lord woodburry

(2012-05-01 09:32:36)

Curtains on this downfall

Adolph Hitler outranks the devil for the number of movies made abouthim. Yet as much as I liked the German films : The last 10 days ofAdolph Hitler and Downfall and as much as I love Anthony Hopkins as anactor, Hopkins played a flat footed Hitler. Hopkins is too English tobe Hitler. As good an actor as Hopkins is, I doubt he'd get more than ayawn from a political gathering. Could Hopkins get a single zeig muchless a heil? Hopkins' performance would have played better in THE PRODUCERS.If Hitler orated the way Hopkins delivered an authentic AH speech atthe end of this film, would Hopkins have revv-ed 61 million Germans upto march in step, commit atrocities and fight 250 million Russians and250 million Americans at the same time? No sir! Hopkins was not a verygood Hitler.At the end of the TV movie, there was a credit to the Trevor Roper bookThe Last days of AH. I didn't see it mentioned in these pages.Like most in the AH genre the film does not mention Hitler's doublealluded to in the Toland work.

Avinash Patalay

(2012-04-30 21:09:37)

The "Fuhrer" we never knew (and perhaps never was!)

The movie attempts to depict the final days of the charismatic leaderHitler in his bunker. There are two kind of people around him, onehardcore loyalist who would never desert him and the other "goodriddance".Fuhrer is shown here to be completely lost, incapable of takingdecisions, confused speech, fire in belly nearly extinguished, wakingup heavy heartedly to lead another day of existence and seriouslycontemplating to reinvent himself as a clone of Buddha. Whether Hitlertruly was, is a matter of debate best left to historians, biographersand auto-biographer.It goes without saying that Anthony Hopkins is completely miscast.Perhaps Mr. Hopkins took this on board hoping to bring him laurels &statuettes however in spite of his best efforts it falls flat. Heattempts to mask it up with a performance comprising of estranged lookand long drawn silences. In an attempt to integrate Anthony Hopkins with Hitler he ends up acharacter who seems to be as result of genetic experiment gone wrong.So you will three personalities to a character namely Hitler, AnthonyHopkins and a third which I seriously hope who never was.

haldane_iv

(2012-04-28 15:58:06)

Another TV rewrite of history...

The last days of Shicklegruber...again. In some way this film becomes thestory of Albert Speer rather than Hitler. Speer was a technical advisoronthe set and beefed up his historical role. So Richard Jordan as Speer isasimportant a character as Hopkins. Where Hopkins is hysterical andoverbearing Jordan underplays, undermines. The effect is to have usbelievethere was some rational thought in these last days of the ThirdReich.Yet another TV rewrite of history but at least it gives Jordan one of hisbest roles...

tfn65125

(2012-04-28 13:27:46)

Great film, deserves a DVD release!

This is another one of those inexplicable films that should be out onDVD by now but isn't. There is so much 'dross' being released, yet thisminor masterpiece with excellent performances from Hopkins remainslocked away! A region 1 release is rumoured, but no date yet. It's beena while since I saw it, but I do remember being very impressed at thetime. Another similar 1974 film exists with Alec Guiness playing theFuhrer; "Hitler, the last ten days". My recollection is that the"Bunker" film had the edge. The Alec Guiness film was spoiled slightlyby a series of strange comments from Hitler in his sealed room momentsbefore he and Eva Braun commit suicide (obviously there were nowitnesses to record this!). It was as though the film-makers added itin just in case anyone might find themselves admiring the Fuhrer forhis resolute position! After the German masterpiece Downfall/Untergang, it seems crazy not to be able to add this gem of a film toDVD collections crying out for it.........