Downfall
Newmarket Films | Release Date: February 18, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
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. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Downfall, whatever its shortcomings, bears strong witness to great evil. That is its triumph as a film. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
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. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The first great Hitler movie. Read full review
100
Film ThreatJames Wegg
As Hitler, Bruno Ganz ignites the screen with every appearance. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterEric Hansen
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. Read full review
100
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
In every aspect, his film is superbly made. Read full review
100
NewsweekDavid Ansen
A meticulous, spellbinding, provocative depiction of the final days of the Third Reich. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
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. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It's a bracing reminder that before Hitler took power, it was handed to him. The lesson resonates long after the credits roll. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
As a piece of filmmaking, it's stunningly effective.
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
From the very first seconds a viewer believes totally in Downfall. Read full review
90
The New YorkerDavid Denby
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. Read full review
90
VarietyDerek Elley
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. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Much has been made about the film's "humanizing" of Hitler, but he's only human here in the most prosaic of terms. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
It's the well-wrought details that explain, perhaps better than any earlier film, how an entire country bought into Hitler's genocidal madness. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Downfall and Bruno Ganz are deserving of Oscars they will not get. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Powerfully disturbing. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Credit the great Bruno Ganz with creating a vivid Hitler: furious, unsteady, crushed and frankly cracking up. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Indeed, Hirschbiegel himself seems reluctant to single out a protagonist, and finally settles on Junge. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
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. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
Under the harsh lights of the meticulously re-created, claustrophobic bunker, that scrutiny is relentless. Read full review
80
EmpireKim Newman
Solid history, fine cinema. Downfall is gripping, moving, and, in the end, profoundly horrifying. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
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. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
With a steely, unblinking resolve, Downfall stares into the abyss, but does not pretend to comprehend it. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen 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. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
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. Read full review
70
The New York TimesDana Stevens
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. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The very thought of humanizing Hitler makes me queasy. If he had a good side, I don't want to know about it. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Has the arc of a Shakespearean tragedy, and all the essential components therein: loyalty and betrayal, conspiracy and delusion, self-destruction. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
A bizarre film. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
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. Read full review
60
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Intriguing, oddly banal and ultimately deflating. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The movie itself seems more familiar than fascinating, more innocuous than inflammatory, and, at 2½ hours, more tedious than anything else. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
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. Read full review
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