The Bunker

What a cast. And what a splendid job they all do in this description of Hitler's last days in the fortified bunker far beneath the Chancellery as World War II was closing in all around the Führer and the remains of his staff. And not one of the actors tries to fake a German accent.

Anthony Hopkins gives the finest portrayal of a living dead man that I've seen. There have been numerous other version, documentary and fictionalized, and some are fine productions but they don't achieve parity. Alec Guiness, for instance, gave us a Hitler who was annoyed by the disintegration of his armies and his plans, an exasperated leader who acts as if the automobile he's just bought is a lemon and not covered by a warantee. Luther Adler showed us a bitter madman. But Hopkins is modulated, quiet, quietly disturbed, his right hand trembling after the attempt on his life the year before. Hopkins' Hitler can no longer raise his injured right arm high enough to give the full salute. It's a stunningly precise and believable portrait. Suspicious, but not a raging paranoid. And under stress he lets loose a startling hiss. It's not surprising that Hopkins does such a good job in the role. He was my co-star in the superior "Road to Wellville" and I gave him a few pointers that helped him over the rough spots. He seemed put out when I charged him ten cents for the tutoring.

The central conflict here is between Hopkins and Albert Speer, his Minister of Arms and War Production. Speer was a brilliant architect and industrialist, a relatively young handsome officer played here by Richard Jordan. Hitler was fond of Speer, considering both of them -- the architect and the erstwhile painter -- to be artists. But now Hitler has issued orders that all of Germany be destroyed before the Allies get to Berlin. Speer objects. Hitler is adamant. Speer develops a plan to introduce poison gas into the vent that supplies air to the underground bunker, which will kill everyone inside, including Hitler. But after the last assassination attempt, Hitler has become double wary and self protective. The plan is dropped and Speer remarks that he'll not try another because "I think I only had one in me." Speer decides instead to agree to the destruction of Germany but will prevent it by bureaucratic stalling and by wrapping the process in red tape.

There are scenes between Hopkins and Jordan that are truly touching. Speer was perhaps Hitler's favorite among his staff. "My good architect; my GENIUS architect." Now Speer is telling him frankly that the war is lost. Well, nobody else is telling der Fürher that the war is lost. They know better, because the penalty for acting on that belief is death. But Hopkins BEGS Jordan for some sign of faith. Okay, Jordan believes the war is lost. But does he have faith in ME? Does he at least have HOPE? "Even THAT would satisfy me." Jordan is desolate and Hopkins is near tears as he implores his friend to give some positive response. It's like watching the tragic breakup of a love affair or a marriage. It seems impossible but Hopkins brings humanity to the most inhumane human being of his century. I can imagine the outcries against a portrait of Hitler that isn't a stereotype.

To make matters worse, we see him flirting with Susan Blakely as his mistress, Eva Braun. But if the viewer needs the usual clichés, they're available in occasional dissolves followed by flashbacks to better times, when Hitler and Speer first met, before Germany became a sewer, before the death factories began to churn out their product. But history is inexorable. As Berlin is encircled, desperate attempts are made to get out, to avoid the vengeful Russians by surrendering to Eisenhower in the west. The atmosphere in the littered and unguarded bunker itself follows secretary Traudl Junge's description -- the men on the remaining staff dance and carouse with the women and drink themselves into a stupor. It was a big party. The party atmosphere was enhanced by the mockery of a marriage between Hitler and Eva Braun. "Do you swear that you are of pure Aryan descent and free of hereditary diseases?" It's impossible not to be moved as the end approaches and Josef Goebbels invites his staff to a farewell party. The camera lingers on the faces of his children, some barely old enough to sing the heroic song, and all of whom he and his wife Magda will shortly kill by cyanide poisoning.

There have been a number of films about Hitler's last days, both feature films and documentaries. This is one of the best. Let's hope it's also the last. Who wants to watch a long, slow suicide?

As a military historian, I've probably seen every film depicting Hitler and the last days of the Third Reich there is. Some stand out. "Inside the Third Reich" with Derek Jacobi, and "Hitler: The Last Ten Days," with Alec Guinness, to name a few. But as slow and downright melodramatic as this film is, I think that Anthony Hopkins' Hitler is right on the money, A superb acting job with a difficult role. He brings the image of an old man, difficult, palsied, volatile, confused, distant and changeable as a chameleon on an acid trip to life for the screen. It's not hard to play the classic Hitler with fits of rages and dour looks, but there is a lot more to it, and Hopkins pulls it off magnificently. He literally ages before your eyes and the gray pallor of the Bunker's stone walls seems to seep into his skin with every scene. Jordan as Speer is believable, and the somber, dirgelike music pulls out the hopelessness of the last gasp of the Nazi rat pack's future. Accurately done, but Hopkins is the real star here. But as one other user commented, is it really so hard for a Brit or an American to manage a German accent? Do all civilized Germans sound as if they had been raised in coventry? Ach du Lieber!

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.

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?