Bruno Ganz IN Downfall - Der Untergang - DVD Review Bruno Ganz Downfall Der Untergang DVD Review Bruno Ganz Downfall Der Untergang DVD Review Bruno Ganz Downfall Der Untergang DVD Review Bruno Ganz Downfall Der Untergang DVD Review Bruno Ganz Downfall Der Untergang DVD Review Bruno Ganz Downfall Der Untergang DVD Review Bruno Ganz Downfall Der Untergang DVD Review Bruno Ganz Downfall Der Untergang DVD Review Bruno Ganz Downfall Der Untergang DVD Review Oliver Hirschbiegel DVD Review Downfall Der Untergang Highlight Video (Premium Edition) - Region 2 - PAL Oliver Hirschbiegel DVD Review Downfall The Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich Der Untergang - Hitler und das Ende des 3. Reichs Der Untergang DVD Oliver Hirschbiegel DVD Review Downfall

(aka "Downfall" )

directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
Germany 2004

Based on Hitler historian Joachim Fest’s book “Der Untergang” and Hitler’s private secretary Junge Traudl’s book “Bis zur Letzter Stunde”, which she wrote in 1948, but wasn’t published until in recent years, Oliver Hirschbiegel creates a stunning and basically hour by hour portrait of the last twelve days in Hitler’s life.

Hirschbiegel’s intentions was to show, what he calls “the collective loss of reason”, which Junge in her autobiography calls “the blind angle”, the fact, that one should have known better but for some reason never acted upon what took place. His platform is chaos. The Russian army is only a few hundred meters from Berlin, the Reich is collapsing and with it its internal power structure. Hitler himself is old and severely affected by Alzheimer, without any sense of reality, constantly giving impossible orders and going into a frenzy when they aren’t followed.

The most impressive element of “Der Untergang” is the acting. Bruno Ganz studied Hitler’s voice and idiosyncrasies for several months, and delivers without parallel the most impressive German acting in decades. Equally impressive is the rest of the cast. Hirschbiegel has matured into the best character director in German today.

One would not have expected this of Eichinger, who we normally associate as producer of “Resident Evil”, but his script is surprisingly good. The dialogue has some razor sharp moments. Simply superb. But sadly Eichinger also had his own agenda for the film, and by his additions to the film distances the film from Hirschbiegel's message. Without these, the film would have been a masterpiece.

Nominated as best foreign film and winner of several German film awards, “Der Untergang” is the best film to date about the final days of Hitler and the fall of the Third Reich.

Henrik Sylow

Posters

Theatrical Release: September 8, 2004 (Munich)

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DVD Comparison:

Highlight Video (Premium Edition) - Region 2 - PAL vs. Columbia Tri-Star - Region 1 - NTSC

Big thanks to Henrik Sylow for the Review!

(Highlight Video (Premium Edition) - Region 2 - PAL LEFT vs. Columbia Tri-Star - Region 1 - NTSC RIGHT)

DVD Box Cover
Distribution	Highlight Video Region 2 - PAL	Columbia Tri-Star Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	2:28:50 (4% PAL speedup)	2:35:15
Video	1.78:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 6.37 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1.78:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 4.55 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Bitrate
Audio	5.1 Dolby Digital German, 5.1 Dolby Digital (Voice Over), DTS German	5.1 Dolby Digital German, 5.1 Dolby Digital (Voice Over), DTS German
Subtitles	German (HI), English, None	English (non-removable)
Features	Release Information: Studio: Highlight Video Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - Original aspect ratio 1.78:1 Edition Details: • See Comments* DVD Release Date: March 17, 2005 Cardboard Digipack Chapters 36	Release Information: Studio: Columbia Tri-Star Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - Original aspect ratio 1.78:1 Edition Details: • See Comments* DVD Release Date: August 2nd, 2005 Cardboard Digipack Chapters 28

Comments

ADDITION: Columbia Tri-star - Region 1 (Aug 2005):

The Columbia image is marginally less sharp than the PAL edition. The Columbia has non-removable subtitles but the extras (a few less interviews etc. than the Highlight Video) are subtitled where in the Highlight Video they are not. We can't see the image discrepancy as being overwhelming and the English subbed extras make this NTSC version the most viable for some purchasers. It is quite an odd choice for Columbia to have the subs be non-removable, however if this is an issue and you understand German then you may want the PAL edition instead.

*****

Highlight Premium Release

The Image
In all aspects a stunning DVD presentation. Image is despite the films running length and the DTS track basically flawless. I've not been able to spot any compression artifacts. There are two points to note about the film and the image: It is dark, but this is how the film looks, and one could have wished for more sharpness, but again, this is also how it looked at the cinema.

The image of the Premium Edition is marginally softer than the Standard Edition, due to a more compressed image, because of the additional 5.1 Dolby Digital Voice Over track. However it is only notable when making a still and zooming in. When playing, no difference is visible.

The Sound
Sound is 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS. Both are extremely dynamic, using all channels to their limits. The DTS is superior to the 5.1 Dolby Digital, being slightly more precise. This is one of the best DTS tracks I've heard in a long time. During the combat sequences, the rears and the sub really come to live.

Additional on the Premium Edition is a 5.1 Dolby Digital Voice Over track (Hörfilmfassung), which enables people with bad sight or blindness to "watch" the film. A very welcomed feature.

The Extras
The Standard Edition has a short "Making of" (10 minutes) and a few interviews excerts (4 minutes).

The Premium edition comes fully packed with over 2½ hours of extras.

Premium Edition extras
Hitlers letzten Tage - Making of (58:33)
Melissa Müller on Traudl Junge (8:21)
Production featurettes with audio commentary (48:02):
- Shooting in Russia (17:59)
- Behind the Scenes (30:03)
Interviews (46:11):
- Bruno Ganz (6:18)
- Alexandra Maria Lara (1:42)
- Corinna Harfouch (4:31)
- Ulrich Matthes (1:52)
- Juliane Köhler (2:27)
- Heino Ferch (2:34)
- Ulrich Noethen (1:49)
- Thomas, Kretschmann (1:13)
- Thomas Thieme (1:55)
- Bernd Eichinger (4:19)
- Joachim Fest (13:27)
- Oliver Hirschbiegel (4:04)
Virtual tour of Der Führerbunker
The historical figures and their actors
Biographies of Bernd Eichinger, Joachim Fest, Oliver Hirschbiegel
8-page booklet

Notes
The Premium Edition comes with English subtitles for film only. Only German subtitles on Extras.

Especially for Scandinavian readers, Sandrew Metronome is currently preparing the Scandinavian DVD, to be released late August / early September, which will be 100% identical with the Premium Edition, except for no German Voice Over and with Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish subtitles.

NOTE: Currently a three hour version of “Der Untergang” is being prepared. While not date is set yet, it will most likely be aired on German television around Christmas in two parts of each 90 minute . Highlight DVD will then later in 2006 release this three hour version on DVD.

- Henrik Sylow

DVD Menus
(Highlight Video (Premium Edition) - Region 2 - PAL LEFT vs. Columbia Tri-Star - Region 1 - NTSC RIGHT)