Alec Guinness's eerie performance as Hitler centers a deeply ironic if sloppy look at the Führer's final hours in his bunker. It's not the film one needs to see for that story (2004's German film "Downfall" stands supreme), but it scores some points with a terrific cast and weird bits of black humor.
It's April, 1945, and the Russians are closing in on the Third Reich. Once proclaimed to last 1,000 years, it now appears unlikely to survive the month. As the curtain falls around him, a frustrated Hitler alternates between tirades and tea breaks, even getting married to the hopelessly devoted Eva Braun (Doris Kunstmann).
At the outset, we hear Josef Goebbels proclaim Hitler "the only man worthy of (Germany's) tragic grandeur." Guinness's Hitler indeed seems all too content to accept this mantle, preferring to die as long as he isn't alone. He even hands out cyanide pills to his underlings as little "gifts" to speed them on their doom. The point of Ennio De Concini's film, with the aid of newsreel footage, is to show how cowardly these acts really were. Many Germans in 1945 suffered far worse fates for Hitler's mad folly then expiring at a time of their own choosing over cream and cakes.
The newsreel sequences, which roll in and out to counterpoint the hollowness in Hitler's claims, push entirely too hard at this point. There's also a major subplot about a young officer named Hoffmann (Simon Ward) who grows disillusioned with the Führer, which doesn't gel into anything interesting as we never see what pushes him to lose his faith. Ward looks alternately supercilious and wooden, clearly at a loss as his character is given little to do.
The film scores best with small moments, like an early occasion when Hitler accepts birthday greetings from his staff with hard stares at each man in turn, or later on when Eva leads a ridiculously merry singsong in blackface. Kunstmann gives a solid if ahistorically spirited performance. Eva really loves the guy, but you can see her discomfort as Hitler brags about being unmarried and explains: "Love and devotion to a man are the highest virtues of a woman. Intelligence is not very important."
Guinness studied Hitler the speechgiver, and it shows at times, like when he denounces his SS commander Himmler in a loud voice, pressing his hand to his heart a la "Triumph Of The Will." By 1945, one suspects such grand gestures were beyond this drugged-out mental case. It's fun to watch a great actor cut loose, though, however historically inaccurate he may be. Guinness was rarely so outré, perhaps only more as Fagin in "Oliver Twist," and he's fun to watch, as he apparently thought so, too. His resemblance to the real Hitler is startling, however off his performance may sometimes be.
The rest of the cast is quite something, too. I counted two James Bond villains, Bond's father-in-law, Sean Connery's ex-wife, Grady from "The Shining," and even Manuel from "Fawlty Towers." Adolfo Celi as Krebs even has the same guy dubbing him here who did his Largo voice in "Thunderball." All do fine work, and De Concini blends them together well, even if their scenes lack the intensity or realism of "Downfall." It's hard to fault "Last Ten Days" for this too much as they were there first, but nothing Guinness does here will make you forget Bruno Ganz in the later film.
In the end, the film's message seems to be that Hitler was a bad, bad guy. As a moral point, that's fine, but dramatically you need something more. "The Last Days" delivers something of interest, it's a film of texture and craft, but it fails to rise to the grand scope of the history it presents.
It's April, 1945, and the Russians are closing in on the Third Reich. Once proclaimed to last 1,000 years, it now appears unlikely to survive the month. As the curtain falls around him, a frustrated Hitler alternates between tirades and tea breaks, even getting married to the hopelessly devoted Eva Braun (Doris Kunstmann).
At the outset, we hear Josef Goebbels proclaim Hitler "the only man worthy of (Germany's) tragic grandeur." Guinness's Hitler indeed seems all too content to accept this mantle, preferring to die as long as he isn't alone. He even hands out cyanide pills to his underlings as little "gifts" to speed them on their doom. The point of Ennio De Concini's film, with the aid of newsreel footage, is to show how cowardly these acts really were. Many Germans in 1945 suffered far worse fates for Hitler's mad folly then expiring at a time of their own choosing over cream and cakes.
The newsreel sequences, which roll in and out to counterpoint the hollowness in Hitler's claims, push entirely too hard at this point. There's also a major subplot about a young officer named Hoffmann (Simon Ward) who grows disillusioned with the Führer, which doesn't gel into anything interesting as we never see what pushes him to lose his faith. Ward looks alternately supercilious and wooden, clearly at a loss as his character is given little to do.
The film scores best with small moments, like an early occasion when Hitler accepts birthday greetings from his staff with hard stares at each man in turn, or later on when Eva leads a ridiculously merry singsong in blackface. Kunstmann gives a solid if ahistorically spirited performance. Eva really loves the guy, but you can see her discomfort as Hitler brags about being unmarried and explains: "Love and devotion to a man are the highest virtues of a woman. Intelligence is not very important."
Guinness studied Hitler the speechgiver, and it shows at times, like when he denounces his SS commander Himmler in a loud voice, pressing his hand to his heart a la "Triumph Of The Will." By 1945, one suspects such grand gestures were beyond this drugged-out mental case. It's fun to watch a great actor cut loose, though, however historically inaccurate he may be. Guinness was rarely so outré, perhaps only more as Fagin in "Oliver Twist," and he's fun to watch, as he apparently thought so, too. His resemblance to the real Hitler is startling, however off his performance may sometimes be.
The rest of the cast is quite something, too. I counted two James Bond villains, Bond's father-in-law, Sean Connery's ex-wife, Grady from "The Shining," and even Manuel from "Fawlty Towers." Adolfo Celi as Krebs even has the same guy dubbing him here who did his Largo voice in "Thunderball." All do fine work, and De Concini blends them together well, even if their scenes lack the intensity or realism of "Downfall." It's hard to fault "Last Ten Days" for this too much as they were there first, but nothing Guinness does here will make you forget Bruno Ganz in the later film.
In the end, the film's message seems to be that Hitler was a bad, bad guy. As a moral point, that's fine, but dramatically you need something more. "The Last Days" delivers something of interest, it's a film of texture and craft, but it fails to rise to the grand scope of the history it presents.