DVD of The Week - Downfall

Downfall is a German made film detailing the fall of Berlin and Hitlers last days in the bunker in final days of WWII. My son and I went to see this at the ONE theater it was playing at in the Chicago area a few months back and were both blown away by this film. The projectionist in this theater was so used to playing the Joe Six Pak blockbuster of the week though that the subtitles were off the screen for a good 20-25 minutes until a few of us finally got up and complained. They then fixed it and asked if we would like the movie started from the beginning. Duh!
Anyway it is now available on DVD and if you have any interest at all in WWII or history in general do not hesitate to purchase or rent this one. The film has been criticized for showing Hitler as "too human". I dont agree. The film paints a vivid portrait of Hitlers slow descent into madness and total disregard for the German citizens as Berlin crumbled under Russian artillery. While he and his staff are hunkered down in the bunker getting sloppy drunk, chewing cyanide capsules, or putting bullets in their own brainpans the city was being defended by old men and young children/ teenagers (Hitler youth). I was just mesmerized by Swedish actor Bruno Ganz's dead on performance of Der Fuhrer himself. There are a couple stand out scenes that are just hard to watch one of which is Goebbels wife administering cyanide capsules to her children so that they wont have to grow up in a non National Socialist society. Chilling stuff indeed since you know what you are watching actually happened.
This film runs 2.5 hrs or so which may seem long to some who dont like sub titles but I have to tell ya the time flies by.
In fact my son and I have planned to watch this followed by Das Boot the first snowy Sunday afternoon that hits the area. If anything I figure it will help boost his grade in German class.