 Pal, I know about everything you talked about. You have a really high opinion of YOUSELF and a low opinion of OTHER PEOPLE. Do you realize that? You're not always the smartest person in the room. You failed to even mention Idi Amin. BTW, eating chicken for lunch today doesn't mean I can't eat beef tomorrow. People have the ability to change their focus far faster, again, than YOU give them credit for. Don't be such a narcissist.
@@TheUstasha101 I can walk into a book store here in America and find more books on the American Civil War than WW2. Why would a conflict so small as compared to the titanic historical significance of the greatest war in human history take up more shelf space you might ask? Because of the human propensity to focus on events in the historical and cultural record that have a closer proximity to and impact on their corner of the overall world map. It’s not a good thing, but it is a reality as to how human beings think and develop biases and why x event may receive more coverage in y country. The best way to educate more people is to understand first how they think and then how to get past existing biases to show them how to connect the dots of the historical narrative. Yelling about “free passes” with the implication that everyone is just brainwashed or stupid isn’t going to work, ever.
Great analysis. I just finished watching this film for the first time, and, man, it leaves you with a truckload of thoughts and feelings. One thing that sticks out to me the most was the scene you mentioned with Hitler discussing his social Darwinist philosophy, ranting about how cruelty is superior to compassion. While I was watching this in the film, I thought... that's what got you here, man. That's why you're hiding in a bunker with everyone around you planning their own suicides, poisoning their own children, and with the citizens that raised you up dying in the streets. That's why your nation is crumbling. It's the very manifestation of your belief. Suffering is the only possible outcome. Congratulations. And that's why it's important to show this guy as human. These were not the actions of a "monster," they were the actions of a deeply flawed human being who has been raised up to be something more by equally flawed human supporters, enabled by inhumane politics with no one else in power willing or able to apply the brakes. It is something that could happen anywhere, it doesn't take a monster.
While Hitler was a terrible human being, a constant focus on his singular "badness" also serves to distract and wash away some of the guilt held by the average German- most of whom wholeheartedly supported the regime- even up until the waning days of the war. These were the people cheering as kangaroo courts murdered people like Sophie Scholl for even speaking out against the regime. tl;dr hitler sucks but he didn't exist in a vacuum, he had widespread popular support from the german people
people never talk about the policies that made him fascist It seems that we are turning fascist in most western countries. People remember that Hitler was a strongman that yelled and got angry. That's as deep as it gets for most people. Some people think it's racism that makes a fascist system. HItler was a socialist until he met Mussolini who defined fascism as the lucrative merger of state and corporations. During our lockdown the small businesses were closed and only the big businesses that are partnering with the government and willing to enforce the government's covid edicts were allowed to be open. The tech corporations control our speech. Nobody around me would suspect that this is fascist. "doesn't fascism need a grumpy man to yell for it to be fascism?" is what I imagine people think. I remember asking people why they thought Trump was a fascist and they ended up telling some obscure story about how he got revenge on someone that crossed him... things that aren't at all fascist. We've made Hitler into a unique individual instead of concentrating on his policies. Edit: grammar
To say the German people on average supported him is a statement not as easily made by historians and delves into philosophy and all the other stuff. Ofcourse the supporters were in the kangaroo courts and in the conference hall where "total war" was declared. But we can't forget that having a dissenting opinion, like Sophie Scholl of the white roses, was punishable by death. We can't know how much the average German thought about it as the non-party line was a death sentence. Hitler never got into power because of a majority and once in power he did not seek the approval of the people. Whenever the German people's sentiment was against something he'd have Goebbels fire up the propoganda machine to soften up Germans attitude.
@@MicahMicahel There is no evidence that any serious person ever equated fascism with a merger of state and corporations (by which you clearly mean business), at least not as a standalone or as the defining factor. These are mainly pop fabrications to make an easy political point.
I’ve honestly never agreed with morally judging hitlers supporters as a collective. I won’t shamble upon how it was ‘a different time’ and that bullshit, but just look at so many countries today. America’s been installing dictators worldwide for decades, fuelling nonstop drug wars, invading any oil rich country they feel like, covering up countless human rights violations and war crimes etc. and still, people vote every year for it to continue, just under a different face. Christ there’s literally a genocide going on in China and plenty of people don’t seem to give a fuck. Sure it’s not a perfect comparison, Nazi germany literally had people ratting their neighbors and getting them sent to concentration camps, but you gotta remember most Germans were just like us, people trying to live their lives as the world around then crumbled due to the actions of an elite minority
The scariest thing about evil men is that they are just men. It was absolutely important to show H as the human he was. And Bruno Ganz absolutely owned every scene he was in.
My grandparents (Austrian and German) were born around 1920, they never spoke much about the war times. My grandpa once told me he only wished I would never have to experience a war. I think they considered the 1930s the time of their life followed by a huge catastrophe they never mentally recovered from. Ironically, they met because of the war after my Austrian grandpa was insured in Russia and sent back to a military hospital in Saxony.
Every German I saw talk about that period did it in a calm sober way, but they all had lights in their eyes and a corner smile... but that's not proper, so they learned to hide it well.
@@rosesprog1722yeah I'm sure they loved either seeing everyone around them die on the battlefront or living off scraps and being bombed daily at home. And I'm also soooo suuure you spoke with sooo many German eyewitness of that timeperiod considering there's a handful of them still alive at this point and you're like 15. """"Greetings"""" from Poland
@@aw2584 I never spoke to any of them, as I wrote and you were so busy with your useless anger hat you didn't notice, I said every German I "saw" and since you didn't think hard enough to realize that on the battlefront interviews are rather rare and that people usually talk about a period of their life after it happened, the people I saw were neither at the front or in the process of being bombed, that was all over by then but since you're Polish, you cannot understand those things, after the starvation of the Weimar period and before WW2 began there were 6 years, and for most Germans, those 6 years were happy years but because of people like you, they were not allowed to enjoy those 6 years and even less to talk about it so they didn't but when you a normal 65 years old human being like me, you can see small details that speak a whole lot, without a single word being said. So go back to sleep dude and don't forget to thank those who, at Brest-Litovsk took some of the land they had seized from Russia and for the first time in 125 years said: This is the territory for the reestablishment of the Polish nation: the Germans.
bruno ganz was one of the best actors that ever made it to the screen. anyone who've seen his work will have to agree. him being swiss was probably a limiting factor in his career. if he were from a place with a bigger film industry, like the US, he would have been even more of a star than he already was. he shows so much emotion without going into carricature. absolutely brilliant.
This was a very laudable video. I agreed with everything from start to finish. My grandfather, who served in France, Russia and in Berlin at the end, was a Nazi until the day he died; he didn't proclaim it, but all of his beliefs were Nazi-aligned. Yet he was at the same time the only positive influence in my early years. People are rarely one-dimensional.
This is why I never tie myself to another person when it comes to leadership in politics. Your hero could (and most of the time) turn out to be the villain you were told about as a child to look out for. Unfortunately, this life is filled with narcissists and sociopaths. And, unfortunately those same people desire power more so than anything else.
It does not have to be that way. But the modern era, with its lust for power, makes humans in general, animals. I used to work in the California legislature, and met many politicians. They are not like you and me. The simple questions we face have simple solutions. Yet the influence of money on these politicians is corrosive. And what human would willingly put himself through running for office? The cruelty means only the abnormal, the absolute narcissist with unshakable belief in himself will put himself out there.
This was really well made and a professional analysis Hitler in Downfall. Most UA-cam "historians" get all emotional when talking about this topic. Which I find cringeworthy. I never really thought about the actual relationship between the German people and Hitler himself. There's a difference.
one of the key moments was when the Hitler Oath was introduced in 1934 - for both the armed forces and civil service - where the oath was to serve Hitler rather than the state. This built on the cult of personality which the party had been establishing.
How would you feel if your country just gave up (for no apparent reason from your point of view) in a terrible war, you get screwed up the keister at the Treaty Of Versailles, you're hungry all the time, there is inflation that staggers the imagination and your unemployed. Then Hitler is appointed Chancellor. Within a year, you have a great job at Volkswagon, the economy is kicking ass, there is universal medical care, Germans are upbeat and proud again and they are having truly awesome parades with the Army, the SS and everybody else marching. And you're almost engaged to that cute little blonde waitress at the hofbrauhaus. How would YOU feel about the guy? Be honest. That's why the Germans loved him. Some who survived the war loved him to their dying day. Life is ALL in your perspective.
@@Coffeeisnecessarynowpepper basically all of them but that’s not really surprising since everyone attaches their own worldview onto history rather than looking at facts alone
This film hits hard if you are a German. Thinking whether it's your fault to believing in Hitler or it's Hitler's fault. Without these questions, the film is almost a documentary, giving little insights.
That’s part of why I loved it. Im American, but it made me question how hard it would be to NOT follow someone so confident and powerful. If you weren’t watching closely, you wouldn’t see too much of anything wrong with his wrong behavior (from what the German public knew). WE know who is hitler was (is in the movie), what kind of horrors he caused, what ideals he spread. The concept of genocide while it’s been done before, hitler was the first in human history to implement on multiple continents. In fact there wasn’t even a term for it yet. Human rights didn’t even exist legally yet, until the Nazis came about. But to the German people, why wouldn’t you follow someone who’s confident, powerful, and seemingly unstoppable? The movie gives insights as to why it would happen. Which is why it’s one of my favorite war movies of all time.
@پیاده نظام خان say that to the america buddo, or just any government from the past century, they’re all as corrupt and evil as one another just on different scales
It's absolutely critical to humanize him because it shows how dark the abyss of man's heart can become. Society will never prevent evil if society does not try to understand why it exists.
We can't really stop evil from happening we can raise child's as good as we can place as many laws as many security measures as many consequences but that won't stop it
The truth is there is not a single good soul on this earth. We often cover our iniquities in self-righteousness, while calling ourselves good or try to. Despite that we all are failing day by day. There are no good people, just one that is less worse than others.
@@trolgeeeeee The fight to resist evil is a struggle for every generation, not something that can be won so you can rest on your laurels. You do what you can while you're alive, and hope you've taught the next generation well enough so they can manage the struggle too.
Bruno Ganz’s performance in this film was the best ever! Nobody will ever surpass this groundbreaking performance as Hitler. This movie is perfection. I have always loved Downfall super intense, cabin fever scenes and brilliant acting, directing, cinematography and writing. Humanising Hitler in this film was the right thing to do as it makes him even more evil and delusional than he really was. At some stages he knew he could win and at other times he knew it was all over.
To me, the most interesting thing about this video is how close the creator comes to actually grasping what fascism is. The word is tossed around so much that it's lost any meaning, but it refers to an actual philosophy that elevates one individual-- a charismatic leader-- who is the almost literal embodiment of the will of the people. Anyone who challenges that man is also attacking the people as a whole. The more we understand the thinking of the people at the time, the more alarming the trends on both sides of the political 'aisle' in modern America become. At the same time, the more we understand it, the more we are equipped to avoid going down that path.
This. Only thing I'd add would be the nuance of including populism in this discourse, and its closeness to fascism (the biggest difference between the two being that fascism involves the forceful and usually violent attainment & retention of power). Because "that path" may indeed be paved with populist ideals.
"The people" is an quite interesting term. In English, the word is used for two different concepts, which are completely separate words in German. When the Nazis talked about the German people, it was "das Deutsche Volk". This does not mean "the individual humans of Germany", but "the German population" or "the German race". It doesn't concern itself with the fate of individuals, but with a concept.
@@thesteelecrusader7778 The Mexicans do that. But originally in Spanish, "raza" does not mean ethnicity, but it is a moral concept concerning cultural characteristics. And it has remained so for the Mexicans since it does not imply purity of race or something like that. Similarly "das Deutsche Volk" originally only meant people who belonged to the German Nation culturally, spoke one of the many German dialects, had common history and origins. The ethnic aspect of the concept of race was invented, in the second half of the 19th Century, by a Frenchman, the Comte of Gobineau with not much success in his native country and by an Englishman, Houston Stewart Chamberlain whose ideas did not also gather much an audience in Britain, but their concepts of inequality of races and white, mostly germanic or nordic ethnical superiority as expressed in their books were enthusiastically adopted by the German extreme right and German élites in a mix that informed the "Völkisch" movement during the last decades of the 19th Century and the first decades of the 20th Century. National Socialism was the last and the most politically relevant branch of the "Völkisch" movement. Mostly because the nazis as they become known aped some elements from the Socialist movements and from 1920 onwards from Mussolini's Fascism. The consequences are well known.
The late Marcel Reich-Ranicki, himself a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto as a little boy, who had become one of Germany's most prominent literature critics, dismissed the criticism of the movie that you shouldn't portray Hitler as a human being "As what, then, should he be portrayed? An elephant?".
It´s especially the Survivors who are in Favour of a Humanzig Approach. I don´t know anymore who exactly said it but the Quote goes like: Those SS Guards were just ordinary Humans. It was the Mailman, the Milkman, the Farmer who killed and tortured. They were given a Uniform, a Cap with a Skull on it and that made them the Masterrace.
Don't give the nazi furries any ideas.
@Repent! Lol
@@Πολιτεία-λ6σ agreed
How do you survive a "death camp"?
It's important to humanize him. Because it shows the truth and the dark side of human nature.
Also on the lighter side, the Hitler rants memes!
@@Menaceblue3 true
That’s part of what made this movie so special to me. They made hitler human and understandable, but you don’t sympathize with him. It’s often hard to do that, especially in villains.
Like many have said, Hitler has to be this murderous psychopath in peoples eyes because if we lead with the narrative that he was just a regular human being who went down a dark path than we can’t be removed from it. If there’s one thing people hate the most it’s having to look in the mirror and realize they’re not a good as they think they are, and how easily capable one is to give unto evil.
@@lufsolitaire5351 well said. It's naive for one to think that he/she is not capable of evil. Another thing that is not commonly realized is how people can think they are doing good when they are actually doing bad things, or how people just compromise their morals and brush their sins and crimes under the carpet, as if those things don't matter.
We are those people. All of us. For you to claim that you are not one of those people would be arrogant and naive. Same goes for me and anybody else. We the common people think we are better than the riff raff criminals, because we are supposedly more ethical, but we are more often than likely guilty of crimes that are similar in the nature of the intent. We all feel hate, envy, bitterness, greed, lust and violent anger, and think and act in unethical ways because of them.
The part where he absolutely loses his mind because his pizza was late really shows his human side imo
😂
Who wouldn't
Fegelein!!!!
You clearly haven't seen the part where he was banned from xbox live 😅😄
@@theemirofjaffa2266 ich ment to say flag in chat mien mutter!
7:57 “Stand around like confused children who got lost in the zoo.”
I routinely see managers and supervisors in that state of confusion.
Everyone in management when the first COVID lockdown happened :-D
I heard a similar phrase in the military about how things get done: "there's one guy working, and 5 guys watching".
My highschool social studies teacher used to ask the class "What was the scariest thing about Hitler" and near the end of the semester he said "You wanna know the answer to that question? The scariest thing about Hitler was that he was only human"
I don't know, if Hitler was a Terminator sent by from the Future by Skynet, that would also be pretty scary.
@@Edax_Royeaux It’s a different kind of thing though. It’s not as shocking for something that was made to kill people to kill people. But to know that someone who is the same species of you is capable of such catastrophe and that anyone even you can be capable of one day being able to so this stuff is what makes it scarier.
@@Fulllife3.2 The only way for this to be shocking is to be totally ignorant of history. That one in 200 men today are descended from Genghis Khan isn't because he was such a nice guy. Jesus wasn't brutally nailed to a cross because he wanted acupuncture.
I loved a comment from a friend, "Hitler had friends" he thought about it "f*cko I wouldn't ask them to a party"
@@Edax_Royeaux It's easy for people growing up to dissociate from history as being full of stupid people thinking they themsleves would never believe or act with such blind faith because they are such an educated and modern person.
Downfall is a perfect movie depicting how evil a human being can become whilst also showing that they are still just humans who have friends, hobbies, and favorites. That's what people don't get about this movie, Hitler didn't shoot lasers from his eyes, or have magical superhuman powers or reptilian skin, he was a human being not a fairytale.
evil and cruel?
Dude, u dont need hitler to know about evil lmao, just look outside of ur house
@@musashi542 deep.
I never d'où bref hitler's humanity, hé was just a trend in vis time ho led his country info deadlye wars and mass exécutions
@@musashi542 you sound like some edgy guy are you being serious?
To dehumanize him is to deny that someone can become such a monster.
U realy don't understand that there are demons in an human body..
Churchill was the only one who knowes about...high grade of freemasons..
@@edgarkrattiger9185 Yes because demons infesting humans is so much more believable then humans simply being able to be evil and cruel just like every other animal
@@edgarkrattiger9185
*Yeah, the demons of emotion.*
sadly that happens all the time to criminals, especially in america. that mentality of "people who do terrible crimes are monsters who deserve to die, they're nothing like us" is *one* of the many reasons why the rate of recidivism is so high in countries that are "tough on crime". In comparison, in the nordic countries where they focus more on rehabilitation, its less about good and evil and more about what turns people into killers or rapists, how we can prevent it in the future and how we aren't inherently better than criminals. usually...we're just luckier, when you really look at their lives in detail.
@@fibonaccisequins4637 It leaks into the culture on a smaller level too. That's why Americans are harsh on mistakes
Downfall is some of the best historical movies I've seen. Straight to the point and full of rich emotion.
Very good actors... This movie probably came as close as it gets to the real events that occurred at the final days of the fall of Germany .
The acting in this movie is some of the best i ever have seen.
No, it's not that good. I've seen better Hitler performances.
@@thomaswinkelmair9717 good for you.
@@thomaswinkelmair9717 Humor us. Please list them.
The most arrogant thing we do is call those who commit atrocious acts “monsters” and not “humans” as if we’re a seperate, less horrible species that couldn’t possibly do what they do.
I fully agree. I am Austrian, so we talked a lot about Hitler in school. I can still remember a classmate of mine saying that if he grew up back then he wouldn't have been a nazi, that it was impossible. Just looking at the stats, most of us probably would have celebrated nazi ideology if we were born in Germany at that time, and that is a horrifying, but important fact to remember.
atrocious acts are a way of life! Are they horrible? I thin NO! In NATURE we see it all the time and we are part of the Nature! We are - what we are!
Or perhaps change your perspective altogether and consider that all humans are in fact monsters. monsters are the standard
The error we make is thinking that it takes a Hitler to do all these atrocities while in reality he is the product of the society of that time and most of us wouldn't hesitate to bring him to power and unleash him on our enemies.
@@utzius8003 watch "die Welle" am awsome movie about this topic, its build on a True event.
I always appreciated how the circle of his control of even the bunker shrunk to almost nothing as the days went by. At the beginning, everyone had to go outside to have a smoke because Hitler hated smoking so much. And by the last day or so everybody is smoking and carousing not too far from where Hitler was. It was like Hitler had become irrelevant because everyone knew he was going to check out and they had to figure out their own fates.
nice point, i just realised this from your comment albeit i already watched the movie
@@evanmedi6144 discussing movies is as important as watching them, new details are found out by every beholder.
provided the film crew are competent.
Various "ministers" had "more pressing matters" outside the DOOMED Berlin. Or were trying, as the deluded Himmler hoped, to make a last-minute deal with the Allies, in hopes of having some role in post-war Germany. Whoever already didn't have their escape to South America planned had either a quick suicide by cyanide capsule or the "last bullet", or, if captured by the Americans or British, a war crimes trial and the "long drop" with a "short rope", or, if by the SOVIETS...to slowly rot in the Lubyanka, where they'd PLEAD for Beria to kill them.
If you ever work in a company that is circling the drain, it's a very similar feeling.
@@ThxGod_ItsOver internet conspiracy weirdo detected.
Seriously, take easy, enjoy life, go out.. live life instead of just waiting for the apocalypse..
When Downfall was released in Germany there was a huge debate whether Hitler should be shown as an ordinary human or being kept shown as the unbelievable monster from outer world with magical powers he was depicted as for decades. I still remember this time well and what a german satirist said regarding that discussion: "Well what else could he be depicted than a human being? He doesn't look like a carp to me, the ol' chap."
Portraying him as a human being eventually helped realizing that such times in fact can be repeated and that you have to be on constant watch.
Still dumb that the debate even had to happen... meanwhile Stalin and Mao killed far more people and created far more misery and there's people that idolise one or both of them and it's considered fine
Dont forget that such times can also be repeated by the people who keep watch aswell. So who will watch the watchers so they dont do what who they watch dont do what the watchers dont want the watchers to do?
@@SwedishEmpire1700 no se
He was a monster, cuddling with kids for Eva Braun camera while in the same time other kids were entering the gas chambers. This goes beyond any human for me. He was a human being but also a very sick psychopath. But most importantly his lunacy could go forward only bc of propaganda machine, Goebbels so nicely appropriated from American father of PR Edward Bernays. Just like Trump and the clique behind him these days, AH and nazi clique behind him could mumble WHATEVER with all capital letters, and it was taken as the truth, bc billboards and all media in Germany didn’t bring anything else, which is now equivalent of online disinfo and conspiracies. Conscious German opposition was eliminated and then all BELIEVED the nonsense of Aryan mythology, which originated in occult Thule Society, also nonsensically enhanced by hijacked ancient symbol of swastika. The biggest evil of AH can be only the tool of almighty propaganda. Without it he wouldn’t be able to proceed, the same as Trump, and others, today. To find, how we can get rid of propaganda for good, would be the end of whatever dictatorships. The question is though, why it’s not possible.
Well those times sure are being recreated worldwide now.
Undoubtedly one of the best WW2 based movies of all time. Bruno Ganz's most remarkable performance, and definitely the best portrayal of Hitler ever. Brilliant.
Maybe one of top 100 best WW2 movies. Secondly a movie where Germany profits from WW2. That's not good as this movie made money for German studies and they still haven't paid WW2 reparations.
@@peterc4082get a life
My thoughts exactly. This is one of the most powerful films ever made. The most terrifying thing about this movie is that Hitler is was all too human, and that as much as we may deny it, History does have a nasty habit of repeating itself. As for Bruno Ganz, not even nominating him for an Oscar shows how shallow Hollywood really is.
@CBI : Comment Bureau of Internet I think many people in the west have this weird unhealthy obsession with Hitler, compared to other dictators ( Mao, Stalin, Leopold ii, Tojo, Enver Pasha, Pol Pot, Kim il Sung, Mengistu Haile, Yakubu Gowon) he was nothing special.
Academy awards aren't always the best way to tell how good a film is. There was one time Elizabeth Taylor got the Academy Award for Butterfield 8; one gossip columnist claimed she got it for being sick, and Taylor agreed with her. A good film is tested by its impact and how it is looked at over time. In many respects the movie "Night of the Living Dead" which was seen as grotesque low budget horror, ended up becoming not just a cult favorite but also a culturally significant film. It has more impact than most Academy Award winning movies.
@@TheUstasha101 That’s because of constant bombardment from media and so on. I mean it’s not bad people are concentrated on it but it really diminishes the actions of other psychopaths.
@@TheUstasha101 Leopold II was a legal king, not a dictator, but I get it - mass genocide and stuff.
The Oscar's have always been a thinly-veiled marketing ploy. They're not a reliable source for much of anything.
Let's not forget that the man who played him in the movie. Bruno Ganz, pulled off an insanely brilliant performance.
He is carrying the movie on his shoulders.
Cheers!
Rest in piece, he delivered a timeless performance
Yes his performance was superhuman, but I thought all of the actors were superb, right down to the smallest parts. An amazing film, which I could ony watch for 10-15 min at a time, it was so dark and intense. I skipped over whole scenes because they were just too powerful. Only 2 other films come even remotely close: Das Boot and Conspiracy.
Damn, he had to dress up as an ugly @$$ man just to play the role. Not an easy feat.
I think he did a horrible job
@@freeeggs3811 what? Why? He did a great job
If anything, by humanizing Hitler, it makes him all the more vile: it shows that humans can truly be that evil, not just characters in popular media.
There no such thing as evil & good. That is given to us by the church; a really simplistic idea of the earth with binary method of judgement. Humans reflect the culture they are brought up in & live in.
One could say that we are all evil. We are destroying the planet, bio-diversity, & consume everything without a care. That is because we live in a very careless money orientated society. That is our sick culture. Are we all evil? No.
@@calderarecords Of course there’s such thing as good and evil. But there’s also a lot of mixture and grey areas. If u don’t think throwing men, women and children in ovens is not evil, ur a lost soul. Humans by nature r evil, but by having a moral code, u can fight your human evil.
@@xmanc5687 According to behavioral studies, that is a projection of our own values. I know this will result in cognitive dissonance so be prepared. But take beauty for example.. some cultures think stretching the neck, the tongue, etc is beauty. Others paint their teeth black. Insert silicone into their genitals etc.
There is no such thing as beauty. Good, Bad, etc. Humans reflect their culture. And like to think of their culture as the "correct one".
We have a lot to learn.
Wish I could see the responses. Anyway, the film's director said it best in 2015:
"Bad people do not walk around with claws like vicious monsters, even though it might be comforting to think so. Everyone intelligent knows that evil comes along with a smiling face."
@@pyromania1018 I Retort: *"There are no bad people. There are people with insufficient information to make appropriate decisions"* ~ Jacque Fresco
Look him up, because he has a scientific plan to get us out of this mess. B-)
To humanize Hitler is not the same thing as portraying him as a sympathetic figure. One sees a guy who is not only evil but also delusional and pathetic. It would be hard to create a cult around the guy depicted in this film
RIP Bruno Ganz, the great Swiss actor who passed away in 2019.
He had mixed feelings about the hundreds of so-called "Downfall Parodies" that spread like wildfire on UA-cam for a period. He didn't condemn them - far from it. In fact he described their creativity as "genius". Bu he also felt that they detracted from his performance, into which he had "put his heart and soul", and potentially from a very serious subject. This he also mildly regretted.
As the saying goes, he truly was a class act.
I respect it. We humans are deep wells of emotion, which can often conflict one another.
@@Nystariii So true.
That's really interesting makes sense, I've known about the downfall hitler parodies for 10 years but only watched the movie last year, I'm glad I did its probably one of the greatest ww2 films ever made.
Personally, the fact he didn't feel absolute revolt for the parodies is a testament to the scenes significance on both a personal and collective level.
Yeah it would have been great if ww2 didn't happened.... Germany might be or sure will be leading in many fields...it is what it is what more can we say, learned or repeat....a fool repeat his mistake and it takes genius to do that so not to worry much I guess...😌. Anyway appearance and worldly fames still futile to mankind, conquer it you conquer death. What did you gain if you own the whole world and lost your own soul"Lord's of lords".
I was 17 when I first watched the movie in school and Bruno Ganz played him so well I actually felt bad for Hitler for a moment. Brilliant actor, may he rest in peace.
yea me too, you would feel a little bit sad about anyone because its human nature to sympathize even if they don't deserve any
This film really left an impact on me. It's weird because I want to hate him, I know I should hate him, and therefore I do hate him, but in this film he was so lost in the dream he was living of being a God, not understanding the world around him because he was conditioned to feel infallible. I felt bad for this horrid person, and that is a testament to how good the performance really was.
Brilliant acting all round, they both played their characters well and in a lot of cases looked eerily accurate in appearance
@@you_were_the_chosen_one I was feeling bad for him when he was showing his dream city and telling he wanted to make skyscrapers even though he is a villan he had a big love for Germany . Germany got developed and has skyscrapers now so his dream is fulfilled but he is the worst human as he killed 6 million Jews people
@@Shivamkumar-uu9tu yeah Berlin today is thriving and completely rebuilt since 1945 when AH was in power.
Hitler... Compares himself to Napoleon...
Hitler... Loses to Russia like Napoleon
Because of weather
Like Napoleon
Hitler was very inspired by Napoleon's conquests and imitated him during the conquest of Europe. I know that there are only two days difference between their invasion of Russia, they reached their destination in September and and they both finish in December. Hitler aslo was very hopeful that during the siege of Berlin he would be able to die on the same day Napoleon did. Maybe he lost to England and Russia on purpose to be more like Napoleon 🤣😂🙈
@@thewtclshow9573 😂, funny Indeed but tbh the weather Thing IS a Myth...
REAL ISRAELITES OF THE BIBLE EXODUS 12:36-42KJV - The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. 37The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. 40Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD's divisions left Egypt. 42Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come. HITLER CAM,PERS WERE FROM 1941-45 AND FLEW TO PALESTINE UNINVITED IN 1948KJV! THEY ARE WHITE EUROPEANS PERPETRATING A FRAUD NOT THE ISRAELITES OF THE BIBLE.
@@magicfire763 The Russian invasion was actually supposed to happened 2 or 3 months prior, but the Italians, being Italians, weren't able to conquer Greece.
This guy’s analysis of key films leaves so-called film critics in the dust - their own bulldust. Spread the word about this channel. One of absolute best on UA-cam.
When I was a kid, I was taught that Hitler was such a supernaturally evil entity, that it was as though he became mythical as the devil. That is a problem, and many people still approach things in this way.
This film is essential, because it dispels a fundamental myth that has been taught to us since childhood.
It's those same people who are afraid of letting their children read Harry Potter.
That's the way I was taught too. That he was the ultimate evil and in turn gained a mythic status as the ultimate evil. But people loved him, he had a way with words that people agreed with him, many people even sympathized with him back then. It's important to remember that because any one of us is capable of the same.
My school dosent even teach hilter cause there been stretching OUR 100 YEAR HISTORY INTO 18 GRADES
@@GraveRoda I think that he should be humanized but he still was evil person, but in my opinion the true ultimate evil were Stalin and Kim dynasty.
@@Edax_Royeaux No it's not, it's the overwhelming majority who see Hitler as a devil-like figure and they don't even have to be religions to believe it.
We likely see people "as evil as Hitler" every single day. The only difference is that Hitler had the power to do the terrible things he did. Given the chance with that power, people we see every single day would do the same.
I totally agree.
People often deploy the most amount of power available to them, and over trivialities, no less. Just look at social media where words are weapons. The most powerful and damning labels are used to destroy other people. “Racist” and “Nazi” are the strongest words these people have and they deploy them in the bat of an eye.
Can you imagine if those same people were to obtain real power? Say, the power to command an armed force? You can bet they would use it to its fullest extent.
@@JezaLoki Exactly. When you listen to the goons at CNN talk about "the pandemic of the unvaccinated" they sound like they'd just as soon round people up and shoot them than behave like civilized Americans. And, you know that "the pandemic of the unvaccinated" is just code for "Trump supporters." Also, "insurrectionists." When you listen to Don Lemon and Joy Reid today, it probably sounded like Julius Streicher and Joseph Goebbels back in 1930s Germany.
@@yohannbiimu It’s a pandemic of the unvaccinated because it’s almost exclusively unvaccinated people who are getting sick and transmitting it to others. It is literally a pandemic that is sustained theough unvaccinated people. That’s not even an exaggeration, let alone doublespeak.
If you want to see doublespeak, just look at how right wing pundits use terms like “cultural marxism” when they really just mean “anyone who isn’t white straight and normal”.
@@jazaniac You obviously do not listen to the types like Don Lemon and Joy Reid (if not, then thankfully so) because they ALWAYS speak in terms of "us vs. them." And, "us" is always we're "listening to the science" (Joe Biden and "Dr." Fauci), and "them" is always "they're listening to Donald Trump." Joe Biden hasn't made a proper, positive decision yet, and Fauci flip-flops so often that his "medical judgment" changes literally by the hour, and typically the changes have political rather than medical consequences.
The problem with this narrative is that the vast majority of people who're unvaccinated are "people of color" who were told initially that *the vaccine is UNSAFE* (2020 pre-election Democrat propaganda) by the likes of Don Lemon and Joy Reid (also, Democrats in Congress, Democrats in the Senate, and Democrat presidential and vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris). That is a fact.
ALSO, there are unvaccinated people who have already survived the virus (over 99% of those who had gotten it), and they are less susceptible to the virus than those who are vaccinated. Have you noticed how many people who are "vaccinated" who're getting it? A couple of days ago, two members of "The View" were pulled off the air because they had it, and they were "vaccinated up the wazoo" (according to Joy Behar). Creepy Joe is mandating that even these people "need to be vaccinated," even though that is ridiculous.
There are also people who have medical reasons to be concerned about getting the "vaccine" (of which people keep getting sick regardless of receiving it), Their doctors may also be concerned because of their patient's medical condition and how it may negatively affect them. Joe Biden's dictates do not see these considerations and conditions.
Regarding cultural Marxism, that's literally a thing that disregards manners and institutions that keep healthy societies together and emphasizes sexual, racial, and cultural differences in order to divide and destroy us. Notice that it's only "enriching and strengthening" in "white" societies, but nobody is saying that to societies that aren't. I wouldn't dream of going to China or Japan and tell them that they "aren't diverse enough." I wouldn't go to Nigeria, Nicaragua, or Nepal and do that either. But, SOMEHOW, it's totally NECESSARY to do that here.
Do you want to know what concerns me? I'm concerned about schools educating people to be able to operate in the real world, where they'll be able to do things that will allow them to live properly and politely with others. I want people to be proud to be good, respectable citizens. They AREN'T getting that with the "education" they're getting with the CRT bullsh*t and "diversity" training from those who are teaching kids that the lives their parents brought them up in are "racist" because it wasn't "diverse." Kids are being taught to be ashamed of things that are beyond their control, and that is evil.
Marxism is evil. Its historical record is proof of that. To say so is to state a fact. Orwellian doublespeak is borne out of Marxist theory, in order to gaslight the public to believe things like "the pandemic of the unvaccinated", while ignoring the fact that the very same people said that the vaccine wasn't safe, solely because its source was tied to a hated political enemy. It's also tying things that were going well for America, like border security and energy independence, and doing the exact opposite things, simply because its sources were hated for political reasons. So, now our borders no longer exist and we're having to import oil because Biden has shut down our pipelines. We're not even a nation anymore.
One more thing, nobody is telling you that you shouldn't receive government services because we do not march in lockstep with your political dogma. That is what is happening on YOUR side. The people on YOUR side are the totalitarians, not us.
@@JezaLoki Those leftist types already have some power. Anyway the way to beat those insults is too accept them and see it as a good thing.
The film that launched a thousand memes. Jokes aside this is one of the best WW2 films of all time.
together with The Rise Of Evil
@@god-hx7iw Rise of evil? I hear that the actor playing Hitler did a terrible job.
Btw the original bunker film is on UA-cam for free. It’s actually not bad( Anthony Hopkins Hitler)and the book is good too.
And one of the best recent documentaries would be Third reich rise and fall, American version not the British narrator. On UA-cam for free.
@@god-hx7iw total garbage
Alongside Come and See and Grave of the Fireflies
Stalingrad (the german one ofc) is great too
I particularly like the subtle acting when Hitler is interviewing the secretary candidates. He makes his way down the line, and he is ALREADY glancing toward Traudl Junge. You can tell that he already wants to hire her, and is simply being polite to the other candidates.
BTW, Traudl Junge was a real person (born 1920, died 2002). She is the old woman who is interviewed at the beginning and ending of the film, and the film is based loosely on her memoir (Until the Final Hour).
Traudl Junge's father was one of hitlers earliest followers,a close friend of Sepp Dietrich and was with Hitler at the Putsch,Hitler knew exactly who she was-he would have been briefed on them all
By humanizing him, it makes him even more horrifying. A regular human was able to do that much atrocity
Yup
Yup
I mean if I had the power to kill most ppl on Earth then I would so only me and my friends could enjoy all of it ourselves but maybe that's just me 🤷♂ I don't think human life is any special, just another biological system like all the other.
Its not that hitler was evil. Everything done was in the most scientific and mathematically advanced country in the world for its time. Germany was a country of science and proof of concept. Everything had to be proven true to be accepted. Yet it only took inconveniences and government policy chances on people to be swayed into a new direction. No Hitler was not evil nor his country. They were all reasonable human beings. Which makes it all the more scary; as at some point it shall happen again.
@@Danuxsy *_aaaaaand_* this is how sociopaths are made and how they become H-men with funny mustaches
RIP Bruno Gantz. Mr Gantz deserved Oscar for role in this masterpiece.
They should still award one to him posthumously. I am sure it will mean a lot to his family.
REAL ISRAELITES OF THE BIBLE EXODUS 12:36-42KJV - The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. 37The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. 40Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD's divisions left Egypt. 42Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come. HITLER CAM,PERS WERE FROM 1941-45 AND FLEW TO PALESTINE UNINVITED IN 1948KJV! THEY ARE WHITE EUROPEANS PERPETRATING A FRAUD NOT THE ISRAELITES OF THE BIBLE.
@@ThxGod_ItsOver Bro this is a UA-cam video not a church
@@ThxGod_ItsOver you good bro?
@@ThxGod_ItsOver good and dandy, thank you very much! ☺️👌
Remember: “My brethren, be not many many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation” Peter 3:1 KJV
“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach patient. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” 2 Timothy 2:24-26 KJV
“Screaming” and writing out random verses doesn’t help anyone. Relax dude and reflect, you might be troll and well… I hope you do well in life? Stop embarrassing yourself. Blessings!
The actor that played Hitler should have won a Oscar
Oscar doesn't deserve him
That would be white supremacy…get it?!!!
I’ll see myself out.
@@jeeyyung1421 preach it. He was so freaking brilliant ❤
@@nemanjadelevingne4108yes
@@nemanjadelevingne4108 And oscar sucks all those awards just not that valuable
My mom used to put on this video as background noise for a long time and I never really understood as a kid but was intrigued. As an adult it’s extraordinary. Truly Oscar worthy and I love it from beginning to end
How old are you?
@@deepspacedruid7673I would hope this creature meant the film and not this video in particular,otherwise that would mean the creature is an absolute tragedy
It annoys me when people say that any small moments in this film portraying Hitler being in any way “nice”, such as being kind to Traudl when she makes a dictation error, are making him seem like a good person and not a monster. That is such a ludicrous misconception. You can be evil and be polite at the same time, be generous at the same time; _you are still evil._ Evil people are not 2-D, inhuman monsters, and trying to fit them into a binary link that distorts the truth of what humans are like, and makes us fail to recognise genuine evil. Downfall shows us a flawed human being who deceived and manipulated others, and compels us to see within.
"There are no good & bad people. No such thing as benevolent & evil people. All humans reflect their culture" ~ Jacque Fresco 1916-2017
Frankly, here's a hot take. Hitler was only one piece in the litany of human evil. The fact that he is held up as the Devil is absurd.
Sure, he was a monster. But so was Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, etc.
History is filled with monstrous people. But whatever the monstrous deeds they did, they were human. And exploring that humanity is critical to understanding how and why they did what they did.
@@Killzoneguy117 The politicians of today are bigger "Monsters" because they sit on their hands as the human race collapses globally as Scientists shout solutions in their ears.
I agree with all your points though. And recognise your abilities of Critical Thinking.
Trouble is intelligence is at an all time low & hysteria is at an all time high. A race of useless mindless wage slaves at best!
If he wasn't at all forgiving and gave zero leeway he'd never had got into that position. He believed what he was saying, there's zero doubt that he was evil but he was also human with friends, family and pets which he obviously cared for but dig a little deeper like his relationship with his niece and you soon realise he wasn't entirely reasonable like a normal person. He clearly cared deeply for her but his own actions led, sadly, to her death.
@@mrcaboosevg6089 Hitler really did not have any friends. Hitler had henchmen. The closest thing to a friend Hitler had as far as anyone can tell is Speer. And that relationship wasn't really warm. Hitler just admired Speer for what Speer could do. Which was impressive. Production increased right up until the end of the war.
You can't prevent evil if you refuse to understand it.
True but certain evil cannot be understood
@@Hxhjli No
@@Hxhjli did you know that Hitler never hated the Jews cos of their beliefs but due to their actions namely they controlled both the financial & media sectors of Germany pre WW I thus influencing business, politics & morals. They were also responsible for the failed attempted communist coup after Germany's defeat in 1918 which was rather successful a year earlier in Russia due to the Bolshevik uprising orchestrated by Jews as well. Karl Marx the founder of communism was also Jewish hence Hitler's hatred was founded on a political motive rather than a religious one.
yup which is why people must understand the weimer republic.
Important documentary on this topic: ua-cam.com/video/jO659PP_unQ/v-deo.html
Honestly, watching this film feels like watching a person dying.
That’s actually the perfect analogy
Everyone in the film is going through the 5 stages of grief.
@Botched Operations warcriminal Soviets
@Botched Operations billions? I don't think that many people existed in Europe back then
@Botched Operations hmmm ...
0:17 DID SOMEONE SAY TAHITI
Comparing Hitler and Trump? Well trump has recently literally quoted Hitlers speeches soooooooo
Yeah, his Vice President
DUTCH!!!! MICAH!!!!!!!!!
@@ajackass5950 Trump compares to other historical fascists, not just Hitler.
IVE GOT A PLAN, ONE FINAL PLAN
"Anyone who has the power to lift you up has the power to throw you down". That is an epic line!
My grandmother grew up in Berlin during this time. She was 13 when the war ended and remembers Hitler's rise to power. He was first presented as a politician for the people, who stood up for the poor and impoverished (my grandmother and her family's class). He had a housing bill that they were able to get a better home through, she shook his hand as a little girl when he came to her school.
It's how dictators can begin; as just a person, a politician, someone who may claim to be of the people. He wasn't just sprung onto the scene as who he went down in history as
If she was 13 when the war ended in 1945 it is impossible for her to remember him rising to power as he completed rising to power in 1933 when she was 1 year old.
@@rdgmobile6882 I guess I should have said "she remembers Berlin before the war and before he became known as the Hilter he is today", and maybe I have the dates mixed up, she may have been closer to 15/16, she had said that the war stopped her education because of the conflict and she had been in elementary school(or the German equivalent)
But the point was she remembers Hilter before the was the one history remembers him as.
Dictatorship begins by persuasion of people, then people will bring you the throne.
@@ItsAstie I understand you watched TV or read a book and now feel entitled to speak wise words but unfortunately this was nonsense.
@@kampf5379 crazier was roosevelt, stalin and churchill
This is the best Hitler in the bunker movie because Germans had the balls to make it themselves AND they didn't shy away from what actually happened. None of that Hollywood Tarantino crap, just good acting and a story that cuts deeper than fiction.
It almost felt like a documentary wrt the realism.
Tarantino crap? 😖
@@indobalkanizer6557 yes
Strongly agree. Das Boot, Stalingrad (1993), Downfall and recently All Quiet on the western Front shows that if there’s one thing German cinema knows how to do really well, it’s war movies.
This is a generalization but the most interesting and thought provoking WWII films have been made by the Germans and Russians.
Hitler: ah, I’ve made many mistakes becoming a dictate, you’ll be fine.
Stalin: ah,
*gunshot*
Bruno Ganz did not even get a nomination for the Oscar, which is just ridiculous. The best acting I have ever seen!
Was Downfall even nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar for that year?
Wasn't an American movie
Absolutely. His was the best portrayal of this Demagogue…ever played. Alec Guinness was quite good also. Mr. Ganz however takes the Prize. In fact the whole cast was Stellar.
As, a historical lesson…it’s Important to view the darker side of Humanity.
What leads to that situation.
Hitler was created. Not Magic. Politics…Economics….The fall of Empire, All had a hand in this recipe.
Today, similar seeds are being sown in America.
Same recipe. Same Lies.
Who might then in future times will play the Orange Narcissist?
History Repeats.
I can agree it's damn good acting, but I can't imagine anyone presenting an award for being really good at being friggin' H i t l e r.
I think it was political, I can't see the Academy nominate someone for playing Hitler. which is ridiculous of course.
If there’s one thing this movie taught me is to always blame Fegelein.
LMAO... Underrated joke.. Nice one
The film taught me to look forward for Steiner's attack to save Berlin..
@@chrysecreative5575 This film taught me that Wenck will always come
Speer called him one of the most disgusting members of Hitler's inner circle. He was himmlers lapdog. So u can imagine the things he did under his orders. The theft and rape before the murders were his special touch though.
Why not blame the German? (Edward Richtofen).
I always fight back when someone calls a criminal like Hitler a monster. There are no real monsters. It's exactly because those people are humans that they have such capacity for evil. This is one of the most important films. It really gives you that feeling of being there with the people portrayed because you know all of this really happened.
Demonizing someone is a way for us to cope with actions we do. Sometimes people do bad things but say “well I’m not as bad as ____”
Bruno Ganz should have won the Oscar for his powerful performance.
Hitler's life and persona, like any one of us, are marked by past events, traumas, loss and once the smoke of loss cleared out, a sense of hatred, anger, and revenge.
It is impossible to not put so many aspects of Hitler's life into question, such as for instance: If he lived which at that point was the most terrible war to have ever been waged, how could he participate and even pour more fuel into an even bigger and more deadlier one?
What Eva Braun says about him in the film says in the film is true, Hitler's dog, his sense of humor, it all feels like accessories rather than part of the actual man himself, because in a way, he was and had nothing before the First World War broke out, his parents were dead, few of his siblings were still alive and he was broke and homeless in the streets of Vienna. But when the war broke out he found purpose and wanted to enlist in the German Army, he had fallen in love with Germany despite being Austrian through his love for history, and he was once part of the masses that he would later on control and charm with his words and his goals. When Germany surrendered, it was the point of no return, he couldn't go back to the way things were, because the past was not any better than the present he lived in, and the future was going to be nothing more than a parody of what Germany once was, which is why he rejected it and went into politics.
It should also be pointed out that Hitler's beliefs were constantly evolving, he did not invent general anti-semitism, many in the german population believed it firmly, which is how he bought into it, he did not invent the "stab in the back myth", Luderndorff did, it was those around him that began to mold him in a way. His biggest charateristics were both bravery (which he was decorated for in WW1) and his ability to elevate things to a mythical level that would be his biggest strength, and weakness, in 1944 Traudl Junge (Hitler's secretary who also wrote the book which Downfall used as a source) thought that Hitler was perhaps thinking about a political solution that could end the war, until Operation Valkyrie happened. After Valkyrie's failure he firmly believed that Fate protected him and that it was a message from God to keep fighting the war.
All of his beliefs, and why the German people kept fighting even as the places they once called home were buried in the rubble, was the resignation of individualism, the kind of individualism and belief in democracy which was rampant in the Weimar Republic and is now the norm today, and instead working towards an ideal, something that would last even when death took them away from the world. It's why he died in Berlin instead of fleeing when the opportunity presented itself so many times. And that also captivated others who didn't betray him yet or who were fighting the inevitable outside to stay with him as long as he lived.
How could it not be appealing that a boy who had nothing to live for became a man that changed the world? Perhaps that simple idea of having nothing and then having everything is enough to turn any human being into a tool, a weapon, a resource to be used. It's the most intoxicating, most beautiful, and yet the most terrible and most deadly thing to have ever happened in this world.
Tldr
@@shotty2164 There is no tldr, read, it does not take that long.
Maybe if Hitler was admitted to the art academy he wished, things would have gone very different.
Let people follow their artistic desires even if an examiner says they have not "talent", it can save us a lot of pain.
@@andsalomoni
I actually really doubt that because of the outbreak of WW1, I think he would have enlisted anyway and everything would have happened even if he had joined the art academy, one of the biggest reasons why he went into politics was because of the fact that Germany lost WW1, and the Treaty of Versailles that followed right after, aswell as the rise of communism which felt like a real threat in Germany.
When our Governments demonise an individual such as Hitler, it is a duty to question such ideas greatly. I’ve learned this throughout my life. Sadam Hussein was also demonised, he did not have any weapons of mass destruction, in fact that war was only about oil, the worry of a petrodollar replacement (potentially obtaining poppies also) and stripping further tax money for the industrial war complex. The US and U.K. government lied about that war, as they did with every other that they’ve started or been involved in one way or another. Let’s not forget that is was the US that vaporised hundreds of thousands of (at least some innocent) people. Now they do similar acts with drones. They demonise individuals just justify their morally questionable decisions to their own citizens. The masses need to start thinking more and they should distrust their government narrative as much as their government distrusts their citizens.
I’ve always thought it was arrogant to call evil people “monsters”, as though they are a different species. To deny an evil person humanity, is to deny the lesson that they inadvertently create, that is, to not become like them.
Hitler, same as Stalin, Pol Pot, Mussolini, or whatever other dictator, are all human. To stop evil, we must understand evil, and that begins with accepting that these “monsters” of history were as human as you or I.
Eh. That's one way to stop evil.
There's more ways. Ask Seal Team 6.
I don't see a problem calling evil people "monsters," because _people_ are monsters period.
@@CoralCopperHead People are sentient.
Monsters are not.
Hitler wasn't a wolf or a lion, he was a man.
@@CoralCopperHead not everyone realises such, unfortunately.
I mean some are really are
People often enjoy the thought of killing Hitler as a child or a baby. When in fact it was his history that led him to become what he was, it was a series of bad experiences that no one would like to happen to them.
We can talk about hating Hitler, but for some reason we are silent about giving people beautiful lives in general. I've slowly come to conclude that we as humans should stop relying on scapegoat and look into ourselves and others who need help instead.
I don’t hate Hitler
People prefer simple solutions. You don´t have to be a bad person to enjoy the thought of eliminating hitler to safe millions of lifes when turning him to a good person appears to be a much more troublesome attempt with unclear outcome.
Scapegoats have been around for almost all of human history and more often than not they only lead to a bad perspective of reality. If one day this issue gets better it will be not by getting rid of scapegoats, as human nature naturally tries to find a scapegoat, but by treating scapegoats less seriously.
Also a good point BlueCrate has is that it is important to learn about the bad things that happened but even more important it is to learn what lead to these things happening.
However, the sad truth is that we will never get rid of scapegoats, making all people's lives better will be extremely difficult. There's always a 'reason/cause of' why things aren't able to get better. But I hope for our future that we can finally bite the bullet and push past the reason/cause for a problem and find the solution to the problems.
Understand why the bad influences cause bad things to happen, but do not excuse not blame, *Solve*.
_This has been my TED talk_
@@freeeggs3811 then you are insane
@@vmonk2 thank you
The killing of the children was beyond horrific and tragic. The parents, not so much. A crime family meeting it’s end. Inconsequential compared to the horrors to come.
Never forget he was human. Know that the line between good and evil runs through the hearts of every human.
The problem of man is the sinful nature we all have i herited from adam, we naturally bend towards evil and if not rescued by faith in Christ we all head to eternal damnation
It's that people have the *potential* to become 'evil' given circumstances and various life factors. Just so happened they all aligned for people like Hitler.
Agreed. Ignoring someone's humanity even if they made undeniably evil choices makes it difficult to understand what went wrong for that person to be in the positon they were in. Analysing his personality, emotions, the reason for his decisions, tactics when rising to power means we can avoid allowing people like him from obtaining power in the future.
@@alexm7627 Gtfo with that Christian bullshit
@@Python-xs2iv its funny you should say this in the comment section of a christian channel, God bless you and may you come to know His love
A film about Stalins mental insanity in his last years would be so perfect, The Death of Stalin sort of did it but portraying all the brutal court intrigue of the Soviet Union surrounding a man slowly dying, both mentally and physically, as the godlike figure that surrounds him stays erect, it’d be a great angle
Stalin was more disease addled than truly insane. In the last few months he had dementia from progressive brain disease, he was permanently in his dacha and needed help to get from his office to bed. He was lucky he lived into his 70's after all the nearly fatal diseases he had in his childhood that had cumulative affects as an adult. Stalin wasn't ever really "insane". The opposite, he was a master tactician and everything he did has a purpose. He didn't arbitrarily kill people there was always a purpose to what he did. It's what set him apart from the other dictators of his time, he was capable of rational thought and valued the importance of the opinions of others to a point.
A good way to show is paranoia and vindictiveness would be Death of Lenin or Death of Trotsky. I'd love to see Death of Lenin.
For a few days in late 1941it looked like the U.S.S.R. would collapse. Stalin went to his dacha. After a few days the Soviet leadership followed him there and begged him to lead them. One would have expected them to blame him for the disaster and have him arrested. They probably could have done so. But the C.P.S.U. was so far under his spell that they had no confidence to rule without him.
@@juliaeastbourne6310 he had so fully terrorized the party with his show trials and what happened to Trotsky who had outshined him. They were too afraid to take any ounce of control for fear of drawing his jealousy and ire.
A high budget movie about the Pacific Front from the Chinese perspective would be interesting, too. I find it interesting that the vid uploader is blaming Hitler for all 50 million casualties, when at least 10 million of those are from Stalin's purge (rendering his military ineffective) and his complete disregard for human life... And another 15 million are from Japan's invasion and massacre of Chinese civilians.
This was not a war of a single villain. It was a war of a lot of evil. Even the so-called "allies" left Poland out to dry. No one gave a crap about Poland and it reflects in their 17% population loss. No one. America didn't even enter the war, until December 1941.
@@manictiger
TBF, the American public were still traumatized and angry that many of their boys died or injured in World War 1, a war which most Americans didn't care about and understandably didn't want anything to do with it.
This is why the Democrats lost the 1920 Presidential elections and the US didn't join the League of Nations (despite being their idea) and FDR had to exploit as much loopholes as he can to aid the British.
If he had redirected all that rage and hatred, he could have easily been a person who brought good to the world. He could have been on par with Orson Welles in oration.
The thing that still baffles me about Hitler, was that he loved animals. He was well known to be quite affectionate with his dog, but he had no compassion for other people
People are odd, aren't we?
Hitler was a huge animal rights activist, as he banned the boiling of live lobsters, among other things.
However, here‘s a weird piece of trivia. He also banned human zoos.
He was abusive towards his dog. Not really capable of true compassion. A man who's psyche was highly damaged during childhood (abuse, trauma).
@@zilpzalpmukkefukk he wasnt abusive lmao. His dog was probably the living creature he liked the most.
@@Suo_kongque Jesus, if he could've performed a fraction more of mental gymnastics, he could just genocided poverty, lack of healthcare, anything!
@@zilpzalpmukkefukk he cared for his dog like no other and kept her to the end. he treated her extremely well (up until the point where he ordered her to be poisoned shortly before him and his wife) and it's very possible she was one of the few things out there that hitler truly loved
As a student of WWII specifically Nazi history, I really enjoyed your analysis. No bias, no crass remarks, just the human nature behind the decisions and "how did we get here?"
Bruno Ganz was absolutely amazing in the movie...
Truly, this depiction will never be beaten.
I agree
The acting was superb but i didn't really like how hitler was portrayed as a maniac, i don't know if it's historically accurate but it felt highly exaggerated. This video talks about humanizing hitler yet in the movie it felt like the writers depicted him as a generic villain from a fictional story
@@phatlewt2932 in a bring of collapsed of his country any leader would act like that if a person he's command disobey to do what he think can make a difference
Hitler wasn’t a monster or a devil. He was just a man, and seeing him as such helps us understand the dark side of humanity. He’s remembered more for his crimes and less for who he was as a person. I think seeing him for who he really was is important for us to really be able to understand the man.
It's not about him as a person really, it's about how dangerous it is to evangelize some guy who talks cool stuff. Because humans are flawed and if you put someone on a pedesteal that had good/genius written on it you stop to observe reqlity and you're gonna excuse stupid/horrid actions.
Same with another example that's (so far) somewhat harmless:
Elon Musk. His fans see him as good/a saviour/a genius. They see no fault in him and excuse every dumb thing he does. And Elon Musk keeps up the propaganda that now includes his hordes of fans. He doesn't even need to cover his f***-ups. His fans will explain them away.
Gro a brain ffs he was murderous why jews
Yes, he was known for being polite and well mannered, at the same time as having Jews injected, gassed and being experimented on, including having babies drowned in buckets. Remember though his nazi followers were just as bad, like Joseph Mengele for instance. He was more of a monster than his boss could ever be.
That's not what a man does,a man goes home to care and protect people that is matters to him,to go home as a man without being called immoral or evil.
@@mickryan2450 What?
We must never forget that he was human. He didn't have anything special that made him any different from you or me. Thats the lesson, and the warning
True. Except he was not an ordinary person. He was a narcissit with unshakable self-confidence.
@@mrplayfulshade Bruh
@@monty7342 the same jews are now trying to take palestine from muslims
@@scottslotterbeck3796that's a human quality that anyone can possess.
@@scottslotterbeck3796Um, look at a lot of content creators and social media influencers... literally the same.
The best thing about Downfall is the claustrophobic feeling throughout that steadily grows. It is both a direct and metaphoric representation of the state of Germany at the time. The apocalyptic microcosm of the Nazi officials sinking into the abyss that is the bunker and metaphorically the war itself. This film is about the downfall into such abyss. It is a civilisation crumbling but still desperately hanging on. The claustrophobia further gives to the rising madness of everyone inside the bunker, the absurd discussions of cyanide, the wedding, etc. The best sequence that shows this visually is when General Weidling descends into the bunker. We go through each checkpoint and every minutia of the landscape as if he and his adjutant are slowly stepping down into hell itself.
The other thing that I like about Downfall is that it is also just as much a portrait of the German people at the time as one of Hilter himself. It is not just Hitler's own downfall into the abyss, but everyone around him and the whole of the German people. There are so many side-characters, subplots, vignettes, etc. that get forgotten but are just as good as the main plot of the bunker. Broadly, it shows three kinds of Germans in the last few days.
There are the fanatical, the Goebbels, Eva Braun, the crying nurse, the teenage girl at the AA gun, Reitsch the ace pilot, etc. These represent the part of Germany that would gladly get shot, swallow cyanide, or shoot themselves at the very end along with the Führer himself, the sector of German society that would gladly sink with him into the abyss.
Then there are the pragmatic yet steadfast, the professional Wehrmacht generals, particularly Weidling and Mohnke (although SS). They are not as fanatical to the Führer as the former group but are willing to stick to their oaths and to whatever end that the war may reach (albeit mistakenly as would later turn out for Keitel and Jodl at Nuremberg). We even see Mohnke clash with Goebbels over the effectiveness of Volksturm fighters; one is trying to get the best tactical chance for survival of the city, and maybe even the regime, whilst the other only cares about the symbolic glory. These of this kind have picked their nightmare and are going to stick with it until the end. They represent the vast majority (or at least plurality) of ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers, nurses, etc. who, although not willing to go all the way into the abyss with Hitler, are actively trying to crawl the country out of it even if it means falling into it by failure.
Then there are realists, Dr. Schenk, the one-armed veteran, and even Speer somewhat, who see the end for what it is. They have decided that oath and personal loyality to the regime no longer matter and that pure survival of themselves and others around them do. They are getting out of the abyss altogether and are not looking back, if only to save a few behind. These are the good ones who mostly have good convictions like Schenk who try to save as many civilians. But there is also a subgroup of this kind, the bad ones, the selfish survivors, Himmler, Göring, etc.
There is one final kind, Traudl and the boy, the lost impressionable ones who found themselves out of the abyss but could have fallen in with the fanatics. They represent the majority of civilians who were charmed by Hitler but emerge at the end outside in the sunset among the ruins. They would build a new Germany in the wake of the old one that sunk with Hitler and the rest in the bunker.
RIP Bruno Ganz. He was literally perfect for this role as Adolf Hitler. His performance was insanely incredible and realistic. No one will ever be able to top him in acting as the fuhrer.
Hitler was a human being. I know, what a shocker.
Unfortunately for some people it us a shocker.
That’s debatable.
@@lemonadelemon1960 i hope youre making a joke
@@tunderstorm2769 I wish I was. Human is not what I’d use to describe him. But go off.
@@lemonadelemon1960 accept reality as it is and stop with the copium
I'm very much in favour in humanising Hitler , the Nazis , Mao, Stalin and even Pol Pot ect in order to better understand human nature and how to handle it in a meaningful way
I agree with this here. The big problem is human nature. Society has tried many ways to mitigate human nature over 3k years. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Marxism, social justice, fascism, nazism communism. None of these practices work when it comes to mitigate human nature and people can take things to the extreme and followers go all in it.
We really need more movies about the final days of Stalin, Mao, and pol pot to understand them better.
Pol Pot was no human, he was something else
@@Bronxguyanese You seemed to have missed capitalism in your list.
@@pancytryna9378 You mean a dictator funded by the CIA? Yea, he was that. He also didn't institute:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalplan_Ost
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust
Which makes him more human than Hitler.
What a wonderful review. I admit that the reason I watched the movie was because of the parodies of the scene where he has his meltdown. It's a fantastic film that I would recommend to everyone.
That was a brilliant video! Very well written and definitely makes me want to go back and re-watch this one again.
Racist
@@vincedhilandulay7798 ?
@@vincedhilandulay7798 what.
Fancy meeting you here sir.
The race commie is here what a surprise in the comments of another person who likes to say “everyone racist” I just watched your vid that got more dislikes then likes of you “reviewing” “ain’t I right” you are commie trash and deny it
“Downfall” is one of my all-time favorite films, and not just from the WWII genre. It is a fascinating character study, brilliantly executed, and yes, laden with warnings about how easily millions of good people can be led into disaster.
9
sry easy? it wasnt easy for hitler...ww2 happened because of ww1...without the treaty of versailes hitler never had become enough followship.
the treaty of versailes was the amber that ignited ww2...the perfect justified motivation to fight again from a german viewpoint.
@Rain89 Skarlet
Hitler didn't rise from the Treaty of Versailles alone, if that was true, the Nazis would have risen in the early 20s.
Plenty of factors led to Hitler's rise, the great depression and political instability.
Dictators and tyrants operate through chaos. They stir it up just so they can say they can fix it. And that's what downfall and other works warn against. Beware of putting too much faith in one leader.
@@rain89skarlet80 it is a bit more complicated. It played a part, but there were several reasons
"Humanizing humans is inhuman."
- Some Human, probably.
@@ThxGod_ItsOver What did you say?
Human moment
This looks weird but I'm leaving that comment for I know that one day he will return.
@@exterminator1107 Emperor of mankind moment.
Ah, human music
No one can get to where he was without being charismatic. There’s a light and a dark to charisma.
rizz
Well he also had a pretty cool mustache as well
He was well known as a great orator. There is a famous picture of him practicing a speech.
Chaplin’s stache was better!
The dark side of rizz
What I found interesting in Downfall that wasn't touched on here...
...was how self-selecting the bunker occupants were. The people closest to Hitler at the end were those who did not want to lead and were happy to let the man with full confidence lead. This isn't just that everyone has that weakness...it is that these people got those positions BECAUSE they were willing to let Adolf lead.
They had committed to it. They had wrapped their lives around it. They had, in many cases, done horrible things to get to the bunker and stay in Adolf's inner circle. When it becomes obvious that it is all going to end...it's not just the nation that is dying...and its not just their neighbors that will die. Their dreams, their life's work, EVERYTHING is going to go up in smoke.
PLUS, the Russians and those who they oppressed to get and stay near Adolf are going to come and get their revenge. By the time of the film, there really was no real choice for most of these people but to continue to support Hitler until they personally died. Because that death would likely be better than the one they would be subjected to if they tried to run or retreat.
That is definitely worth pointing out. Many of the ministers cut and ran the first chance they got. And they definitely had no good option left, that’s for sure.
The post is about Hitler, not Downfall. See if you can separate the two in your mimf.
Uh no that's not what happened at all. In the last few weeks Hitler and his inner circle were trying to get others to flee to the West away from the Russians. They weren't scared that Hitler was going to shoot them for trying to leave. Where do you people come up with this nonsense?
A lot of them fled Germany
General Guderian described Hitler as a gambler in a casino who went on an incredible run, from success to success, doubling down every time and winning for basically 16 years up until December 1941. Then when the war turned against him he simply could not believe that he was going from one failure to another. He often commented to Guderian that he could not understand how everything had gone so wrong. Guderian replied, "change your methods".
"Men are more moral than they think and far more immoral than they can imagine."
Sigmund Freud
The same guy who said little boys and girls have feelings towards their parents? Ironic
The one you thing he got right.
@@MoldycheeseJr Because someone says one thing that's wrong(which it may or may not be I'm not qualified to answer I'm not a psychologist or neuro-professional) doesn't mean everything they say is wrong.
@@bigvinnie3 I was saying that it was very ironic
@@MoldycheeseJr Freud is indeed high on his own stuffs because of his Mouth Cancer and Morphine treatment addiction to Oedipus Complex drug, but he's the father of Psychoanalysis for a reason.
I've heard about this man's backstory, and he was a troubled person. His father was unkind to him, society didn't take him seriously, and he came home from war defeated. I wonder if someone were to go back in time, give him some useful life advice, possibly even be his friend and lead him away from the dark places in his mind, would he turn out to be a more pleasant person.
Yes , his father punished him severely.
@@laza6141 on a serious note,
His father punished him severely.
Maybe Kanye West would be the best friend he always needed?
😁
@@Menaceblue3 Kanye Hess
@@saladsnake8289 These insults enraged Adolf's father, who punished him severely.
It's much easier to just slap a "monster" label on Hitler, or any other genocidal dictator for that matter, and call it good, but doing so misses the chance to learn. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were undeniably awful people, but they were people nonetheless, people that others genuinely believed in. To pick them and their popularity apart, to portray them as we would another person and not just a demon wearing a human mask allows us to understand how they got to where they did so we can avoid such catastrophic mistakes in the future.
What about Bush and Blair both war criminals should have been sent to independent war crimes Tribunal 🤔
@@TheMiketyson9 which bush?
@@plorabare Only one Bush has been convicted of War Crimes, so which one do you think???
@@plorabare Doesn't matter. Bush 1 invaded Panama, Bush 2 invaded Iraq. Both unjustified, both killed lots of civilians, both war criminals.
Hmm yes morality is human
Being a child is seeing Hitler as a monster
Being an adult is seeing Hitler as a human being
Most of the people get stuck in the childish view sadly
Traudl Junge was released by the Russians, who declared her a "Young Follower," rather than a war criminal. In an interview, she said that she also attributed her willingness to work for Hitler as due to her youth. Then, she said, she came across a monument in Munich to Sophie Scholl, and 2 others who were executed for taking a stand and trying to tell people the truth about the war. She saw that Scholl had been the same age at her death, as Junge was when she went to work for Hitler. Traudl Junge realized that her youth had been no excuse. May she rest in peace.
I wish Spielberg or other filmmakers would make a movie about the heroism of Sophie Scholl.
@@TheMotz55 'The Final Days of Sophie Scholl' is on UA-cam. Excellent movie.
@@TheMotz55there is a great German film about the Scholl siblings
The most important lessons are made from the worst mistakes.
Sad but true. 😢
I had to make a whole presentation about him in 9th grade (I'm German btw) and stumbled on a lot of events, that happened in his live. It's unbelievable, that no one gets teached in school, how much of a broken man he was, on top of the narcissism & nationalism
He was your average incel, with a shity life that made him revolted. But surviving the war give him confidence to spread his radical ideals, and a lot of people bought it because of how much germany was suffering in the post war.
@@TheEmolano how was he an incel?
Nothing wrong with nationalism. Community , home and family always come first.
In addition, and I speak as a college professor, the Treaty of Versailles was entirely unfair to the people of Germany. Let’s not forget that the Allies created the given circumstances where a character like Hitler could rise to power. I’m not justifying the Holocaust. Not in the least. But there is so much more to the story than what is written in history books.
@@mizubiart6230 false
This analysis of Downfall is the most disturbing and precise of its kind, I have ever watched. You are spot on. Please consider to make a PDF version of it. Subscribed.
I feel like this was a way of saying “you can keep denying things like you’re the only one who’s right, or you can man up and accept that things cannot change and we have to learn from it”
This wasn't just a film review, it was a history lesson. An amazing history lesson.
It’s one of the most incredible movies I’ve ever seen. The entire cast was brilliant but Bruno Ganz was especially spellbinding. You really believed you were watching Hitler.
I think that human beings naturally imagine Hitler as an evil monster. It seperates him from the rest of humanity and allows us to think that there was just something horribly wrong with him that we could never experience. When we are forced to face his humanity it's scarier. It makes it clear that monsters are men. Any of us can fall into this same trap and become monsters ourselves..... Great analysis
STALIN BUSH BASTARDS OBAMA CLINTON HESTON
No, not anyone can fall into that trap. The proof being that not everyone has. People have both individual traits and cultural norms that don't allow every kind behavior to flourish. The silliness of this video (and probably the movie) is that it's trying to separate the psychological from the political, which is impossible. These people are not just devoted to Hitler, but they may also deeply subscribe to fascistic ideologies or appreciate the changes in their economic positions or are antisemitic. Those things have a tremendous effect on personal psychology. In places where those kids of things things factor less in society (for example, few rigid hierarchies) becoming so monstrous and loving monsters is less likely. Conversely, tough times or a rough existence often can create a sense of generosity and mutual dependence. If that trap, as you call it, was easy to fall into we all would be a lot worse off.
And please remember, no one is imagining AH as an evil monster. He left a lot of empirical information that he was exactly that. If anything is truly natural about human thought it's that we are informed by the reality around us.
@@Eff_It I disagree
@@Kim-bp1kb Obviously.
@@Kim-bp1kb yes because I would totally fall down the trap of killing thousands.
Quit talking out of your ass. Hitler may be human but he's still a fucking monster with all of the actions he did.
You all are odd af in this comment section.
Depicting Hitler as a human doesn't mean patronizing or rationalizing. It's rather a chilling reminder that anyone can take the wrong path.
Der Untergang was and still is one of the greatest films ever made. Its ability to convey the true downfall of Germany was when it vested power in the hands of Hitler and the continued belief of Hitler's strength till the very end of the Reich makes the film quite exceptional. I really loved the scene with the boy Peter's father, who is clearly a wounded war veteran, challenges the children manning the AA gun as to the reality of their situation. They keep being in a state of denial, yet it is the first time in the film we see an ordinary German citizen who has had the veil ripped from their eyes and sees Hitler for what he truly was and what evil he has brought to Germany and the world. That individual's courage to face reality and to get misguided youths to see that truth is called cowardice by his own son, yet later in the film it is clear after Peter sees the German soldier who saved him die and finds the dead bodies of his friends that he himself sees his father's fortitude against the madness of the Nazi regime.
I remember going to a party, back in the 90s, and asserting during a casual conversation that Hitler was not a monster, he was a human being, and consequently being attacked ferociously for holding such an unacceptable opinion. It is cold comfort now, many years later, to realise that I am not the only one to recognise that we are all capable of the evil and depravity that Hitler embodied and manifested, that we are all sinners and saints and that it is up to us which we will manifest in our own lives.
You are not special lol
Ok, he wasn't an actual monster, so you aren't wrong in saying that, but if you go up to people at parties and say "oh well he was just another human" I wouldn't blame them for being upset
@@user-ey8yc7st7k Lol for real there is a time and place for everything
@@FlaviusConstantinus306 thats what im saying like he really talked about hitlers rule in a party???
@@sardine_man You people lack context i am sure the conversation ended up on hitler somehow no one just starts ranting about hitler
Was Hitler evil? Yes absolutely, but Was he human? Yes again, the point in showing a less dark side of hitler is not for us to feel sympathy but rather to understand the darkest parts of the human mind.
Wrong. Germans were the good guys
He looked weak and lame
@@roddyboethius1722 he was and always will be
@@roddyboethius1722And that's the thing. He was seeing everything crashing down, and basically was losing everything, all because of his decisions mind you, but still
I’ve watched countless documentaries and film from WWII featuring Hitler. I was astounded and transfixed by the performance in this film. To me the actor WAS Hitler, the look was right, his mannerisms were there. I recall the well know medal scene with the Hitler Youth, how they had the camera in the precise position the historical footage was shot from. Complete with his hand tremors. Simply perfection and one of my top recommendations for WWII films.
This movie is great. However, Anthony Hopkins gave a terrific portrayal of Hitler in the TV movie, “ The Bunker.” He must have watched hour upon hour of newsreel footage of Hitler making speeches, etc. I’ve watched hours upon hours of that stuff, myself, and when I watched Hopkins portraying Hitler, I almost forgot it was an actor portraying Hitler, because he got the gestures and mannerisms so perfectly, it was almost as if I were seeing the Fuehrer himself. That’s acting on such a high level, it’s almost eerie. 😮
@@valerietaylor9615 thanks for the comment I’ll have to check that one out!
Hitler didn't always seem to think he'd be hated; he stated for instance, that nobody seemed to remember the Armenian genocide and that Ataturk was simply seen as the founder of a nation, rather than a person who participated in mass murder.
Had H became a typical despot content with retaking former Imperial lands from Poland and France instead of trying to turn all of Europe into Germany he'd probably be remembered as the German Attaturk.
I can even imagine Americans praising him as a necessary evil that bring Germany back from its humiliation and financial catasthrophy
Hobo crust has been unbelievebly disproven by now, so please get your head out of the new world orders ass and read some david irving or something
@@WatchmyPlaylist. You know, i like debating. But this is undebatable. The Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, they are real.
You can't just say it's been disproved. That's a lie or misinformation, either way it's wrong. Stop this.
The Holocaust is one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century and for good reason.
Atatürk had nothing to do with the Armenians what are you talking about?
@@ihavenojawandimustscream4681 he didnt try to retake france...germany invaded poland because they refused to give danzing back. Germany needed Danzing back to wage war agains the soviet union. Honestly its all in the german documents. No need to spew hollywood propaganda
Understanding that monsters come from a place of humanity is the first step to not becoming one yourself.
Only monsters were communists
Well said
“ When you gaze into the abyss long enough, the abyss gazes back into you.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
My God man, that was an EXCELLENT synopsis! Some years ago I read _'Adolf Hitler'_ by John Toland (a two-volume set, Hardcover only). Although it was published in 1976 it is still considered the ultimate Hitler biography, and has all the sorts of personal, private details of his life NOT relating to him being _'Der Führer'_ that you would expect to find in over 900 pages of text.
@CBI : Comment Bureau of Internet I think many people in the west have this weird unhealthy obsession with Hitler, compared to other dictators ( Mao, Stalin, Leopold ii, Tojo, Enver Pasha, Pol Pot, Kim il Sung, Mengistu Haile, Yakubu Gowon) he was nothing special.
@@TheUstasha101 Nothing special? Ask all those whose lives he affected, both good & bad. Ask a Russian - who define _"The Great Patriotic War"_ as their proudest, most noble contribution to the world. Also, speak to the bulk of historians here in the USA who still call Americans that served in WW2 _"Our greatest generation."_ Don't get me wrong. I agree with YOU. *They are all wrong, and you are right.*
@@Matt_from_Florida First of all get a grip bro, second i never negated any of Hitler's crimes (my family in Yugoslavia suffered heavily during ww2), third your emotional rant speaks volumes, and it is the core meaning of my comment - no individual sparks more negativity than Hitler, but why do Stalin and Mao get a free pass despite killing more people? Why do more recent dictators like Yakubu Gowon, Mengistu Haile, Pol Pot, Kim il Sung (I'll bet you and 97% of regular people didnt even heard of them and their victims)? Why isn't your anger directed more towards north korea ( it is the closest thing to Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia we have today)? And finally American/Western obsession with Hitler is actually harmful, because it prevents other crimes (some of them bigger and more recent) from getting enough exposure - Armenian genocide, Holodomor, operation Keelhaul and numerous others + unlike Germany - Russia, Turkey, China and to some extent Japan and USA to this day deny their past crimes, why is there no outcry? Please do some actual research and thinking before commenting.
@@TheUstasha101 Pal, I know about everything you talked about. You have a really high opinion of YOUSELF and a low opinion of OTHER PEOPLE. Do you realize that? You're not always the smartest person in the room. You failed to even mention Idi Amin. BTW, eating chicken for lunch today doesn't mean I can't eat beef tomorrow. People have the ability to change their focus far faster, again, than YOU give them credit for. Don't be such a narcissist.
@@TheUstasha101 I can walk into a book store here in America and find more books on the American Civil War than WW2. Why would a conflict so small as compared to the titanic historical significance of the greatest war in human history take up more shelf space you might ask? Because of the human propensity to focus on events in the historical and cultural record that have a closer proximity to and impact on their corner of the overall world map. It’s not a good thing, but it is a reality as to how human beings think and develop biases and why x event may receive more coverage in y country. The best way to educate more people is to understand first how they think and then how to get past existing biases to show them how to connect the dots of the historical narrative. Yelling about “free passes” with the implication that everyone is just brainwashed or stupid isn’t going to work, ever.
Great analysis. I just finished watching this film for the first time, and, man, it leaves you with a truckload of thoughts and feelings. One thing that sticks out to me the most was the scene you mentioned with Hitler discussing his social Darwinist philosophy, ranting about how cruelty is superior to compassion. While I was watching this in the film, I thought... that's what got you here, man. That's why you're hiding in a bunker with everyone around you planning their own suicides, poisoning their own children, and with the citizens that raised you up dying in the streets. That's why your nation is crumbling. It's the very manifestation of your belief. Suffering is the only possible outcome. Congratulations.
And that's why it's important to show this guy as human. These were not the actions of a "monster," they were the actions of a deeply flawed human being who has been raised up to be something more by equally flawed human supporters, enabled by inhumane politics with no one else in power willing or able to apply the brakes. It is something that could happen anywhere, it doesn't take a monster.
While Hitler was a terrible human being, a constant focus on his singular "badness" also serves to distract and wash away some of the guilt held by the average German- most of whom wholeheartedly supported the regime- even up until the waning days of the war. These were the people cheering as kangaroo courts murdered people like Sophie Scholl for even speaking out against the regime. tl;dr hitler sucks but he didn't exist in a vacuum, he had widespread popular support from the german people
Absolutely. That’s a useful example to point out.
people never talk about the policies that made him fascist It seems that we are turning fascist in most western countries. People remember that Hitler was a strongman that yelled and got angry. That's as deep as it gets for most people. Some people think it's racism that makes a fascist system. HItler was a socialist until he met Mussolini who defined fascism as the lucrative merger of state and corporations. During our lockdown the small businesses were closed and only the big businesses that are partnering with the government and willing to enforce the government's covid edicts were allowed to be open. The tech corporations control our speech. Nobody around me would suspect that this is fascist. "doesn't fascism need a grumpy man to yell for it to be fascism?" is what I imagine people think.
I remember asking people why they thought Trump was a fascist and they ended up telling some obscure story about how he got revenge on someone that crossed him... things that aren't at all fascist.
We've made Hitler into a unique individual instead of concentrating on his policies.
Edit: grammar
To say the German people on average supported him is a statement not as easily made by historians and delves into philosophy and all the other stuff.
Ofcourse the supporters were in the kangaroo courts and in the conference hall where "total war" was declared.
But we can't forget that having a dissenting opinion, like Sophie Scholl of the white roses, was punishable by death. We can't know how much the average German thought about it as the non-party line was a death sentence.
Hitler never got into power because of a majority and once in power he did not seek the approval of the people. Whenever the German people's sentiment was against something he'd have Goebbels fire up the propoganda machine to soften up Germans attitude.
@@MicahMicahel There is no evidence that any serious person ever equated fascism with a merger of state and corporations (by which you clearly mean business), at least not as a standalone or as the defining factor. These are mainly pop fabrications to make an easy political point.
I’ve honestly never agreed with morally judging hitlers supporters as a collective. I won’t shamble upon how it was ‘a different time’ and that bullshit, but just look at so many countries today. America’s been installing dictators worldwide for decades, fuelling nonstop drug wars, invading any oil rich country they feel like, covering up countless human rights violations and war crimes etc. and still, people vote every year for it to continue, just under a different face. Christ there’s literally a genocide going on in China and plenty of people don’t seem to give a fuck. Sure it’s not a perfect comparison, Nazi germany literally had people ratting their neighbors and getting them sent to concentration camps, but you gotta remember most Germans were just like us, people trying to live their lives as the world around then crumbled due to the actions of an elite minority
The scariest thing about evil men is that they are just men. It was absolutely important to show H as the human he was. And Bruno Ganz absolutely owned every scene he was in.
My grandparents (Austrian and German) were born around 1920, they never spoke much about the war times. My grandpa once told me he only wished I would never have to experience a war. I think they considered the 1930s the time of their life followed by a huge catastrophe they never mentally recovered from. Ironically, they met because of the war after my Austrian grandpa was insured in Russia and sent back to a military hospital in Saxony.
Every German I saw talk about that period did it in a calm sober way, but they all had lights in their eyes and a corner smile... but that's not proper, so they learned to hide it well.
@@rosesprog1722 hm
@@rosesprog1722 no its not morally right but the sick germans still dont get it which is why they WILL get it again
@@rosesprog1722yeah I'm sure they loved either seeing everyone around them die on the battlefront or living off scraps and being bombed daily at home. And I'm also soooo suuure you spoke with sooo many German eyewitness of that timeperiod considering there's a handful of them still alive at this point and you're like 15.
""""Greetings"""" from Poland
@@aw2584 I never spoke to any of them, as I wrote and you were so busy with your useless anger hat you didn't notice, I said every German I "saw" and since you didn't think hard enough to realize that on the battlefront interviews are rather rare and that people usually talk about a period of their life after it happened, the people I saw were neither at the front or in the process of being bombed, that was all over by then but since you're Polish, you cannot understand those things, after the starvation of the Weimar period and before WW2 began there were 6 years, and for most Germans, those 6 years were happy years but because of people like you, they were not allowed to enjoy those 6 years and even less to talk about it so they didn't but when you a normal 65 years old human being like me, you can see small details that speak a whole lot, without a single word being said. So go back to sleep dude and don't forget to thank those who, at Brest-Litovsk took some of the land they had seized from Russia and for the first time in 125 years said: This is the territory for the reestablishment of the Polish nation: the Germans.
To humanise Hitler is to reflect that anyone in this world could follow the same path, of evil and barbarism.
bruno ganz was one of the best actors that ever made it to the screen. anyone who've seen his work will have to agree. him being swiss was probably a limiting factor in his career. if he were from a place with a bigger film industry, like the US, he would have been even more of a star than he already was. he shows so much emotion without going into carricature. absolutely brilliant.
Definitely one of the greats... May he rest in peace
This was a very laudable video. I agreed with everything from start to finish. My grandfather, who served in France, Russia and in Berlin at the end, was a Nazi until the day he died; he didn't proclaim it, but all of his beliefs were Nazi-aligned. Yet he was at the same time the only positive influence in my early years. People are rarely one-dimensional.
Your grandpa was a hero that tried to give you a better future and here are you, being a traitor
@@kaliyuga1476follow your leader to hell
@@kaliyuga1476A traitor to what or who exactly?
@@kaliyuga1476
Found the nazi
@@Del2394-g3z A traitor to his people, condemning what his grandpa fought for
Bruno Ganz performed so well in this movie, that when he died (in 2020, i think), i texted my brother "The Führer is dead."
@Riff Raff
Ok
He died February 16, 2019 dye to Colon cancer
"Too bad we couldn't captured the bastard alive"
@Riff Raff Imagine walking to a funeral and saying out loud: "cRiNgE"
@@ludexia5338
"Bro, you died? That's kinda cringe, NGL. Very unPOGChamp of you."
Great commentary - accessible, earnest and insightful.
This is why I never tie myself to another person when it comes to leadership in politics. Your hero could (and most of the time) turn out to be the villain you were told about as a child to look out for.
Unfortunately, this life is filled with narcissists and sociopaths. And, unfortunately those same people desire power more so than anything else.
It does not have to be that way. But the modern era, with its lust for power, makes humans in general, animals.
I used to work in the California legislature, and met many politicians. They are not like you and me. The simple questions we face have simple solutions. Yet the influence of money on these politicians is corrosive.
And what human would willingly put himself through running for office? The cruelty means only the abnormal, the absolute narcissist with unshakable belief in himself will put himself out there.
Yet, here you are taking in advice from a youtube creator...
Cult of personality is dangerous
Bruna Ganz's performance as Hitler was beyond world class!
This was really well made and a professional analysis Hitler in Downfall. Most UA-cam "historians" get all emotional when talking about this topic. Which I find cringeworthy. I never really thought about the actual relationship between the German people and Hitler himself. There's a difference.
one of the key moments was when the Hitler Oath was introduced in 1934 - for both the armed forces and civil service - where the oath was to serve Hitler rather than the state. This built on the cult of personality which the party had been establishing.
This is a video by someone analysing this from an English perspective. A historian is going to analyse things differently (and more correctly).
Please name the UA-cam historians who get emotional
How would you feel if your country just gave up (for no apparent reason from your point of view) in a terrible war, you get screwed up the keister at the Treaty Of Versailles, you're hungry all the time, there is inflation that staggers the imagination and your unemployed. Then Hitler is appointed Chancellor. Within a year, you have a great job at Volkswagon, the economy is kicking ass, there is universal medical care, Germans are upbeat and proud again and they are having truly awesome parades with the Army, the SS and everybody else marching. And you're almost engaged to that cute little blonde waitress at the hofbrauhaus. How would YOU feel about the guy? Be honest. That's why the Germans loved him. Some who survived the war loved him to their dying day. Life is ALL in your perspective.
@@Coffeeisnecessarynowpepper basically all of them but that’s not really surprising since everyone attaches their own worldview onto history rather than looking at facts alone
Humanizing a horrible Dictator leads to popular Internet Memes and Parodies.
Well made and directed.
This film hits hard if you are a German. Thinking whether it's your fault to believing in Hitler or it's Hitler's fault. Without these questions, the film is almost a documentary, giving little insights.
That’s part of why I loved it. Im American, but it made me question how hard it would be to NOT follow someone so confident and powerful. If you weren’t watching closely, you wouldn’t see too much of anything wrong with his wrong behavior (from what the German public knew). WE know who is hitler was (is in the movie), what kind of horrors he caused, what ideals he spread. The concept of genocide while it’s been done before, hitler was the first in human history to implement on multiple continents. In fact there wasn’t even a term for it yet. Human rights didn’t even exist legally yet, until the Nazis came about.
But to the German people, why wouldn’t you follow someone who’s confident, powerful, and seemingly unstoppable? The movie gives insights as to why it would happen. Which is why it’s one of my favorite war movies of all time.
@پیاده نظام خان This.
@پیاده نظام خان
Its already forgiven.
We Germans are the wealthiest Country in Europe and the leader of the EU.
@پیاده نظام خان say that to the america buddo, or just any government from the past century, they’re all as corrupt and evil as one another just on different scales
@@lunartears6761 "Implement on multiple continents". What?!
Anyway if you hate A.H then you might as well hate yourself.
It's absolutely critical to humanize him because it shows how dark the abyss of man's heart can become. Society will never prevent evil if society does not try to understand why it exists.
Only bright hearts stand against communism
We can't really stop evil from happening we can raise child's as good as we can place as many laws as many security measures as many consequences but that won't stop it
“If you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
The truth is there is not a single good soul on this earth. We often cover our iniquities in self-righteousness, while calling ourselves good or try to. Despite that we all are failing day by day. There are no good people, just one that is less worse than others.
@@trolgeeeeee The fight to resist evil is a struggle for every generation, not something that can be won so you can rest on your laurels. You do what you can while you're alive, and hope you've taught the next generation well enough so they can manage the struggle too.
Bruno Ganz’s performance in this film was the best ever! Nobody will ever surpass this groundbreaking performance as Hitler. This movie is perfection. I have always loved Downfall super intense, cabin fever scenes and brilliant acting, directing, cinematography and writing. Humanising Hitler in this film was the right thing to do as it makes him even more evil and delusional than he really was. At some stages he knew he could win and at other times he knew it was all over.
The cinematography makes you feel you are right there in the bunker. Amazing.
Incredible analysis. This video gave me further insight into this movie direction.
To me, the most interesting thing about this video is how close the creator comes to actually grasping what fascism is. The word is tossed around so much that it's lost any meaning, but it refers to an actual philosophy that elevates one individual-- a charismatic leader-- who is the almost literal embodiment of the will of the people. Anyone who challenges that man is also attacking the people as a whole. The more we understand the thinking of the people at the time, the more alarming the trends on both sides of the political 'aisle' in modern America become. At the same time, the more we understand it, the more we are equipped to avoid going down that path.
Indeed
Absolutely,you deserve much more likes
This.
Only thing I'd add would be the nuance of including populism in this discourse, and its closeness to fascism (the biggest difference between the two being that fascism involves the forceful and usually violent attainment & retention of power). Because "that path" may indeed be paved with populist ideals.
Do you think imprisoning people for questioning history is evil or justified?
It's why most politicians are pseudo - fascists . . you should never elevate anyone to that level of grandeur lol
"The people" is an quite interesting term. In English, the word is used for two different concepts, which are completely separate words in German.
When the Nazis talked about the German people, it was "das Deutsche Volk". This does not mean "the individual humans of Germany", but "the German population" or "the German race". It doesn't concern itself with the fate of individuals, but with a concept.
Das Deutsche Volk literally means the German people.
"das Deutsche Volk" is still used in the constitution of Germany. It wasn't something exclusive to the Nazis. They just gave it a racial connotation.
@@ohauss they didn't give it one, it was always racial.
Yeah and? I mean Mexicans themselves refer to all other Mexicans as La Raza , or "The Race".
God forbid a nation have a collective sense of itself.
@@thesteelecrusader7778 The Mexicans do that. But originally in Spanish, "raza" does not mean ethnicity, but it is a moral concept concerning cultural characteristics. And it has remained so for the Mexicans since it does not imply purity of race or something like that. Similarly "das Deutsche Volk" originally only meant people who belonged to the German Nation culturally, spoke one of the many German dialects, had common history and origins. The ethnic aspect of the concept of race was invented, in the second half of the 19th Century, by a Frenchman, the Comte of Gobineau with not much success in his native country and by an Englishman, Houston Stewart Chamberlain whose ideas did not also gather much an audience in Britain, but their concepts of inequality of races and white, mostly germanic or nordic ethnical superiority as expressed in their books were enthusiastically adopted by the German extreme right and German élites in a mix that informed the "Völkisch" movement during the last decades of the 19th Century and the first decades of the 20th Century. National Socialism was the last and the most politically relevant branch of the "Völkisch" movement. Mostly because the nazis as they become known aped some elements from the Socialist movements and from 1920 onwards from Mussolini's Fascism. The consequences are well known.