Downfall
Metascore
82 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 35 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 35
  3. Negative: 0 out of 35
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  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Eric Hansen
    100
    One of the best war movies ever made, Downfall is a powerful and artistically masterful re-creation of the last days of the Third Reich.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    Against the overarching facts of his personal magnetism and the blind loyalty of his lieutenants, the movie observes the workings of the world within the bunker. All power flowed from Hitler. He was evil, mad, ill, but long after Hitler's war was lost he continued to wage it in fantasy.
  3. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    100
    Downfall, whatever its shortcomings, bears strong witness to great evil. That is its triumph as a film.
  4. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    100
    A riveting re-creation of three world-changing collapses: those of the Nazi party, of militarized Germany as a whole, and of the Führer who guided them into self-destructive ruin.
  5. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    100
    The first great Hitler movie.
  6. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: James Wegg
    100
    As Hitler, Bruno Ganz ignites the screen with every appearance.
  7. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    100
    Hirschbiegel and Eichinger, along with their large, brave and talented cast, have done something extraordinary for their generation of Germans, and for the world. They have willfully entered their grandparents' dirtiest, clammiest chamber of secrets.
  8. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    100
    A meticulous, spellbinding, provocative depiction of the final days of the Third Reich.
  9. The New Republic
    Reviewed by: Stanley Kauffmann
    100
    In every aspect, his film is superbly made.
  10. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    91
    It's a bracing reminder that before Hitler took power, it was handed to him. The lesson resonates long after the credits roll.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Derek Elley
    90
    Not so much a Hitler movie as a portrait of a totalitarian machine's spiritual and emotional collapse, Downfall is a cumulatively powerful Goetterdammerung centered on the last 10 days of the bunkered Fuehrer and those around him.
  12. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    90
    As a piece of filmmaking, it's stunningly effective.
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  13. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    90
    From the very first seconds a viewer believes totally in Downfall.
  14. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    90
    As a piece of acting, Ganz’s work is not just astounding, it’s actually rather moving. But I have doubts about the way his virtuosity has been put to use.
  15. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    89
    Much has been made about the film's "humanizing" of Hitler, but he's only human here in the most prosaic of terms.
  16. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    88
    It's the well-wrought details that explain, perhaps better than any earlier film, how an entire country bought into Hitler's genocidal madness.
  17. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    88
    Powerfully disturbing.
  18. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    88
    Downfall and Bruno Ganz are deserving of Oscars they will not get.
  19. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    83
    Credit the great Bruno Ganz with creating a vivid Hitler: furious, unsteady, crushed and frankly cracking up.
  20. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    80
    Indeed, Hirschbiegel himself seems reluctant to single out a protagonist, and finally settles on Junge.
  21. Empire
    Reviewed by: Kim Newman
    80
    Solid history, fine cinema. Downfall is gripping, moving, and, in the end, profoundly horrifying.
  22. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    80
    Downfall's overstuffed melodrama juggles countless subplots and a small army of characters who manage to make an impression in spite of limited screen time.
  23. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    80
    The reality it confronts is so gripping, we cannot turn away. This may not be the most sophisticated retelling of what happened while Berlin burned, but what a story it is.
  24. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Andrea Gronvall
    80
    Under the harsh lights of the meticulously re-created, claustrophobic bunker, that scrutiny is relentless.
  25. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    75
    With a steely, unblinking resolve, Downfall stares into the abyss, but does not pretend to comprehend it.
  26. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    75
    If I respect Downfall more than I was enthralled by it, that's because its portayal stops short of revelation. Once you witness Hitler's denial, the film has little more to say about him.
  27. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Bill Gallo
    70
    This is a grim and sometimes guilt-ridden examination of the Third Reich in collapse. But it's also weirdly sympathetic, and not just to the peripheral figures in Hitler's twisted world.
  28. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    70
    It is fascinating without being especially illuminating, and it holds your attention for its very long running time without delivering much dramatic or emotional satisfaction in the end.
  29. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    63
    The very thought of humanizing Hitler makes me queasy. If he had a good side, I don't want to know about it.
  30. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    63
    Has the arc of a Shakespearean tragedy, and all the essential components therein: loyalty and betrayal, conspiracy and delusion, self-destruction.
  31. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    63
    A bizarre film.
  32. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    63
    That's the problem of Downfall in a nutshell: It provokes insufficient emotional and intellectual responses to a grotesque and atrocious dictatorship. Instead of the banality of evil, it gives us the banality of banality.
  33. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    60
    Intriguing, oddly banal and ultimately deflating.
  34. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    50
    The movie itself seems more familiar than fascinating, more innocuous than inflammatory, and, at 2½ hours, more tedious than anything else.
  35. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    50
    Downfall may be grimly self-important and inescapably trivializing. But we should be grateful that German cinema is more inclined to normalize the nation's history than rewrite it.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.7 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 128 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 62 out of 69
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 69
  3. Negative: 7 out of 69
  1. AllisonS.
    10
    Absolutely fantastic portrayal of WWII from German side, being in hiters inner circle and the final days of his reign. Wonderful.
  2. simonP
    8
    To criticise this film because you know the ending is foolish. After all, we know the outcome of any film based on historical fact! The two defining features of this film are a quite exceptional performance by Ganz as Hitler and (perhaps) the first contemporary portrayal of Hitler as a human being rather than a cartoon monster. That we see an attempt to portray (thought not excuse) the man behind the unspeakable acts of evil makes this film worth seeing alone. He was human like the rest of us which makes the terror that he perpretrated even more chilling. Recommended.… Full Review »
  3. MustisTheCat
    9
    The most convincing flick portraying Hitler`s last days ever. Again, all the German actors play very well, almost all are on par with Bruno Ganz. What I found very interesting was this movie showing what the entire Berlin felt like in the last days of the war and how the headquarters planned their demise. We have all the most important German commanders` silhouettes shown . Each and every one of them a separate character with unique history. Most of the time people are talking in this film, but it is never boring. There is a huge tension of the end coming in closer every hour. Finally, this flick shows the tragedy of German nation led by a fanatic.… Full Review »
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