Simply A Masterpiece

Memorable, crazy movie

Excellent adaptation.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Be careful around Adolph Hitler. This man with the mustache will charm you with his charisma, compassion, artistic talents and passion for opera. That's if you are 100% Aryian, don't smoke around him, or have any generational defects. He will also turn on you on a dime, accusing the Germans of inbred disloyalty (reminding us that he was actually Austrian), express his earlier desire to have dropped the European Jews off on Madagascar before realizing that it was easier to simply eradicate them. He even goes as far to praise his British enemies for their obvious loyalty while badmouthing the nationality of the men he commands. In a humorous moment, he laughs about characteristics of both Roosevelt and Churchill. In short, this is a view of a very complex man that you surely do not want to be fooled by.While dozens of biographies have been told (through books and on screen) in regards to the German fuhrer who changed the course of 20th Century history, some are better than others. On screen, Hitler has been portrayed by Bobby Watson ("The Hitler Gang"), Richard Basehart ("Hitler") and TV's "The Bunker" (Anthony Hopkins), among others, and here, it is the extraordinary Sir Alec Guennis who portrays him. Guennis adds a new twist to Hitler, focusing on the man's various personality quirks, both positive and negative, and for that reason, it is easy to see who he was outside of the world's greatest enemy. You have to remind yourself that this is not a man to like in any circumstance.Guennis takes the role seriously, as far from Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" as could possibly be. However, Guennis's voice, having brilliantly upgraded many comedies from charming con-men in "The Lavender Hill Mob" and "The Lady Killers" to a chuckling Jacob Marley in "Scrooge" and the blind butler "James Sir Bensonmum" in Neil Simon's "Murder By Death". Even with an Oscar Winning dramatic role ("The Bridge on the River Kwai"), it will be his comedy that he will be remembered for. So to see Guennis as Hitler is difficult to accept in a totally dramatic sense, and you have to keep reminding yourself of whom he is playing. It is almost like watching "Airplane's" Leslie Nielsen act serious in dramas and try not laughing.But Hitler was a serious character in modern history, so the laughs disappear as this man's characteristics are revealed. His anger at the apparent betrayal of the S.S., his own generals and eventually Eva Braun, his long-time mistress, is something to be taken seriously. His command that the bridges be guarded by "Hitler's Youth" and the brief visit by a representative of that youth, a casual conversation with other bunker residents of how they will commit suicide, and finally, the desperation he has in having to face his fate will engross you throughout. To think that this man lived less than 70 years ago and all the villains who have come since is really scary. Then, there is his interest in how he will be remembered, wanting photos to remain behind so he won't face the same fate as Jesus in supposedly being misrepresented by artists. So many individual moments of this film stand out. Actual newsreel footage, stills and newly created black and white footage (done in beautiful sepia tone) make this an attractive film to look at about an unattractive time in our history.All of these qualities make it easy to overlook my misgivings in looking at Guennis's performance in view of his comic genius. In retrospect, he is excellent. The final scene between Hitler and Eva Braun (Doris Kunstmann) is truly haunting (as the other bunker residents in the other room face their last days quite differently than Hitler) and a nice pay-off ends the film with some delicious irony.

Many inaccuracies. First, Hitler and his bunker crew were German and spoke German. The actors in this film were British and Italian speaking English. The layout of the bunker is way off; it was more cramped. The entire final scene where Eva Braun and Hitler kill themselves is complete and reckless conjecture. How does anyone know what transpired between them in their final moments? Much of this film seemed to about giving a history lesson, what with some characters unnaturally giving historical background while engaged in conversations with one another. It was also awkward to have Hitler discussing the map situation, then the camera cut to a map with subtitles giving the date and how far from Berlin the Russians were — obviously not what Hitler was looking at on the table before him. The film makes Hitler out to be a bad guy, which is as it should be, but make him out to be a bad guy accurately!

I had seen this movie a long, long, long time ago on TV with commercials, so when I saw it recently on DVD it was totally new. I've seen the Ganz version (Der Untergang) and recently also saw the Hopkins version (The Bunker), this one is still my favorite. Is it the closest to what happened in all it's minutia? Who knows, probably not since the Simon Ward character is fictional and I don't think the other two mentioned films had used fictional characters (I don't know why that was necessary, the Hopkins and Ganz versions both had low level Officers as part of their stories but they were based on real people). Despite it not being loved by historical purists I do like the characterization of Hitler by Guinness, Ganz portrayal is way to "likable", and Hopkins is hard to understand when he goes on his rages, Guinness is not likable, he's totally wacko, and thats the way I want to remember this mad-man as. Production values are to me high end, it was a first class production. Things I did not remember but really liked when watching this, the Wagner music was great, and it has some really funny lines from Guinness's Hitler as he speaks to his captive audience of worshipers, along the lines of (I paraphrase) "Germany will be truly great when Wagner is performed by an all German cast totally naked!", lol. There are a few pretty funny scenes that had to be put in there to show his madness and bewilderment and it works great for me. All three of these films I mentioned are worth watching, I like this one the best for the reasons stated and also that it didn't focus so much time on Goebells that the others do. I think Goebells is shown a lot in other versions to show how sick these people were, but in this version, all you need is Adolf to despise the whole group. The Ganz version is good to watch if you want the tiny details but it seems like it pulls punches, which leads me to think there is some lingering sympathy in Germany for Hitler (also that it is rated in the top 100 films of all time, there are some real Hitler lovers somewhere). The HBO version is also good to see because it focuses a lot on the others in the bunker and also spans the whole time Hitler was in the bunker which was like 4 months, so we see a lot of transformation going on. If your a buff of WW2 history you will definitely enjoy this film, highly recommended. As Max Bialystock from the 1968 film "The Producers" says "That's Our Hitler!". 10 of 10.

HITLER: THE LAST TEN DAYS (2 outta 5 stars)Alec Guinness does a fine job of portraying Adolph Hitler in this okay movie chronicling the final days of WW2 when the masterminds of the Third Reich were holed up in a bunker awaiting their final defeat. Interesting film has some good scenes and dialogue but it isn't always as compelling as it might be. Except for Guinness the other actors are kind of wooden and unmemorable. Even Guinness has a few off-moments when his ranting and raving seem a little too over-acted. The movie starts out well with some documentary footage that sets the stage. Unfortunately the ringleaders of the war, as portrayed in the film, come off more as banal than they do evil. Not a bad movie but a truly definitive Hitler movie still needs to be made. (Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" still comes the closest, I think.)