Plot
The film is told primarily from the viewpoint of the fictional Hauptmann Hoffmann, an officer in the SS who is assigned to duty in the Führerbunker for what will prove the final days in the life of Adolf Hitler, as the Battle of Berlin rapidly moves towards final the defeat of the crumbling Nazi regime. Hoffmann observes a meeting of Hitler and his chief military staff, where the dire warnings by Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel and General Hans Krebs of Berlin's imminent encirclement are ignored by Hitler, who orders an assault under the command of Felix Steiner in the belief that his will repel the Red Army. While he is pleased with the opportunity to be working so close to his country's leader, and Hitler himself identifies the young Hauptmann as someone with potential, Hoffmann quickly notices how despondent the senior military staff privately are about the situation, even as they celebrate Hitler's 56th birthday. Nonetheless, he resolves to join a number of other officers and officials, including Hitler's partner Eva Braun, along with Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda, who make a pact to stay in the bunker until the end and kill themselves should Berlin fall to the Red Army. All the while, Hitler refuses to acknowledge the dire reality of the situation, and makes plans to ethnically cleanse the British Isles and Soviet Union following a future Nazi conquest.
Hitler's view of the situation finally comes crashing down on the afternoon of 22 April, when he irately demands to know why he has not received any update on Steiner's attack, and is reluctantly informed by General Alfred Jodl that Steiner did not proceed with the attack, having only one-tenth the number of forces necessary to have any hope of success, and that the fall of Berlin and total defeat of the Nazi regime is now virtually assured. Hitler furiously accuses the assembled military staff of treachery and incompetence, before dejectedly affirming his intention to kill himself before he can be captured by the Soviets. Afterwards, the senior military staff are left paralysed by indecision out of fear of reprisal from Hitler if they try acting without instructions from him, hastening the deterioration of the situation. However, Hitler is brought out of his depression when he reads a horoscope from 1941 describing the end of World War II and takes it to mean that he will turn the situation around and defeat the Allies (unaware that the horoscope is actually describing his own defeat), and further encouraged by hearsay that an American and Soviet unit fell out and began attacking each other, ordering a renewed assault on the Red Army by General Walther Wenck.
Hermann Göring, apparently acting on now-outdated information about Hitler having given up and intending to kill himself, sends a telegram asking for permission to take control of the government, which Hitler construes as a coup attempt, leading to him ordering Göring arrested. He summons Robert Ritter von Greim to replace Göring as head of the Luftwaffe , and while von Greim is initially very skeptical about having any chance of success in this role, he is won over by Hitler's confidence that the German military will turn the situation around and defeat the Allies, causing Hoffmann to slowly realize that the generals were right about their appraisal of the situation, and that he himself was taken in by Hitler. As time progresses it becomes increasingly apparent that Wenck's attack on the Red Army has failed, and then Hitler is driven further into despondency by news that Heinrich Himmler has attempted to negotiate an end to hostilities. Hitler marries Eva and begins to make preparations to commit suicide.
After dictating his last will and testament, Hitler releases Hoffmann from his suicide pact and entrusts him with a copy of the will; once he leaves the bunker, however, Hoffmann destroys his copy out of disgust at having let himself follow the Nazi ideology. In his final conversation with his generals, Hitler orders them to enact a scorched earth policy on what remains of Berlin to leave it useless for the Soviets, though their reaction makes it clear that they do not intend to carry this out. Hitler then retreats to his bedroom and prepares to end his life, but before he does so he angrily berates Eva, telling her that he never felt anything for her and only entered into a relationship with her to appear more socially acceptable. She kills herself with a sodium cyanide capsule while his back is turned, and he reacts furiously, having intended to kill her himself and seeing this as one final betrayal. Moments later, a gunshot rings out around the bunker as Hitler commits suicide, and the assembled staff immediately begin lighting and smoking cigarettes, in defiance of their now-deceased leader's ban on smoking.
Release
The film opened in 26 theatres in West Germany on the anniversary of Hitler's birth on 20 April 1973, which led to several groups objecting to the film. Initially, the movie was a moderate success at the box office. [5]
Bernard Delfont wrote in his memoirs that he saw the film at a charity screening and felt it was too sympathetic to Hitler. Although his cinema chain was to distribute it he cancelled the movie. [6]
In its first nine days at the Empire, Leicester Square in London, the film grossed £17,860 ($41,971). [7]
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