FINALLY, after a 3 or 4 year rut of nothing but sub-mediocre dribble, there is a movie well worth watching that has been made - albiet in Germany, not America. I'm talking about the movie "Downfall", which is (for those of you who don't already know) a very extensive movie (almost a docu-drama) about Hitler and his cronies in their bunker in the last days of WW2. I only know the general goings-on about this subject, so I can't vouch for it's accuracy, although it was accurate from what I could tell. Considering the subject matter, and especially the fact that this movie was made in Germany, I was expecting an extremely one-sided presentation of the subject matter. Yes, of course Hitler and his merry men were evil, insane, and downright scary, but they were still human beings and did not spend quite 100% of the time eating babies or the such. This movie recognizes that fact, and obviously tires to show us not only the evil to these men, but also the universal qualities which all humans share to some degree. In fact - much to my surprise - Hitler is more or less portrayed as a pretty nice guy when he isn't shouting at his generals or talking about his plans for the Jews (which, I might add, does not come up very much in the movie). You *almost* start to feel sorry for the guy. The battle scenes aren't bad, and the uniforms/equimpent were surprisingly good. They even had the guards inside the bunker toting Sturgewehr 44s. It isn't a perfect 10, (it somehow comes off as being slightly "feminist propaganda-y" and has some other minor faults) but it IS probably the best new movie I have seen in a number of years (haven't seen "The Greatest Raid" yet...). IMDB has it at close to 9/10 stars if memory serves. Definitely worth the rent (it just came out on video/DVD somewhat recently, still in the "New Release" section at my local movie rental place)!
BTW, apologies if this post contains dupeage.