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TWILIGHT OF THE GODS: Review of 'Der Untergang'
by Constantin von Hoffmeister
17 November 2004
"Der Untergang" (2004) is in many ways a brilliant film. It is stylish and
sumptuous in all the ways that the contemporary Federal German authorities
do not like it. Although graphic in its depiction of the last days of the
Third Reich, the fading glory of this Teutonic Empire is evident in nearly
all the shots. One feels that the movie tries to capture the myth of the
"Fall" with all the pathos and poetic melodrama that it deserves.
Surprisingly, the film is quite faithful to the book (by national
conservative historian Joachim Fest) that it is based on. The epic narrative
is tightly told and no moralizing scenes detract from the final struggle
that the epic figures (eerily acted with attention to detail, especially
obvious in the operatic speech pattern of Dr. Goebbels) of the collapsing
National Socialist regime were engaged in.
The Volkssturm is portrayed as the last stand that it was. The blonde and blue-eyed boys and girls shooting shells at the advancing Soviets is shown
not as acts of foolishness as one might expect in today's world of
hero-denial, but as a desperate resolve to do to a last bid for the honor of
Germany.
"Der Untergang" is the first German film that depicts an historical account
of history from the perspective of National Socialists. For example, Dr.
Goebbels in one scene hopefully exclaims that one day all the lies about
National Socialism will be cleared while, in another scene, Adolf Hitler
displays his disdain for the "decadent Western democracies." Both
exclamations are, naturally, without comments from liberal historians. The
film simply shows what the NS elite thought and said at the time.
The only negative point of the film is obviously an obligatory one (in these
jewified times of ours). At the end of the film, it reads that World War II
cost 50 million lives, and six million Jews died. Now, that is what I call
exclusivity!
CONSTANTIN VON HOFFMEISTER
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