Every single person on the Internet has watched that one scene from this film that provided the material for thousands of parody videos. Comparatively few people have watched the film itself in its entirety. Yet it really is a highly regarded work. It was nominated for the Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category in 2005 and is included in many lists of best films, such as various versions of the famous 1000 Films to See Before You Die checklist.

One problem here is that I’m fairly well-read on the events that are depicted in this film. After finishing the World at War documentary last year, I was fascinated enough by what happened during the final days of Adolf Hitler that I read up on it extensively. This means that this film held no surprises for me. Still, thanks to the excellent performances and fine pacing, I found this to be a compelling visual narrative of those fateful days.

The film opens with a scene set in 1942 when Hitler hires Traudl Junge as his personal secretary. There’s an implication here that the events follow her point of view but this isn’t universally true since the audience is also shown scenes where she isn’t present. It then skips ahead three years to 20 April 1945 when Berlin is under attack by the Russians and Hitler has made the Führerbunker under the Reich Chancellery his final redoubt. As the Russian forces draw ever nearer, Hitler’s closest advisers and officers continually urge him to flee as Berlin is doomed. At the same, his followers also grapple both with his increasingly insane orders and whether or not they should flee or stay with him until the very end.

When this film was released, there was considerable worry in Germany that it would present a humanizing and therefore sympathetic view of Hitler. I’d say there’s no risk of that here. Hitler is indeed depicted as a human figure here but only to show that he was no deity regardless of what his followers thought. Bruno Ganz plays a Hitler who is afflicted with Parkinson’s, his hands shaking uncontrollably behind his back even as he inspects his troops and praises their exploits. He ambles around with a pronounced stoop and as the film progresses appears to be ever bowed over as if from the weight of the increasingly bad news.

The depiction of his mental state is even more damning. One moment he is convinced that he has succeeded in luring the Allies into a clever trap and that final victory is close at hand. He issues orders to German units that not longer capable of combat while his officers are too frightened to say otherwise. The next moment he seems resigned to death, lambasting how the military and the entire German people have betrayed him, spittle flying out of his mouth and swearing that the whole of Germany will go down with him. Throughout it all, he remains unfailingly polite to his domestic staff. As Junge remarks, there is in him Hitler the gentleman and also the fanatical Führer.

Of course it’s also the story of the people around Hitler, of Eva Braun who shares in her own way some of the madness and insists on dancing and singing while the end of their world approaches; of Albert Speer who calmly assures Hitler that he remains his friend while confessing that he has sabotaged his orders for months; of the Goebbels, such a pure personification of evil that the actor playing Joseph Goebbels has creepy, almost all-black eyes; and many others. It may be a little hard to follow for those who don’t know the history but it’s a very satisfying and complete account for those who do.

There are weak moments here, such as the ending featuring Junge’s escape being a touch too much like something out of Hollywood. But on the whole, Oliver Hirschbiegel is to be commended for pulling off a delicate balancing act, illuminating what is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating persons in human history without glorifying him and recording in startling detail his final days inside an underground bunker without ever being boring.