Downfall

 

Many people will remember this scene from the German movie "Downfall" for the hundreds of parodies of Adolph Hitler's insane rant in this scene.  If you have never seen the actual movie, which is about the final days of Hitler, it is time to watch it.


I saw the movie quite a few years ago, as a result of working on a film with Oliver Hirschbiegel, its director.  The film is a masterful portrayal of those final days, adhering very close to the truth, and yet electrifying.  I had not seen it in a number of years, certainly since the emergence of Donald Trump on the American political scene.  I ran across it on one of my streaming services last night, and decided to watch it as a sort of tribute to the end of the Trump administration.


As many may know, Hitler's mental state deteriorated massively in the last days of his rule.  He was given to massive delusions about how he and Germany were going to be saved, and fell into rages whenever anyone threatened what he wanted to believe.  What struck me last night is how similar Hitler's behavior was to what we have been able to learn about the constant conduct of Donald Trump, except that Hitler's madness was a feature of the end of his life, but Trump seems to have always been that way.


I am in general wary of most comparisons of Hitler and Trump, as one was truly a giant among human monsters, while the other is just a cheap con man with endless delusions about himself.  Nevertheless, if you watch this film, you will see what I mean- the comparison of their mental states really is disturbing.

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