Over the weekend we watched two powerful and disturbing films, BLOOD DIAMOND and DOWNFALL.
Set in Africa, BLOOD DIAMOND explores the dark world of the 'conflict' diamond trade. In emerging countries with tenuous governments, rebel factions exploit their own people in two ways: enslaving them in the work of finding diamonds (to be traded for weapons) and kidnapping/brainwashing young boys to be soldiers for the 'cause'. Leo DiCaprio as smuggler/adventurer Danny Archer overhears a conversation (an argument, really) about a huge stone which has been found. He follows and befriends the man who he thinks can lead him to this fantastic gem, Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) and the two men make a deal: Vandy will get Archer to the diamond and Archer will help Vandy find his son Tia who has been pressed into the child/soldier ranks. Aided by a journalist (Jennifer Connelly) who is sort of taken with Danny, the men are off on a long and twisting journey rife with violence and betrayals. Mr. Hounsou's towering portrayal of Solomon Vandy in itself makes the film worth watching: his obsession with reuniting his family is the heart of the story.
The film made me curious to learn more about the international diamond business and I found this very interesting story. The bloodshed and misery which lies under the surface glamour diamonds provide has a real eye-opener in BLOOD DIAMOND.
DOWNFALL is the wrenching portrayal of the end of the Third Reich; shot largely in the claustrophobic confines of Hitler's bunker as the Russian Army penetrates Berlin, we experience the collapse of Nazi Germany on a personal level. Uncanny is the only word for Bruno Ganz's portrayal of Hitler; you cannot imagine that an actor could achieve this kind of role identity.
Physically degenerating and mentally unstable, the Fuhrer spirals thru a series of mad scenes offset by moments of genuine tenderness towards Eva Braun and others of the faithful inner circle. In the war room, Hitler blows up at his generals as he spews orders to move his various armies into positions to deflect the Russian assault; the generals know that the Nazi forces are decimated and only exist as pieces on a war map. Feeling betrayed and abandoned, Hitler turns against the German people; he refuses to surrender thus leaving the city to be thoroughly destroyed and the populace in a state of hopeless squalor.
Hitler marries Eva and the next day they retire to their private quarters and kill themselves. While the grim brutality of the war zone increasingly infringes on the last remnants of the Reich, Magda Goebbels calmly enters the bunker quarters where her six children are asleep in a drugged state, and slips a cyanide capsule into each small mouth. She could not bear the thought of her children living in a post-Nazi world. She and her husband then carry out a murder/suicide pact.
At the last, even as meaningless Iron Cross decorations are being awarded for pointless acts of valor, the actual surrender to the Red Army seems almost anti-climactic. A few German officers kill themselves in a final desperate act of loyalty to the Fuhrer.
I saw DOWNFALL when it opened a couple of years ago; I thought it was the most powerful experience I've ever had at the cinema. Watching it again at home was hypnotic and harrowing; such was the effect that as soon as we finished, Wei said "Let's watch it again"...and we did. Another interesting aspect of the film is the score, which weaves in a subtle setting of the theme of Purcell's 'When I Am Laid In Earth' (DIDO & AENEAS) as well as Siegfried's funeral march from GOTTERDAMMERUNG.
What strikes me so forcefully about this movie is the portrayal of Hitler not as evil incarnate or as 'Satan' but as a human being: a man who was able to play upon Germany's fears and prejudices to set himself up in a position of complete power over every aspect of people's lives. How did this man manage to inspire such fanatic loyalty and such unquestioning obedience? How can we reconcile the things he did with the image Winifred Wagner paints of him: "If he were to walk thru the door today, I would be so happy to see him again..."?