Merit Coba

“This is an eerie place.”  Henry said. They had changed their garage-turned-movie-theater into a kind of bunker by removing anything that made it look cozy. The walls were devoid of embellishments.  Kristl had found an old German poster that was actually made to promote reading, but to Henry looked like an old Nazi poster, since it had German words and Hitler on it.

“Nowadays, any movie about the last days of Hitler has the shadow of Der Untergang hovering over it. Simply said: anyone playing Hitler will be fighting an uphill battle compared to the way Bruno Ganz portrayed him.”

“At least I can understand what is being said.”  Henry said, “And the cast is excellent.”

“Yeah. I guess being able to hear what they say is better suited for you than reading what they say. In Germany we put use German voices to replace the English one’s. Kind of funny really to listen to an German voiced English movie that is about Germans.”

“Heraft dat gaz du splechtig kurste!” Henry shouted suddenly while making wild gestures.

“What?”

“Doing some Hitler.”  Henry said and then rolled his eyes widely and shouted at Kristl, “As du har taraf tha ya sedig krumple!”

“I don’t know what you are saying, but Hitler did not shout at women. He shouted at men, but not at  women.” Kristl said, “He was a bit peculiar.”

“I bet he would have shouted at you, they way you look with your knee high boots, jeans and leather jacket with anarchism rules written large on the back..”

“Hitler shocked….” Kristl pondered this concept for a moment,”Guess he would be.”

“Despite the shouting I found the movie a bit long in the tooth to be honest. Except for the Speer plot it seems mostly to be about things plodding along towards an end. Sometimes things were tossed in to make it a bit more exciting, but it was mostly about people in a underground bunker sitting out the movie till the end. I felt bored at times.”

“I think that touches a kind of weak point about this movie in particular. It just tells what is going on, but doesn’t tell much about why or involves us.. Ultimately I sort of felt like a distant observer watching a show unfold about people who I did not care much. In the Untergang they used at least some people we could connect to. Like the secretary. Here for instance Hitler finds out his ‘friends’ betray him, Himmler and Goering, but I hardly felt anything for it. Not that we ought to perhaps. In Der Untergang it is played out much differently. There you get the feeling of this crazy guy feeling betrayed. You almost pity him. Which is scary really as he is a murderous dictator. A madman..”

“Uhu.”

“That is probably what this movie misses a bit. It never goes deep. Why is everyone so devoted to Hitler? Why do people stay with him? How come he can bully people around and get away with it? It just observes what happens. The who, what, where and how is addressed, but not the why. “

“So you found the movie…what?”

“It is an excellent movie, with a great cast. Some people are well cast, like for instance Borman and Speer. Anthony Hopkins is a great actor doing a good job. I think it is a good entertaining movie.”

“But a bit dull. I found it dull. They could have added some fighting scenes. They did so in the downfall. Something like a tension. Or something else.”

“I think that is probably why some people won’t like it much and some other people will find it less because it lacks a certain depth. However as a portrayal of events it is a good movie and done with an excellent cast putting in a great performance. Anthony Hopkins does well as hitler with the right way of craziness.. Richard Jordan does well as Speer… Michael Lonsdale does very well as Bormann. I would recommend watching his acting. Personally I would even say he was the best actor of them all. The rest of the cast did a very good job.  I found it eminently watchable.”

“Well. I found it okay. I rather had some more action.”

“Well. It’s not a movie like that.”

“Nope. It is not.” Henry said and held up one hand, putting a finger under his nose, lifted his other hand in a Roman greeting and shouted.”Und wird werden am ende Siegen.” And from somewhere a multitude of voices  screamed in unison “Sieg Heil”

“Wow. That was pretty impressive.” Kristl said.

“Yeah, very funny that recording with the Germans shouting, Kristl.”

“What recording? I didn’t play any recording. I thought you did?” Kristl. “I would not even play one, if I had one.”

“But I didn’t play one either.” Henry said.

And they stared at each other and wondered where those voices of the past came from.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082114/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2
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