HW #11

The film "Downfall" is one of the first German-made movies about the Nazi regime and Hitler, made in 2005. The script was based off of several accounts of Germans in Hitler's inner circle or high in the Nazi command - for example, Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge, and the Nazi Doctor Schenck. This gives the film value for several reasons: for one, it shows the more human side of the Nazi regime. What they did was terrible, but it isn't just a caricature of them. It shows the bad but also some of their more compassionate side, which makes a more rounded portrait. Another value is that because these people were the insiders of the Nazi regime, the viewer gets a firsthand, unimagined account of what the regime and even Hitler himself were really like. The film is very historical and doesn't take liberties with the story. However the purpose of those memoirs were very likely to distance the survivors from the Nazi regime so that they would be looked upon more kindly after Germany lost the war. As a consequence, the documents the film was based off of might be more sympathetic towards the Nazis, and maybe even not always true because the writers wanted to escape the judgement of the world.