YMMV / Downfall (2004)

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Speer suggests to a bedridden Magda Goebbels that her plan to kill her children is rooted more in having personally crossed the Despair Event Horizon than a genuine belief that the world will not be worth living in once Nazism is gone. She goes through with it, but the question remains.
• Anvilicious: Hitler, the man who plunged Europe into the world's deadliest war, who turned Germany into a totalitarian nightmare, who committed genocide and remained unrepentant, was a human, who had human desires, emotions, and flaws. The audience can easily find pity in his humanity and his desperate circumstances, yet these very same human traits and flaws, supported by the powers of a nation-state staffed by equally human individuals, created an inhuman machine that through the terrors imposed by war brought nothing but destruction, death and ruin to not only Germany but the world.
  Oliver Hirschbiegel: Bad people do not walk around with claws like vicious monsters, even though it might be comforting to think so. Everyone intelligent knows that evil comes along with a smiling face.
• Award Snub:
  • Bruno Ganz was not nominated for his humanizing but still cruel portrayal of Hitler, very likely because that particular role is a controversy magnet no matter how much talent he displayed playing him.
  • The film itself also didn't win the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film.
• Awesome Music: Given the subject matter, the score is sporadic and woefully depressing, but Stephan Zacharias' work is absolutely wonderful, setting and reflecting the mood of the film perfectly. Der Krieg Ist Aus and Hoffnung Am Ende Der Welt in particular may be capable of inducing Manly Tears.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Out of nowhere through a very dark and depressing movie comes an unexpected moment when one of the children is telling Traudl Junge how he likes it when it "thunders", since nothing can get them inside the bunker. Right at that moment, we hear the sound of Hitler shooting himself offscreen. The kid's gleeful response? "Bullseye!" It's shockingly hilarious in context, not to mention strangely cathartic for everyone in the audience.
• Cry for the Devil: It is easy to pity Hitler's downfall with Bruno Ganz's incredibly emotional performance.
• Draco in Leather Pants: A number of viewers think that the Goebbels murdered their children to prevent them from being tortured to death by the Soviets, conveniently ignoring the fact that Albert Speer made two attempts to persuade them to let him take the children with him, only to be refused. They also more or less explicitly declare that they are doing so because they think a Germany that isn't ruled by Hitler (or one in which, Heaven forbid, "racially inferior subhumans" are treated as people) isn't worth living in. There's also the historical context to consider: both Josef and Magda declared, prior to their deaths, that their children "belonged to the Führer", and thus should follow him in death, with the former even crazily declaring that, were the children old enough to understand, they'd gladly take their own lives—which is destroyed by a Soviet autopsy report that indicates Helga regained consciousness and tried to resist her killer(s)—and the latter even asking a friend to help her carry out the deed should her resolve falter; the children of other high-ranking Nazis were spared after the war; and sparing the six children would have likely served as a big PR boost for the Soviets. In a Deleted Scene, the first Soviet units to enter the Fuhrerbunker is a women's brigade and are all horrified when they stumble onto the children's corpses.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Fegelein, seeing how much he's used in the parody videos.
  • Felix Steiner, for someone whose role in the film is completely off screen, manages to get both the Memetic Badass and Loser treatment among fans thanks to him being the indirect catalyst for Hitler's meltdown.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Wilhelm Mohnke: "Bonkers" - Due to the difficulty English-speaking viewers sometimes have in pronouncing his name, many fansubs have taken to calling him "General Bonkers", because "Mohnke" sounds somewhat close to this. The in-universe fan-joke in Hitler Rants is that Hitler is the kind of annoying boss who invents demeaning pet names for his subordinates, but Mohnke is too afraid of Hitler to correct him. Other joke fansubs straight-up say that "Bonkers" is his actual name.
  • Hans Krebs is known as "The Map Pointer" due to the iconic Hitler ranting scene.
  • Wilhelm Burgdorf is "Boozing Burgdorf", and less commonly "Fast-Talkin' Boozin' Burgdorf"
  • Goebbels is known as Skeletor to most on the internet. It's the cheeks.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Hitler's ranting about how he conquered Europe "all by myself" and how his generals are "useless, incompetent cowards" makes a lot more sense if one knows about the decision-making in the early campaigns of World War II, where Hitler would often overrule Oberkommando and get great success as a result, while leaving High Command to their own devices handed him disasters like Kursk. The best example of this would be the Battle of France, where Oberkommando suggested a slow campaign that would (at the most optimistic projections) take two years and cost over a million casualties, which Hitler bypassed by approving Manstein's Plan for an aggressive breakthrough at Sedan which saw France conquered in six weeks with 160,000 casualties. This colored his perceptions for the rest of the war.
  • Hitler looking at the portrait of Frederick the Great makes more sense with a knowledge of Prussian history. In 1762, at the end of the Seven Years War, Berlin was besieged by the invading Russians and Austrians. Empress Elizabeth suddenly died and the coalition soon collapsed, giving the Prussians the edge needed for victory. On April 12, 1945, President Roosevelt died and Hitler hoped that his death would lead to a collapse of the invading Allies, just as Frederick the Great was saved by a last minute turn of events.
  • During the wedding ceremony, Hitler is asked if he is of pure Aryan descent and he replies "Yes." In reality, he wasn't. The Nazi race laws established that one could only confirm "pure Aryan descent" if none of their four grandparents were Jewish. Because Alois Hitler was an illegitimate bastard, Adolf could not prove his paternal grandfather wasn't Jewish, and so he hypocritically couldn't live up to his own laws.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • During Traudl's typewriting test in her interview, Hitler reassures her by saying he makes many mistakes when dictating.
  • Hermann Fegelein's Memetic Badass status becomes even more hilarious when Thomas Kretschmann later portrayed the leader of the Nazi-descended organization HYDRA, Baron von Strucker, in The Stinger of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Though this is par for the course, as Kretschmann is typecast as Nazis all the time. At least it's steady work...
  • In that same vein, Thomas Kretschmann would later play Major Otto Ernst Remer in Valkyrie and one of his most prominent scenes is hearing the voice of Hitler from Goebbels' phone after presuming that the Führer is dead. Since Hitler and Fegelein barely interact with each other^note The only time Fegelein directly speaks to Hitler is when Hitler was observing a model of Berlin with Speer, and it's a mere insistence for Hitler to leave Berlin for his safety. Hitler doesn't get his murderous hatred of Fegelein until after Himmler betrays him. in the film despite the Hitler Rants videos giving them an Sitcom Arch-Nemesis relationship, this may be one of the rare instances that Hitler finally finds Fegelein.
  • Constantin Film, the same company which brought us Downfall and tried in vain to delete all of its parody videos, has now released a new movie about Adolf Hitler titled Look Who's Back — which happens to be a satirical comedy in which the Führer somehow finds himself in the 21st century, is treated as a laughing stock instead of a terrible tyrant, and even becomes a YouTube personality. Hell, there's even a few references to Downfall, such as an image of Bruno Ganz's role as Hitler, and a spoof of the classic rant scene.
  • Bruno Ganz (Hitler) was offered the role of Oskar Schindler. He refused and the role went to Liam Neeson. They later acted together in the film Unknown.
  • Even more hilarious is that both Bruno Ganz and Alexandra Maria Lara would later play Holocaust survivors in The Reader.
  • Prior to Downfall, Bruno Ganz played a scientist in The Boys from Brazil (1978), explaining to an aged Nazi hunter (Laurence Olivier) the science behind creating a clone of... Adolf Hitler.
  • Hitler's exclamation, 'Ahh, Monhke!' becomes slightly funnier to those who are familiar with a 2020 meme based on a line from Kung Fu Panda.
  • Hitler's French dub voice? Georges Claisse, aka Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars, who was basically created as the Galaxy Far Far Away's equivalent of Hitler by George Lucas.
• The Inverse Law of Fandom Levity: Downfall is an incredibly grim movie about the final days of the Führerbunker which casts the Nazis as Tragic Villains who nevertheless deserve their fate, but fans of the film are notorious for using clips from the film to create Hitler Rants parodies which are generally lighthearted Sitcom hijinks, heavily contrasting the film's depressing, dour visuals.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Hitler, of all people. While a horrible monster, he's portrayed as a broken down man desperately trying to convince himself things haven't gone to shit because the idea that he's brought his country to ruin is simply too painful.
  • Fegelein is also portrayed as this in the film. A Nazi, an opportunist, a deserter… and a young man who just wants to live, unlike his lunatic fellow men determined to die for a crazy ideology that has totally blown up in their faces and turned much of the world against their nation.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Thanks to the Hitler Rants videos, Hermann Fegelein is this and a Memetic Troll due to doing just about everything to screw Hitler over.
  • Felix Steiner is both this and Memetic Loser. It's a very common joke among history fans that Steiner's counterattack can save any dying regime, ranging from Ancient Rome to Afghanistan.
• Memetic Loser: Felix Steiner gets the reputation as the sole reason why Hitler lost World War II, even though the war was already lost long ago, due to the iconic Villainous Breakdown scene. Even ignoring the Hitler Rants videos, which depicts Steiner as Hitler's errand boy who constantly fails at his tasks, it is common to see YouTube commenters on WWII videos jokingly insisting that Steiner will save the day, with replies mimicking the aforementioned breakdown scene line per line.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The scene where Hitler snaps upon hearing that there are no reinforcements to be mobilized to aid Berlin has been subject to many YouTube videos where different subtitles are given to amusing effect, including, but not limited to Hitler getting banned from Xbox Live, essentially turning Hitler into an all-out Drama King. It's become so popular that it got an entire page dedicated to his misadventures.
  • To a lesser extent, the scene where Hitler declares Fegelein a traitor has undergone the same treatment.
  • "Steiner's attack will fix everything" has become a running joke amongst history enthusiasts, often brought up in comment sections of videos discussing Germany's military losses and the impeding Soviet invasion. "Steiner's Attack" has by now become shorthand for "imaginary master stroke that's just not going to happen".
  • POOR OLD MAN!^note Burgdorf belts out a drunken rendition of "When Johnny Comes Down to Hilo" in a deleted scene, before laughing with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face◊
• Misaimed Fandom: Absurdly enough, the Hitler Youth children who participate in the Battle of Berlin get this treatment by a predictable type of audience. Yes, even the movie that is the epitome of War Is Hell and portrays Nazis as pathetic fanatics whose madness destroyed Germany and Europe didn't manage to escape this trope.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Just in case you were actually thinking of sympathizing with the poor, broken down old Hitler, he starts boasting about his genocide and treats the surviving Germans with contempt. In his case, he's very aware of this and admits right before killing himself that he would soon be hated the world over.
    Hitler: [rough English translation] Tomorrow, I shall be damned by millions of people, but let them damn me, for it is my destiny.
  • Herr and Frau Goebbels, of course, display some very unusual attitudes toward family values. Their love for their children is rendered null and void when they decide to murder them, against their will if Helga's reaction is any indication, rather than let them live in a world free from Hitler's tyranny.
  • You would applaud Wilhelm Burgdorf's bravery to stand up to Hitler when his leader starts insulting the soldiers, only to retract that applause when Burgdorf attempts to kill a man for surrendering (long after Hitler had committed suicide), making it clear that Burgdorf is still a fanatic Nazi who would rather see Germany destroyed if it means avoiding the humiliation of defeat.
• Narm:
  • Hitler's over-the-top rants can be hard to take seriously, especially if anyone has seen the Hitler Rants meme before watching the movie.
  • Many, many, many of the movie's dubs. Here's a sample from the French dub.
  • The Fegelein rant also gets this in the Spanish dub, to some degree:
  Hitler: [rough English translation] What do you mean you can't find him? He's not invisible! Search for him conscientiously!
  • During Hitler's cremation, there's an extreme close-up on Goebbels' creepy, sunken face with the flames reflected in his eyes as he stares into the fire with the most hysterically intense "tonight, you die" face imaginable. For some people, it's so frighteningly over-the-top and insane-looking that it crosses the line from creepy into distractingly hilarious.
• Narm Charm: It is somewhat hard to take Hitler seriously in his rants after all the parodies, but Bruno Ganz's performance is still incredible at portraying Hitler as a mad yet broken man feeling betrayed by all of his men and facing the hopeless destruction of the German state that he worked so hard to build, despite the millions of deaths and ruined lives that he and his regime are responsible for. Hitler's outbursts can be both pathetically childish but amazingly terrifying.
• Nausea Fuel: The Schenck/Hasse operating scene is this, Nightmare Fuel, and Squick.
• Never Live It Down: Due to being the source of the Hitler Rants videos, many viewers' perception of Hitler and his cronies are often simplified based on the infamous rant scene along with a few other scenes. To name a few:
  • Adolf Hitler is seen as a Large Ham dictator who gets angry whenever he hears the slightest of bad news despite spending most of the film's runtime as a quiet, almost disturbingly affably person (which gives his outbursts a lot more impact).
  • Alfred Jodl, the general who warns Hitler that moving the 12th Army would give an opening for the Allies in the Western Front, is ultimately a loyal Yes-Man who sticks with Hitler despite knowing he's a madman. But since his two prominent scenes see him getting on Hitler's nerve for questioning his plan, and later being the one to bluntly state the bad news regarding Steiner's counterattack, he's largely seen as a Commander Contrarian and the Only Sane Man in Hitler's inner circle.
  • Hermann Fegelein is a Smug Snake who cowardly went AWOL, only to be caught and unceremoniously executed by Hitler's goons. He's not even important to Hitler as he initially wanted to punish Heinrich Himmler, Fegelein's boss, instead. But ever since Hitler pounded his table shouting Fegelein's name, Fegelein is remembered to as the man that Hitler cannot find and thus the subject of all the dictator's ire.
  • The unseen Felix Steiner is just one of many generals that Hitler pins his delusional hopes on to turn the tide and he isn't even the last Hope Spot in the film; that honor goes to Walther Wenck and his 12th Army. But Steiner's failure to launch a counterattack is what drove Hitler into his iconic Villainous Breakdown whereas Wenck's failure is only discussed by the bunker staff in private (and Hitler had no more energy to get angry at Wenck). As such, Steiner is largely remembered as the only man whom Hitler greatly depends on to win the war... and failing miserably.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The most obvious examples are when the viewer first sees children trying to hold back the Soviets and the notorious scene when Hitler snaps.
  • Towards the end of the film there's a string of suicides, most of them are off-screen but we have a close-up of Franz Schädle who shoots himself very suddenly in the face in the middle of a makeshift hospital.
  • Also, Ernst-Robert Grawitz uses grenades to kill himself and his family during an otherwise serene dinner. And that's just the tip of the iceberg as far as cruelty to kids in this film goes.
  • Goebbels' face. Those cheekbones and wide, sunken-in eyes can look pretty creepy.
  • The infamous rant is pretty frightening (if one ignores all the parodies). Hitler becomes a tornado of fury, ready to lash out at everyone.
  • The German soldier who is in the middle of having his leg amputated in the makeshift hospital.
  • The fate of Goebbels' children. The very people who brought them to the world chose to also take their life, incapable of putting them higher than the ideals for which they willingly also lived and died.
• Nightmare Retardant: The Hitler Parodies have made Hitler's rants considerably less terrifying.
• Parody Displacement: It's hard to take the original "Hitler rant" scene seriously once you've seen the numerous Gag Sub spoofs of the scene.
• Referenced by...:
  • Episode 8 of Maken-Ki! Two has a shout out to this film where Kengo flips out much like Hitler did.
  • In the The Cleveland Show episode The Wide World of Cleveland Show, Cleveland as Hitler flips out after he finds out that "all of our writers are Jewish".
  • It even got parodied in Look Who's Back, a movie about Hitler waking up in the 21st century, by filming a sequence about a network's tanking ratings as a shot-for-shot recreation of the bunker scene. While it's not Hitler who rants this time (rather the boss of the media company), Hitler is still nearby.
  • Iron Sky: Vivian's first scene is a recreation of the famous Downfall rant.
• Signature Scene: The scene of Hitler's Villainous Breakdown upon hearing of Steiner's failure to launch a counterattack on the Soviets; particularly because it's known for being the moment that launched a million memes. In the 2012 Sight & Sound poll (in which critics from around the world get together and list their top 10 films), UK critic Kaleem Aftab chose this scene for his top 10, saying, "Bruno Ganz's performance as Hitler is so brilliant in showing his disgust at the failure of Steiner to attack the allies that the scene has been used and abused by legions of Internet users around the world, replacing the original subtitles to comment on current affairs –- it's the gift that won't stop giving."
• Tough Act to Follow: For Oliver Hirschbiegel. None of his later films were as successful as this film, even attempting to do a Downfall-esque movie called 13 Minutes (about German worker Georg Elser who attempted to assassinate Hitler through a bomb) with little fanfare.
• Watch It for the Meme: It must be something of a Periphery Demographic of the Hitler Bunker clips who thinks, "Wow, a subtitled German film about the last days of World War II — I gotta see this!" A parody clip is fairly popular in Greece, due to a satirical TV show.

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