DOWNFALL

[scotrace]

Watched it last night

Good film. Some extremely weak points (maybe the fellow who played Goebbels could have just stayed home and phoned in his performance.) But interesting all the same.

It was also very disturbing to be reminded of the act of Frau Goebbels in poisoning her children. I had happily forgotten it.

 

[Feraud]

Just watched Downfall. What a great film!
Most of the performances were very well done. This film gave a chilling picture of the Nazi Party towards the end of WWII.
The use of actual interview footage to "bookend" the beginning and end of the film was quite effective. It reinforced the idea of this being more than a movie but events as remembered from someone who was there.

This film deserved to win an Academy Award.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Short version.

 

[Baggers]

Hilarious!!! lol lol lol

Unfortunately, the amount of german I understand is pretty much limited to ordering a beer and counting (almost) up to ten so I don't know precisely what he's saying, but the concept is brilliant. And the voice actor did a great job matching Hitler.

I wonder if there's any way of getting a "fan sub" created in english?

Thanks, it was great way to start the morning.

Cheers!

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

I looked around, but couldn't find a version with English subtitles. I'll see if I find the time to translate it informally, but I have some busy days coming.

 

[Solid Citizen]

Only Good Nazi is a DEAD one!!!!

Hitler's goon squads killing their own people as depicted in the film shouldn't remind anyone of the good old totalitarian days

SC :rage:

 

[Feraud]

I looked around, but couldn't find a version with English subtitles. I'll see if I find the time to translate it informally, but I have some busy days coming.

The movie is definitely worth a look!

 

[mikepara]

The film is good.

I rented it and liked it so much I went straight out and bought it.

The most disturbing part of the film in my view was not the Main characters at all. It was the MP's going around stringing wounded veterans and old men up for 'running away.' Shocking but great film.

I should think its as close to the final days of the 1000 year reich as we'll get.

fftopic:-ish... have you lot seen Enemy At The Gates? Political Officers equally as Mad and brainwashed as the German's .

 

[Feraud]

fftopic:-ish... have you lot seen Enemy At The Gates? Political Officers equally as Mad and brainwashed as the German's .

True. The film showed Russian officers urging unarmed soliders forward into battle at gunpoint!

 

[Baggers]

True. The film showed Russian officers urging unarmed soliders forward into battle at gunpoint!

And, I believe the combat doctrine of political troops following up and shooting soldiers who were not advancing "fervently" enough continued until the fall of the Soviet Union.

Also, weren't Red Army convict battalions used to clear minefields, with the same political troops behind them, encouraging them forward to die a "hero's death?"

I believe they also trained dogs to run under tanks carrying a pack full of explosives on their back. Once they were in place, they'd reach around, grab a toggle in their mouth that was attached to a detonator, and yank. A one way trip for fido, but a guaranteed tank kill.

Cheers!

 

[Dixon Cannon]

der Untergang

Here's an old thread on this subject - under a different name.

-dixon cannon

 

[Dixon Cannon]

I know a man...

who as a young man served in the Waffen SS on both the Eastern and Western fronts. He had sworn an oath unto death; allegiance to Adolf Hitler. From the time he was a boy, all he had known was what the National Socialists taught him, and defending them and his Heimat was the only choice he could have made.

He then was captured by the British and went to a POW camp in England. He saw how the other half lived and acted. After his release he moved to America where he was just another German immigrant. He worked he prospered and he then retired.

When I see my friend at airshows and gathering - he's a reenactor too! - he is the first to salute the flag of the United States of America and the first to stand erect for the National Athem. This elderly gentleman has seen the worst and the best of mankind and he knows the difference - and has a deep appreciation for that difference. He is a real true American with a deeply ingrained love of Liberty - Liberty that so many native born Americans take for granted and assume will always exist.

-dixon cannon

 

[Baggers]

Here's an old thread on this subject - under a different name.

-dixon cannon

Which contains a link to yet a third thread with the same title as this one. We gotta find some other films on the same subject to talk about, we're starting to go in circles!

Cheers!

 

[Baggers]

who as a young man served in the Waffen SS on both the Eastern and Western fronts. He had sworn an oath unto death; allegiance to Adolf Hitler. From the time he was a boy, all he had known was what the National Socialists taught him, and defending them and his Heimat was the only choice he could have made.

He then was captured by the British and went to a POW camp in England. He saw how the other half lived and acted. After his release he moved to America where he was just another German immigrant. He worked he prospered and he then retired.

When I see my friend at airshows and gathering - he's a reenactor too! - he is the first to salute the flag of the United States of America and the first to stand erect for the National Athem. This elderly gentleman has seen the worst and the best of mankind and he knows the difference - and has a deep appreciation for that difference. He is a real true American with a deeply ingrained love of Liberty - Liberty that so many native born Americans take for granted and assume will always exist.

-dixon cannon

A truly inspiring story. There were many German POWs who emigrated to America and Britain after the war. One, who was being held in Scotland for the duration was loaned out to the local farming community to help in the fields. He fell in love with the farmer's daughter, returned after the war to marry her, and became a staunch Scotsman complete with kilt and a burr in his voice as his english improved! Once shown a better way, they adopted it with fervor, in many cases becoming better citizens than those born to it.

Became a reenactor, eh? What side does he portray, I wonder?

Cheers!

 

[KAT]

Short version.

lol Walter Moers made this and hes well known for the character of "das kleine a-------h" [huh] you better google what it means ( i dont wanna get edited again hahah)
and im not apologizing for having such a wonderful german culture and heritagelol

 

[Baggers]

lol Walter Moers made this and hes well known for the character of "das kleine a-------h" [huh] you better google what it means ( i dont wanna get edited again hahah)
and im not apologizing for having such a wonderful german culture and heritagelol

I know enough German to not have to google that one! lol lol lol

Don't the Germans have a refined sense of humor?

Cheers!

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Sorry gang, swearing in another language is still swearing.

 

[KAT]

hahah well seems you belong to one of the lucky people in my I WANNA MEET A LOUNGER LIST (see other thread)
no problem...thought nobody knew

 

[Clyde R.]

I finally got around to watching Downfall and it really is amazing.

Bruno Ganz is just incredible in the role of Hitler and the film captures the nightmare quality of the final days in Berlin very well. If you still haven't seen this one, check it out.

I think the "humanity" of Ganz's portrayal makes Hitler more real and therefore REALLY scary and, yes- just as evil. It is easy to dismiss him today as a cartoony loudmouthed abberation of history, but to do so is to fall prey to something too many of Hitler's victims did: understimate him.