LONDON: Most of the critiques of the Oliver Hirschbiegel’s new film about Hitler, Downfall, have missed the point. It is not the alleged humanizing of Hitler that is contentious, it is the lionising of the SS, who remain brave, unbending and beautifully dressed as Berlin disintegrates around them. The film is superbly made and has been a huge hit in Germany. But part of the reason for its success there is that it portrays the German army, Berliners and even the occupants of that crazy, claustrophobic bunker as heroic. With the Russians advancing from the east, the Americans from the west, 12 year old boys don Hitler Youth uniforms to point bazookas at tanks and a German aviator makes an impossible flight to be with his Fuhrer as the end approaches. Concentrating on the final 10 days keeps the focus on the implosion of Germany. Of course, that implosion is the result of ... what is the word, stupidity, aggression, viciousness, evil over the previous decade, but as the bombs rain down on the bunker, none of that counts for much. We live the moment of courage and resistance.
The most controversial character in the film is not Hitler, but SS doctor Ernst Gunther Schenck, who is portrayed as a classic Hollywood good guy fearless, muscular, willing to do anything to protect the civilian population. I have no idea whether Schenck really was the St Francis of Assisi figure on display here, but I am predisposed to distrust the humanitarian instincts of those who joined the SS.
Fascism swept through Europe in the 1930s, and remains a threat against which societies have to be vigilant, because at its core is a very attractive idea: the notion of the common will, of empowerment through subjection. The individual weak, vain, destined to die can truly find himself only within the organic whole of his society (or race, in Nazi Germany’s case). Fascists are good at “creative destruction”, to borrow a phrase.
Which is why this compelling movie is dangerous.
It doesn’t try to argue with fascism; indeed, it underlines its appeal. At the end, when the Fuhrer is dead and Berlin lost, a group of SS officers are holed up facing insuperable odds. Their code says they must not surrender, but their superior officer decides otherwise and most support him. Two do not and simultaneously put revolvers to their temples. Am I the only one who identifies with those who commit suicide rather than face years in a Soviet prison?
Hitler adored Wagner and they shared a common ideal: that life is a disappointment, almost a delusion. That only in death and through sacrifice does man fulfil himself.
