Der Untergang (2004)

Director:

Oliver Hirschbiegel

Writers:

Joachim Fest (book)
Traudl Junge (book) ...

Release Date:

16 September 2004 (Germany)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

April 1945, a nation awaits its...

Plot:

Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.

Plot Keywords:

Hitler | Bunker | Adolf Hitler | 1945 | Russian

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 15 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Bruno Ganz	...	Adolf Hitler
Alexandra Maria Lara	...	Traudl Junge
Corinna Harfouch	...	Magda Goebbels
Ulrich Matthes	...	Joseph Goebbels
Juliane Köhler	...	Eva Braun
Heino Ferch	...	Albert Speer
Christian Berkel	...	Prof. Dr. Ernst-Günter Schenck
Matthias Habich	...	Prof. Dr. Werner Haase
Thomas Kretschmann	...	SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein
Michael Mendl	...	General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling
André Hennicke	...	SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke
Ulrich Noethen	...	Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler
Birgit Minichmayr	...	Gerda Christian
Rolf Kanies	...	General der Infanterie Hans Krebs
Justus von Dohnanyi	...	General der Infanterie Wilhelm Burgdorf

Also Known As:

Downfall (UK) (USA)
Der Untergang - Hitler und das Ende des 3. Reichs (Germany) (working title)
La caduta - Gli ultimi giorni di Hitler (Italy)
The Downfall (literal English title)
The Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich (USA)
La caída (Argentina) (festival title) (Colombia) (Venezuela) [es]
La chute (Belgium: French title) (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Undergången - Hitler och tredje rikets fall (Finland: Swedish title) (Sweden) [sv]
Çöküs (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
A Queda! As Últimas Horas de Hitler (Brazil) [pt]
Allakäik (Estonia) [et]
El hundimiento (Spain) [es]
Hitler: Konacan pad (Croatia) [hr]
Pád Tretí ríse (Czech Republic) [cs]
Pád Tretej ríse (Slovakia) [sk]
Perikato (Finland) [fi]
Upadek (Poland) [pl]

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence, disturbing images and some nudity.

Runtime:

156 min | 178 min (extended version)

Country:

Germany | Italy | Austria

Language:

German | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Taiwan:R-12 | Malaysia:18SG | Philippines:R-13 | Australia:MA | Italy:T | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Iceland:14 (original rating) | Iceland:16 (video rating) | France:U (with warning) | Argentina:16 | Brazil:16 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 (bw) | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15A | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R13 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:18 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Bavaria Filmstudios, Geiselgasteig, Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Constantin Film Produktion

Trivia:

Based on the books "Der Untergang" by historian Joachim Fest and "Bis zur letzten Stunde" by Traudl Junge, Hitler's last private secretary from 1942 to 1945.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Hitler is going to award the young soldiers with an Iron Cross in a Reich Chancellery garden, just behind the bunker's entrance. There is the two storey Reich Chancellery building visible behind the bunker and a ventilation shaft. But actually this part of Chancellery was one storey building with round windows in the attic.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Traudl Junge: I've got the feeling that I should be angry with this child, this young and oblivious girl. Or that I'm not allowed to forgive her for not seeing the nature of that monster. That she didn't realise what she was doing. And mostly because I've gone so obliviously...

Movie Connections:

Featured in "De wereld draait door: (#4.58)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Blutrote Rosen

this is the best....

Who better to make a WWII film than the Germans themselves? This is possibly the best WWII film I have seen yet. It is a very intense movie about the final days of Adolf Hitler (a SUPERB roll played by Bruno Ganz, he should get at least one Oscar for this...) which had me coming back to see the movie a second and even a third time (I saw T3 only twice, he he). And not only Bruno Ganz has done a great performance, the entire cast gives it all their best. Very good film indeed.

As I said, it's a film about Adolf Hitlers final days, trapped in a bunker in Berlin, while the Russians are slowly moving closer. Hitler losing his faith in a 'good' outcome, the final bullet, everything is has happened for real. But when I left the cinema I had the idea I had just been watching a fictional story. A perfect script, made in real life 59 years ago. Not much to say about anything else. If you are interested in WWII stuff, go see it in the cinema, it's worth every penny.