Rent The Bunker (1981)
3.6 of 5 from 49 ratings
2h 25min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Anthony Hopkins won an 'Outstanding Lead Actor' Emmy for this gripping and masterful portrayal of Adolf Hitler in the last, desperate months of World War Two. January 16th 1945. With the allies closing in on Berlin from the east and west, and Allied bombers blasting Berlin by day and by night, Adolf Hitler takes up permanent residence in his command bunker under the Chancellery Building. Refusing to believe the war is lost, an increasingly irrational Hitler issues insane orders to a dwindling band of his most loyal followers, even as his dreams die in flames all about him...
- Actors:
- Susan Blakely, Frank Gatliff, Cliff Gorman, Edward Hardwicke, Michael Kitchen, Richard Jordan, James Naughton, Michael Lonsdale, Piper Laurie, Martin Jarvis, Robert Austin, Andrew Ray, Yves Brainville, Michael Culver, Georges Corraface, Julian Fellowes, Barry Jackson, Jean-Marie Lemaire, John Paul, Robert Pugh
- Directors:
- George Schaefer
- Producers:
- George Schaefer, Ronald H. Gilbert
- Writers:
- John Gay, James P. O'Donnell
- Studio:
- Simply Home Entertainment
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Drama
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Reviews (1) of The Bunker
A WWII Bunker Oddity from 1981, Surpassed by DOWNFALL (2004) - The Bunker review by PV
Watching Anthony Hopkins play Hitler is odd, even though he won an Emmy for this performance - it is in the 2nd or 3rd division compared to the brilliant Bruno Ganz as Hitler in Downfall in 2004 - a true masterpiece. Not one of Anthony's best performances- he is an adequate Hitler at best, perhaps half a Hitler - but no more.
By contrast, this is a French production- 'Le Bunker' - though most of the cast is British, except a distinctly odd Josef Goebbels played as a Chicago gangster. Weird.
Character actors aplenty here - Julian Fellowes (Oscar-winning writer of Gosford Park and Downtown Abbey) plays a decided camp Nazi, and we have Pat from Eastenders (Man St Clement) as Adolf's cook. There's Robert Pugh and also Michael Sheard (Mr Bronson from Grange Hill) as Himmler (odd as his most famous role came as Hitler in Indian Jones and the Last Crusade). Martin Jarvis plays Hitler's unlikely boilerman and Michael Kitchen plays a Nazi, no doubt practising that worried scowl for when he played Foyle in Foyle's War.
A long film worth watching before Downfall perhaps just how to realise how magnificent the latter is.
3 stars
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