The Bunker

The Bunker is a 1981 American made-for-television historical war film produced by Time-Life Productions based on the 1975 book The Bunker by James P. O'Donnell. The film, directed by George Schaefer and adapted for the screen by John Gay, is a dramatization depicting the events surrounding Adolf Hitler's last weeks in and around his underground bunker in Berlin before and during the Battle of Berlin. The film stars Anthony Hopkins as Hitler, plus an all star cast including Richard Jordan, Susan Blakely, and Cliff Gorman. At the 33rd Primetime Emmy Awards in 1981, Anthony Hopkins won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie beating out two actors from the miniseries Shogun (Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune) and two actors from the miniseries Masada (Peter O'Toole and Peter Strauss). Plot The film opens in 1945, with American correspondent James O'Donnell (James Naughton) gaining entry to the Führerbunker by bribing a Soviet sentry with a packet of cigarettes. The film then tells the story of the occupants of the bunker between January and May 1945 as an extended flashback. A number of historical events and the reactions of the bunker's residents are presented, including the encirclement of Berlin, Hitler's last meeting with Albert Speer and the attempts by Speer to sabotage Hitler's scorched earth policy, Speer's abortive plan to kill Hitler in the bunker, Hitler's dismissal of Heinz Guderian, Hitler's firing of Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering, the failure of German forces to lift the siege, the murder of the Goebbels children, Hitler's wedding to Eva Braun, and the suicides of Hitler, Braun and the Goebbels'.