Downfall (Hirschbiegel, 2004)

While obviously the film is an interesting look into the last painful moments of a very troubled Adolf Hitler's life, there are three other things that I find very interesting about Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004). The first being the introduction and conclusion. The second is the way the film treats women. The third is the gratuitous suicide.
It is quite common for a historical film and/or biopic to give a recap of the events that happened in real life after the film ends it gives the film more historical credibility. The addition of interview footage with the real Traudl Junge is very interesting indeed. It comes surprisingly at the beginning and the end. Its effect really only goes that far. What she says is rather unimportant compared to the fact that she is there.
That ties in with the second aspect of this film that jumps out. I do not know whether it was an attempt to recreate the actual atmosphere at the time or not, but the women in this film are not treated well. They are portrayed as more blind than the incompetent military men around them. They are even portrayed as evil, as we painfully watch Magda Goebbels (Corinna Harfouch) kill all five of her children.
Finally, countless people die just by suicide, never mind all the casualties of war and the almost never talked about victims of the death camps. The audience becomes numb and the final climax of the film does not do much to the emotions. The film is just so full of death and destruction that the audience becomes desensitized and emotionally drained.