AllMovie

Filmed in color on a grand scale, Fall of Berlin re-creates the final days of war in Europe from the Soviet point of view. As Allied soldiers lay siege to a ruined Berlin, Adolf Hitler (V. Savelyev) hides in his bunker, surrounded by sycophants. Meanwhile, Soviet premier Stalin (M. Gelovani), herein depicted as the soul of compassion and humanity, methodically maps out the future. Given the state of US-Russian relations in 1952, it is surprising that President Roosevelt is portrayed in a sympathetic light in The Fall of Berlin. Smoothing over the film's rough spots (at 124 minutes, its unevenness is all the more pronounced) is the vibrant musical score by Dmitri Shostakovich.