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Downfall: Drama. Starring Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna
Harfouch, UlrichMathes and Juliane Kohler. Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. (R. 155 minutes.
At Bay Area theaters.)

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American and British films have never quite been able to capture the
different aspects of Adolph Hitler as suggested in newsreel footage. One
insurmountable obstacle has been the problem of language: A Hitler speaking
English automatically doesn’t translate, anymore than a fireside chat spoken
in German could hope to convey the true Franklin Roosevelt. Ultimately, it was
up to the Germans to make the first great Hitler movie, and they have done so
in “Downfall,” about the last days of the Third Reich as experienced from
inside Hitler’s bunker.

It’s a satisfying film in many ways — dramatic, accurate and harrowing,
effectively photographed and brilliantly acted. It’s also a useful film, in
its portrayal of the specific nature of institutional fanaticism. Historical
monsters, such as Magda Goebbels and Hitler, are presented as human beings,
not caricatures. The effect is not to make them more sympathetic, not even
remotely, but rather to provide insight into the mechanics and mental
processes behind acts of absolute evil.

“Downfall,” which was nominated for a best foreign film Oscar, arrives in
San Francisco on a wave of praise, though with a few dissenters who’ve said
that any portrayal of Hitler as human is a disservice to history. This is a
heartfelt but naive point of view that bespeaks a general American tendency to
mistake personality and demeanor for character and behavior. The truth is that
the most evil person imaginable need only seem evil a fraction of the time,
since most of life — sleeping, eating, going to the bathroom, interacting
with people in a domestic sense — requires very little in the way of moral
choice.

Yes, evil will out, but it’s not something that needs to be on display 24
hours a day. In the end, it doesn’t take much to see evil coming when it’s
wearing horns and carrying a pitchfork. “Downfall” reminds us that the
challenge of citizenship means recognizing evil when leaders are smiling,
playing with their dogs and being photographed with children.

The extraordinary thing about Bruno Ganz as Hitler is the way he is able
to synthesize everything we’ve seen of Hitler and everything we know about him,
while at the same time creating an intuitive, spontaneous performance that in
no way seems a crass imitation. For his first meeting with the young woman
who’d become his secretary, Traudl Junge, Ganz adopts Hitler’s fatherly pose,
as seen in German newsreels — gentle, smiling, soft-spoken. Then he begins
dictating a letter, and the voice, ever-so subtly, changes into something
strident and familiar. Two minutes into the movie, it’s already clear that the
Swiss-born Ganz is going to be able to pull this off. His portrayal of Hitler
is a seamless blend of knowledge and inspiration, a product of rigorous study
as refracted through the prism of an actor’s understanding.

The stooped, prematurely old man in the bunker is Hitler’s physical
reality. His soul reveals itself in his rants against compassion, in his
passing reference to the Jews and in his frequent sputtering outbursts of rage,
delivered in a piercing, strangled voice. Anyone concerned that “Downfall”
might inspire pity for Hitler needn’t worry. The Hitler we get here is a
contemptible, deluded and truly vile creature who’d gladly drag every German
civilian down into the grave with him. The Nazis’ deluded faith in their own
virtue makes them comprehensible but more despicable, because the self-
delusion seems a convenient trick of the mind. To see propaganda minister
Joseph Goebbels (Ulrich Mathes) weeping for himself is to wish he didn’t have
the comfort of tears. It’s to want to take his face and smash it into the wall.

“Downfall” is based largely on the memoirs of Junge, who survived until
2002 and was the subject of the documentary, “Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary.”
She was a confidant of Hitler’s girlfriend, Eva Braun, who is portrayed by
Juliane Kohler as an emotionally perceptive young woman, covering over her
sadness with effervescent high spirits. A party, in which Eva dances on a
table, with a lot of drunken Nazis cheering her on, is filmed from Traudl’s
horrified viewpoint as like a vision of hell — a frenzy of dead spirits,
artificially animated, pretending to be happy.

The film takes place under a barrage of Allied bombing, and though bombs
are familiar features in films, “Downfall” conveys the terror of a bombing
assault more convincingly than any film in memory. It helps that we’re never
granted the perspective of an aerial view. We see only what the people see
from the ground — the explosions, very close and very loud.

Though Alexandra Maria Lara, as Traudl, is a compelling surrogate for
audience reaction, it’s likely that people who see “Downfall” will walk out
talking mainly about two things: Ganz, and Corinna Harfouch as Magda Goebbels.
On the chance that there are potential audience members who don’t know what
evil act the wife of Joseph Goebbels is famous for, I won’t reveal it. I will
say that the big scenes involving Mrs. Goebbels are extremely difficult to
watch. They’re also enlightening, in that they show how this woman justified
herself and saw herself.

There are many lessons to be gleaned from “Downfall.” Perhaps the most
important is that absolute faith in one’s own virtue is not a commitment to
virtuous behavior but a commitment to one’s own will. It’s a license to commit
atrocities. That’s a lesson that can’t be repeated enough.

– Advisory: This film contains graphic violence and disturbing scenes of
cruelty to children.

E-mail Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com.