Downfall

"April 1945, a nation awaits its... Downfall"

2004 2h 35m DE

🙌

7.9

BANGER

★7.9TMDB · 4,488

DramaHistoryWar

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

“April 1945, a nation awaits its... Downfall”

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Cast

Bruno Ganz
Adolf Hitler
Alexandra Maria Lara
Traudl Junge
Corinna Harfouch
Magda Goebbels
Ulrich Matthes
Joseph Goebbels
Juliane Köhler
Eva Braun
Heino Ferch
Albert Speer
Christian Berkel
Prof. Dr. Ernst-Günter Schenck
Thomas Kretschmann
SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Writers: Bernd Eichinger
Languages: Hungarian, German, Russian
Countries: Austria, Germany, Italy

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 155 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 5.8× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 22 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Hungarian, German, Russian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: Austria, Germany, Italy.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, shot by Rainer Klausmann. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Stephan Zacharias. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Hans Funck shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Oliver Hirschbiegel directs. Rainer Klausmann behind the camera. Stephan Zacharias scores. Hans Funck cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Austria, Germany, Italy. Dialogue in Hungarian, German, Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 155 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
2Made its money back 5.8× over at the box office.
3Released 22 years ago.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Hungarian, German, Russian.
5International production across 3 countries: Austria, Germany, Italy.
6Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, shot by Rainer Klausmann. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Stephan Zacharias. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Hans Funck shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Bruno Ganz and Alexandra Maria Lara and Corinna Harfouch carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "April 1945, a nation awaits its... Downfall".
11IMDB entry: tt0363163 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 24 themes, including "dying and death", "based on novel or book", "nazi", "clerk".

The technical file

Cinematography: Rainer Klausmann
Original score: Stephan Zacharias
Editing: Hans Funck
Production design: Bernd Lepel
Costume design: Claudia Bobsin
Makeup / hair: Margrit Neufink
VFX supervisor: Thomas Zauner
Sound: Nico Krebs
Stunt coordinator: Oleg Korytin
Runtime: 155 min · 2h 35m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $16,000,000
Box office: $92,181,574
Return: 576% of budget
Original language: DE
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Downfall (2004)

Awards

Silver nugget for the best foreign film
Amanda Award for Best Foreign Feature Film
BIFA for Best Foreign Independent Film
London Film Critics Circle Award for Actor of the Year

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Oliver Hirschbiegel

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2023-04-23
★ 7/10
Hitler’s end As the Red Army encroaches upon Berlin in late April, 1945, the final days of Hitler in his bunker (Bruno Ganz) are told from the perspective of his secretary, Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara). "Downfall” (2004) is not a conventional war movie due to its downbeat subject and is more educational than entertaining, but it’s a necessary piece of the puzzle in understanding WW2. If you appreciate movies like "Enemy at the Gates" (2001), "The Pianist" (2002), "Black Book" (2006), "Valkyrie" (2008), "Rommel" (2012), "Warsaw '44" (2014) and "Fury" (2014), you’ll appreciate this one too. It's hard to rate a flick like this because it’s not an enjoyable experience, but it works superbly as means to go back in history and view Hitler’s final days. The film runs 2 hours, 36 minutes, and was shot in Germany (Berlin, Munich and Bavaria Studios) and Russia (St. Petersburg). GRADE: B
CinemaSerf2026-01-23
★ 7/10
Though he might not much like the compliment, Bruno Ganz is superb as the Führer in this dramatisation of his last few days in Berlin. If you saw George Schaefer’s attempt at this, with Anthony Hopkins in the title role (1981) then you’ll already have the gist of what occurs, but this has an altogether less dramatic, more natural, feel to it. It helps, of course, that those of us watching know now just how precarious his situation was, but for him surrounded as he was by yes men, Ganz portrays a man who genuinely believes the war is there to win. None of his acolytes have the courage to tell him he is defeated, and those who do appreciate it are all too often working on plans to save their own skins. The assembled supporting cast here, including many of those playing the wives like Corinna Harfouch (Goebbels) and Juliane Köhler (Braun) as well as that of secretary Trudi (Alexandra Maria Lara) help to keep this chronology remarkably human. This is a personification of their situation and though we know that evil lived here, this illustrates more a man who is sick. Physically and psychologically sick. That’s not to suggest it makes apologies for the man, but oddly enough it makes him a little more comprehensible amidst histories that unequivocally vilify the man. This isn’t so much about Naziism, or the politics of hate and bigotry - we join the timeframe too late for those to be relevant, it’s more about a realisation of failure, it’s ensuing panic and even the surprising degree of loyalty from those (usually) lower ranks who really were his true disciples. On that last point, Oliver Hirschbiegel also powerfully illustrates the power of indoctrination with children not yet in their teens enthusiastically manning the city’s defences whilst still proudly sporting their swastikas. Clearly just a little thought might have encouraged their officers to let them get back to what remained of their homes and families instead of facing the oncoming Soviet troops. It’s the cumulation of the threads as we build to quite a delicately paced denouement that gives this a considerable degree of plausibility. The production design and visual effects as the city collapses mirror nicely the mental collapses going on under the ground, and though we won’t often have seen a film that attempts this kind of level of objectivity about these events, this is certainly a poignant way to see a destructive man destroy himself.