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.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
100
A meticulous, spellbinding, provocative depiction of the final days of the Third Reich.
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.
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.
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.
88
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Downfall and Bruno Ganz are deserving of Oscars they will not get.
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.
75
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
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.
100
The New Republic by Stanley Kauffmann
In every aspect, his film is superbly made.