Le bunker

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.

This is another one of those inexplicable films that should be out on DVD by now but isn't. There is so much 'dross' being released, yet this minor masterpiece with excellent performances from Hopkins remains locked away! A region 1 release is rumoured, but no date yet. It's been a while since I saw it, but I do remember being very impressed at the time. Another similar 1974 film exists with Alec Guiness playing the Fuhrer; "Hitler, the last ten days". My recollection is that the "Bunker" film had the edge. The Alec Guiness film was spoiled slightly by a series of strange comments from Hitler in his sealed room moments before he and Eva Braun commit suicide (obviously there were no witnesses to record this!). It was as though the film-makers added it in just in case anyone might find themselves admiring the Fuhrer for his resolute position! After the German masterpiece Downfall/ Untergang, it seems crazy not to be able to add this gem of a film to DVD collections crying out for it.........

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!

The Third Reich was a land of insanity from its very beginning. That insanity increased as time went on, and this movie offers a pretty good look at its last days, as Hitler and his entourage hole themselves up in a bunker underneath the Reich Chancellory and act as if they're actually accomplishing something, even as Germany is being systematically overrun by Allied armies.

Of most interest are the various performances and the manner in which the various personalities are portrayed. Anthony Hopkins' work as Adolf Hitler was very good - especially considering the difficulties involved in playing such a complex and controversial subject. I thought Hopkins nailed the emotional complexity of the man - deliberately hiding himself from the realities of the War, calmly sitting down to tea with his secretaries one minute, then launching into a deranged tirade against his generals the next, addicted to drugs administered by his personal physician. Those who did makeup for this also got Hopkins to look the part - well not perfectly, but pretty close. Where I thought Hopkins missed the mark a bit was in Hitler's physical state. Aside from some trembling, Hopkins' Hitler actually looked pretty healthy. Other actors have to be looked at as well though, because this movie isn't really about Hitler - it has more to do with how the various personalities involved interacted with Hitler.

Much of the movie revolved around Nazi architect Albert Speer. Richard Jordan handled the part well, although the portrayal of Speer was interesting - probably unavoidably so, since Speer was almost as complex a character as Hitler. In the movie, Speer comes across as basically a good guy, fighting against Hitler's insane plans. There's truth to that view, but it's too limited. Speer was a devoted disciple of Hitler, and his actions against Hitler began only when it became obvious that Germany would lose the war. For Speer, as long as Germany might win, the horrors of Nazism seemed acceptable. Something was lacking in Cliff Gorman's portrayal of Joseph Goebbels. A lot was right - the portrayal of Goebbels' fanatical devotion to Hitler and Nazism, his rabid anti-semitism and his cold as ice attitude - to the point of killing his own family without a second thought simply because he felt that without Hitler, there was no reason for any of them to live. Still, something about Gorman as Goebbels didn't work for me. He just didn't look the part, and I could never really equate the voice with Goebbels either. The third figure of significance was Martin Bormann, portrayed by Michael Lonsdale. Lonsdale was good here. Bormann was a rather shadowy character, and Lonsdale portrayed him that way. You could never really be sure what Bormann's priority was here - getting out of the bunker or staying loyal to Hitler. In fact, that's accurate, because above everything else, Bormann's main preoccupation was with power - whether represented by Hitler or someone else.

Largely missing from this account of these last days in the bunker (although it does pop up in the end) is the rather morbid and completely unreal question of who would succeed Hitler - as if there was going to be anything to succeed to. As I understand it, that was a rather serious issue in the bunker in those last days and weeks; it gets largely passed over in this movie. Basically, however, this is very well done. I particularly liked the last scene, when the machinist Hentschel (Martin Jarvis) throws papers in disgust at the radio when it announces Hitler's heroic death, "fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism," when Hentschel knew full well that Hitler had cowardly committed suicide and left everyone else to fend for themselves. Overall, I give this a 7/10

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?