ma-cortes
Good rendition about the last days of Hitler with exceptional performance from Alec Guinness .This is the true story of the infamous Nazi dictator with his historic downfall . The story of Hitler's last days in an underground bunker gives insight to his madness . Here in the midst of his lackeys , the dictator played out the final act of his life . It's very well played by Alec Guinness who does a first rate acting . The film deals with the history of Hitler's last days in underground bunker , it's the true story of the historic downfall and death( 1945 at age 55 ) of the infamous Nazi dictator , culprit of death about 50 million people during second war world and killing of 6 million Jewish in concentration camps . The Fuhrer's last few tortured days in his underground bunker against a Berlin background and adding some documentary scenes from exterior . Hitler had height five feet, seven inches, eyes black, hair black, shaggy locks hung over forehead, complexion sallow, wide mustache, various hairs on each side, besides had marked devotion to brown shirts and old trench-coat and always surrounded by armed thugs and expert gunmen . He had demented gaze with tendency to become hysterical on slight provocation with delusions, particularly upon his place in history and his powers over vast numbers of people and addicted to public hysteria on race purity, he has known to throw himself on the floor and gnaw rugs,guttural voice apt to rise to shrill tones when excited or thwarted . He was a congenital liar suffering from dreams of persecution . Almost all these physical descriptions and particulars of Hitler are perfectly incarnated by Guinness . Thus , he plays him as sadistic, malicious , dangerous, vengeful, mystical and maniacal . Guinness's portrayal is the perfection in the Hitler role one would expect at least on the surface , he gives insight to his madness and with persuasive qualities of his interpretation . This flick is finely written and professionally directed by Ennio DeConcini , a prestigious screenwriter in his only film . Other adaptations about this historical character are the following : ¨Hitler(1962)¨ by Stuart Heisler with Richard Basehart, ¨Hitler : The last days(1958) by W.G.Pabst and the best is ¨The Downfall¨ by Oliver Hischbiegel with Bruno Ganz , furthermore for TV , ¨The bunker¨ with Anthony Hopkins .The picture is correctly based on real events , adding more details , the deeds happened of the following manner : ¨Fuehererbunker¨ (Leader's Bunker)is the subterranean headquarter below the Chancellery and its garden in Berlin where Hitler spent his last days, from April 20 to 30, 1945 . It was constructed during WW2 some 50 feet below the ground . It could be reached through the New Chancellery by descending a stairway from the butler's pantry. There were two levels, on the upper level was a dining passage separating six rooms on each side . At the end of the central passage a curved stair led down to Hitler's own deeper bunker. This area had seventeen rooms , all small, cramped , and uncomfortable : Hitler's suite of three rooms, a map room used for conferences, the dressing room and bedroom of Eva Braun(Doris Kuntsmann), the bedroom of Dr Paul Joseph Goebbles(John Bennett) and wife (Barbara Jefford), the rooms of Dr Ludwig , lavatories and bathrooms, an emergency telephone exchange, a drawing room, guardroom, cloakroom and a dog bunker for Hitler's Alsatian bitch named Blondi, with her four puppies . Hitler spent hours before giant war maps, shifting colored pins about to locate units that no longer existed . By this time he was in a state of extreme nervous exhaustion : although only fifty-six, he moved as if he were prematurely senile. His health grew even worse the ministrations of his doctors. With the exception of Goebbles and Martin Bormann (Kingston), his secretaries and several others, his lieutenants began to desert him . He denounced Herrmann Goering for trying to usurp his leadership and Heimrich Himmler for seeking to negotiate with the count Bernadotte and Allied. Albert Speer his minister of Armaments and War Production , refused to carry out his orders for a scorched-earth policy. At last acknowledge defeat, the Fuehrer decided to leave the world in a gesture of Wagnerian self-immolation . In the early hours of April 29, 1945, he married Eva and immediately afterward dictated his last will and political testament, in which he justified his life and work . The next day he retreated into his suite and shot himself while Eva took poison to end her life. In accordance with his instructions, the bodies were dumped into a trough in the Chencellery garden,doused with gasoline and burned. From April 22 to May 1, 1945 , the following were present in the Bunker: Gen Keitel (Gabriele Ferzetti), Gen. Hans Guderian , Col.Von Below (Richard Pescud) , Gen. Alfred Jodl(Philip Stone) , Major Gen. Rattenhuber, Lieutenant Genen Fegelein (Julian Glover), Fraulein Junge (Ann Lynn) Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger ( John Barron) , among others.
verbusen
I had seen this movie a long, long, long time ago on TV with commercials, so when I saw it recently on DVD it was totally new. I've seen the Ganz version (Der Untergang) and recently also saw the Hopkins version (The Bunker), this one is still my favorite. Is it the closest to what happened in all it's minutia? Who knows, probably not since the Simon Ward character is fictional and I don't think the other two mentioned films had used fictional characters (I don't know why that was necessary, the Hopkins and Ganz versions both had low level Officers as part of their stories but they were based on real people). Despite it not being loved by historical purists I do like the characterization of Hitler by Guinness, Ganz portrayal is way to "likable", and Hopkins is hard to understand when he goes on his rages, Guinness is not likable, he's totally wacko, and thats the way I want to remember this mad-man as. Production values are to me high end, it was a first class production. Things I did not remember but really liked when watching this, the Wagner music was great, and it has some really funny lines from Guinness's Hitler as he speaks to his captive audience of worshipers, along the lines of (I paraphrase) "Germany will be truly great when Wagner is performed by an all German cast totally naked!", lol. There are a few pretty funny scenes that had to be put in there to show his madness and bewilderment and it works great for me. All three of these films I mentioned are worth watching, I like this one the best for the reasons stated and also that it didn't focus so much time on Goebells that the others do. I think Goebells is shown a lot in other versions to show how sick these people were, but in this version, all you need is Adolf to despise the whole group. The Ganz version is good to watch if you want the tiny details but it seems like it pulls punches, which leads me to think there is some lingering sympathy in Germany for Hitler (also that it is rated in the top 100 films of all time, there are some real Hitler lovers somewhere). The HBO version is also good to see because it focuses a lot on the others in the bunker and also spans the whole time Hitler was in the bunker which was like 4 months, so we see a lot of transformation going on. If your a buff of WW2 history you will definitely enjoy this film, highly recommended. As Max Bialystock from the 1968 film "The Producers" says "That's Our Hitler!". 10 of 10.
