The Manichean Paranoia Patch

Downfall is a 2004 German film depicting the last days of Hitler’s life, and therefore the Third Reich.  It focuses primarily on Hitler and his closest companions and officers as they attempt to hold off the invading Russians from conquering Berlin.  Bruno Ganz portrayal of Hitler is amazing - a fine piece of acting!  The movie is based upon the books: “Inside Hitler’s Bunker, by historian Joachim Fest; portions of Albert Speer’s memoirs; the memoirs of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler’s secretaries; Hitler’s Last Days: An Eye-Witness Account, by Gerhardt Boldt; doctor Ernst-Günther Schenck’s memoirs; and the memoirs of Siegfried Knappe.” - Wikipedia.  I highly recommend renting it; you should be able to find it at a Blockbuster or Hollywood Video.

There is a scene in this film in which Hitler’s Generals finally convey how utterly hopeless the situation is to their Fuhrer.  Orders to attack that Hitler gave earlier in the film had not been carried out because the unit to whom he sent the command is so hopelessly disorganized and beaten that they had no ability to function cohesively.  Hitler orders most of his lower officers to leave the room and then goes a tirade about how he has been betrayed and how he “should have purged his officers ranks like Stalin did.”  This is actually one of the most powerful scenes in the movie and, again, is an amazing portrayal of Hitler, particularly considering the entire film is in German which gives it so much more authenticity than any English production could have, such as “Hitler: The Rise of Evil.”

However, the fact that the scene I described is all in German has given rise to yet another entertaining and frivolous web meme.  The premise is fairly simple: add subtitles to the scene that totally change the meaning of what Hitler and his Generals are saying.  Several popular examples include: Hitler ranting about the loss of HD DVD to Blu-Ray, Hitler ranting about his console getting banned by Microsoft, Hitler ranting about a bad suggestion for the replacement of his stolen car, Hitler ranting about the loss of Hillary Clinton during the primary, and (perhaps most creatively of all) Hitler ranting about becoming an Internet meme.

Now I have always taken the stance that any Hitler or Holocaust joke is “too soon,” and will always and forever be “too soon.”  Nothing funny about that, period.  However, I have to admit that I find these parody clips extremely entertaining.  In fact, it was one of these parody clips that led to me watching the actual film; I was so impressed by the acting in that scene that I wanted to watch the rest of the movie.  Maybe because, to me, they are more poking fun at the film-makers’ intent than they are the actual historical events.

Perhaps the film-makers are aware of this, because many of these clips have now been removed from YouTube.  I had a much harder time finding links than I would have a month ago and I expect the two I embedded will become non-functional at some point in the near future.  It’s a shame.  While I recognize the extreme copyright infringement that was going on, at the same time I know I never would have discovered this excellent film had I not stumbled across the Blue-Ray War version of the scene.  I am sure that I am not the only one.  If you do stumble across any other “Downfall” clips, I highly recommend that you watch them… and then go rent the film.  I definitely recommend both.