Der Führerbunker

A tour de force performance by Hopkins manages to propel this sometimes slow-moving docudrama. The supporting performances, especially by Piper Laurie and Richard Jordan, also drive this intensely psychological take on the last days of the Third Reich. One criticism though: is a German accent really that difficult for professional actors to mimic?

A stunning portrayal by Hopkins. Unfortunately the other cast members (the male ones anyway) do not look enough like the ghastly originals (!) to be convincing. For example, Goebbels is well enough acted, as are they all, but he just does not have the cadaverous look of Dr. Joseph. The Reich architect Speer is portrayed as far too nice a man. He wasn't. The exception is Bormann. Michael Lonsdale is made to look a little like this detestable man. In bearing, size and demeanor Lonsdale captures the essence of Hitler's right hand man He kept in the background most of the time, but was nonetheless an extremely powerful figure in the Third Reich and his power comes over very well. A good script and well directed, this film is well worth watching, especially now that it is readily available, uncut, on DVD.

Unless you understand the psychological make up of the German People and can clearly understand the German language it is hard to understand the absolute Charisma of Adolph Hitler or how the Third Reich came into being. This made for TV documentary is very accurate in its depictions, taken from interviews of an American officer over many years with the survivors of the events portrayed. The film chronicles the last 105 days of the life of Hitler and his inner circle from the moment he descends to the bunker in January 1945 until his death on April 30th of that year. Between the make-up and the acting of Anthony Hopkins you might well believe that Hitler was alive again, so compelling his performance. The late Richard Jordan gives one his finest performances as Reichsminister Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and later minister of munitions during the war. And to answer the carping critique of another commentator, everything I have read in history, which as it is my college major, is considerable, points to Speer's becoming a voice of reason and having a change of heart about the German Empire toward the end of the war. What was undeniable is the fact that those closest to him remained fanatically loyal, for the most part, some of them even pot the time that this film was made.

Two other outstanding performances were Michael Lonsdale (Moonraker) as Martin Borman and Piper Laurie as Magda Geobels, wife of Hitler's propaganda minister. She did kill her six children (or was it 7, I lost count) before dying with her husband in a suicide pact at the bunker. Whatever your feelings about Hitler, this film is a definite must see.

This is the true story of the infamous Nazi dictator with his historic downfall. The story of Hitler's last days in an underground bunker gives insight to his madness. Here in the midst of his lackeys the dictator played out the final act of his life . It's well played by Anthony Hopkins who won an Emmy prize for his excellent acting. Atmospheric cinematography and gloomy musical score by Brad Fievel. This television movie is finely written by prestigious scriptwriter John Gay and stunningly directed by George Schaeffer. Other adaptation about this historical character are : ¨Hitler(1962)¨ by Stuart Heisler with Richard Basehart, ¨Hitler : The last days(1973)¨ by Ennio De Concini with Alec Guinness and the best is ¨The Downfall¨ by Oliver Hischbiegel with Bruno Ganz.

The picture is correctly based on real events, adding more details , the deeds happened of the following manner : ¨Fuehererbunker¨(Leader's Bunker)is the subterranean headquarter below the Chancellery and its garden in Berlin where Hitler (Anthony Hopkins) spent his last days, from April 20 to 30, 1945. It was constructed during WW2 some 50 feet below the ground. It could be reached through the New Chancellery by descending a stairway from the butler's pantry. There were two levels, On the upper level was a dining passage separating six rooms on each side. At the end of the central passage a curved stair led down to Hitler's own deeper bunker. This area had seventeen rooms , all small, cramped , and uncomfortable : Hitler's suite of three rooms, a map room used for conferences, the dressing room and bedroom of Eva Braun(Susan Blakely), the bedroom of Dr Paul Joseph Goebbles(Cliff Gorman) and wife(Piper Laurie),the rooms of Dr Ludwig, lavatories and bathrooms, an emergency telephone exchange, a drawing room, guardroom, cloakroom and a dog bunker for Hitler's Alsatian bitch named Blondi, with her four puppies. Hitler spent hours before giant war maps, shifting colored pins about to locate units that no longer existed. By this time he was in a state of extreme nervous exhaustion : although only fifty-six, he moved as if he were prematurely senile. His health grew even worse the ministrations of his doctors(Frank Gatliff, Morris Perry). With the exception of Goebbles and Martin Bormann(Michael Londsdale), his secretaries and several others, his lieutenants began to desert him. He denounced Herrmann Goering(David King)for trying to usurp his leadership and Heimrich Himmler (Michael Sheard) for seeking to negotiate with the count Bernadotte and Allied. Albert Speer (Richard Jordan) his minister of Armaments and War Production , refused to carry out his orders for a scorched-earth policy. At last acknowledge defeat, the Fuehrer decided to leave the world in a gesture of Wagnerian self-immolation. In the early hours of April 29, 1945, he married Eva and immediately afterward dictated his last will and political testament, in which he justified his life and work. The next day he retreated into his suite and shot himself while Eva took poison to end her life. In accordance with his instructions, the bodies were dumped into a trough in the Chencellery garden,doused with gasoline and burned. From April 22 to May 1, 1945 , the following were present in the Bunker: Gen Keitel(John Paul), Gen. Hans Guderian(Brain Villa) , Col.Von Below(Julian fellows), Gen. Alfred Jodl(Steedman) , Major Gen. Rattenhuber(David Swift), Lieutenant Genen Fegelein (Terrence Hardiman), Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger , among others.

What went on in the last days of the Third Reich in Adolf Hitler's bunker? This tv film dares to answer that question. It is a first class work that should be shown more often. Anthony Hopkins is one of our acting icons like Olivier. He brings the same chilling conviction to the role of Adolf Hitler that he brought to Hannibal Lecter in Silence Of The Lambs. He portrays Hitler as a drug addicted shell of a man who was once invincible and he captures him at the end when all was lost. The most frightning scene in the film is where he explodes in rage at Albert Speer when he tells him that the war is lost. Hopkins captures all of the rage and madness that was Adolf Hitler, a demon in human form. It is at this point that I wanted to tip my hat to another fine thespian, Susan Blakely, she plays Eva Braun. She gives a wonderful performance as well. She is a first class actress who has never given a bad performance in anything that she has done and who has never been given the credit due her. They talk in this film about how Albert Speer tried to assassinate Hitler in the final days of the Third Reich. This is a blatant whitewash. Speer was lucky to escape with his life at the Nuremburg trial, he got off with twenty years. People called him "the Nazi who said he was sorry". That is all BS!!!!Speer willingly served Hitler for years! He knew of the concentration camps and approved of it. He was in on it from the very beginning and the son of a bitch should have ended his life with a hangman's noose around his neck! There was a writer who wrote a book about Speer called Albert Speer The Whole Story and I highly recommend it.