 Downfall (Der Untergang)
Starring: Juliane Köhler, Thomas Kretschmann, Ulrich Matthes, Heino Ferch
Directed by: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Screenplay by: Bernd Eichinger
Release Date: February 18, 2005
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence, disturbing images and some nudity.
Studio: Newmarket Films
 Domestic: $5,509,040 (6.0%)
Foreign: $86,671,870 (94.0%)
Total: $92,180,910 (Worldwide)
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 When writer-producer Bernd Eichinger read the galleys of historian Joachim Fest's book "Der Untergang" ("The Downfall: Inside Hitler's Bunker, The Last Days of the Third Reich"), he knew he had found the dramatic key to a film he had wanted to make for decades, but never thought possible due to its scope.
Fess' book focuses on the final days of the Reich, and Eichinger saw that the horrifying epic of Hitler and his people during his twelve years in power was reflected in those last twelve days in the bunker. "The final days tell us a lot about how the mass fanaticism functioned in the regime's earlier years and how it continued to reign until the bitter end," says Eichinger.
Eichinger read another very important book around the same time he read Fest's; the memoirs of Traudl Junge, Hitler's private secretary ("Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary".); which was later made into the documentary "Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary." "Fest gave me the time frame, Traudl Junge gave me the character who could hold it all together."
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