Downfall is a gruelling dramatisation of the last days of the Third Reich, leading up to Hitler's suicide. The Russians have Berlin surrounded and there is panic and mayhem among the leading Nazis. Most of the action takes place in the cramped enclosure of Hitler's bunker, with his fellow Nazis circling around in the harsh lamplight trying to deal with their impending doom. It can't have been fun coming to terms with failure on such a massive scale, and Downfall is far from a fun film to watch, but for anyone interested in how the hell WWII could have happened [like me], it's fascinating.

It's based on a book called Inside Hitler's Bunker by German academic historian Joachim C. Fest, and is far from a handy introduction to the Nazis. All the big names: Himmler, Speer, Goebbels, Bormann, etc etc all weave in and out of the story, with not much introduction. The film was made for Germans, and not being an expert means at times you are left working out who is who as middle aged, black coated, gloomy aspected men walk in and out of the action. None of them can do anything though; Hitler is a lunatic, the war is lost, they are all going to die.

Playing Hitler can't be easy, but Swiss actor Bruno Ganz's performance is shockingly good. In a short prologue we see him in 1942, all smarmy and confident and on top of the world. But when Downfall gets going it's 1945 and Hitler is a drugged up, sweating, shaking, screaming mess. He has clearly lost whatever sense of reality he once had and is a lunatic.

One of the more arresting scenes has the ailing Fuhrer awarding medals to some boys who have blown up a Russian tank. He hides his trembling left hand behind his back as he commends the short trousered heroes. Then Hitler goes back into his bunker and roars at his shrinking generals to move non existent army divisions to rescue the day. They know he is mad, but nobody else is willing to take control. Hitler refuses to allow the evacuation of his capital, because if the German people have let him down by losing the war they deserve to die. Ganz, a native German speaker who until now probably best known for his sweet angel in Wings of Desire, does a decent job of embodying raging psychotic megalomania. He has quite a range.

Downfall is a huge film. As well as the weighty subject matter, and top notch performances, there are some monumental set pieces as Berlin is battered into submission, people flee in all directions, and the action is handled impressively by relatively unexperienced German director Oliver Hirschbiegel. Roman Polanski's recent The Pianist raised the bar for bombed out city centre scenes, but Downfall's carnage laden diaromas are equally terrific.

While the war is being lost and the city is falling down overhead, some ostrich type Germans [lead by Hitler's girlfriend Eva Braun] proceed to get blind drunk and sing and dance and hope it will all go away. Not everybody though. There is a good German doctor who runs around trying to save as many lives as he can, but more interesting, and barely watchable, is the scene where Mrs Goebbels calmly and methodically poisons her own six kids because living in a post Third Reich future is unthinkable. This is possibly not a good first date film.

Downfall is structured so we see Hitler, and the last days of the Third Reich, through the eyes of Traudl Junge - his personal secretary. There's an afterword by the real Junge, about how she feels guilty for not doing more to stop her boss, which didn't really ring true. Sure she could have poisoned him one day, but the thought only occurred to her years later. Everyday reality under the Nazis, especially when they were winning and in thrall to the Fuhrer was just different. Our rules don't count.

Downfall never tries to explain, cause you can't. In the end what impresses you most, apart from the sheer size of the film, is the madness of the whole thing. Hitler is bonkers, nobody will stand up to him, millions of people have died, more are still dying, and you are watching a bunch of middle aged men who a few years back were the most powerful in Europe cower before an obvious lunatic. Downfall tells it like it actually was, but cannot explain how the hell it all could have happened. People are strange. Downfall is a warning. It's a powerful, impressive film.