Before watching The Damned, ask yourself, "what do I think cinema is?" There are great films that are perfect in composition and symmetry that are ultimately audience friendly. This isn't. It is, however, absolutely fearless. It challenges you.
Those who do not want to consider art mirroring life, but instead want to be fed a concoction, will not like it. Many who fancy themselves connoisseurs sit in harsh judgment, comparing it to other auteur films. But The Damned is so historically brutal, it is beyond comparison.
The film vividly captures the moral decay and depravity of the rise of the Third Reich and there is nothing, repeat: nothing, remotely redeeming about that. Conversely, there is a terrible, disturbing and morbidly fascinating anti-beauty to see it on screen.
It is as much an historic cautionary tale as a modern warning. Those who judge it harshly do not consider its truth: it reflects the greed and lust for power that propels humanity not only to war, but to more the gradual punishments of pandemics and submerged cities. The only film that remotely approaches it, albeit from a different but equally terrifying perspective is Dr. Strangelove, a film I watch every Halloween to be truly frightened. Strangelove asks "what if?". There is no "what if" to the rise of the Third Reich. We cannot hide that it happened, nor should we forget that it was defeated. It is the knowledge that what we see on the screen was defeated that makes us able to watch it, to witness it, to own it, to claim it, and to remember, "it is only a film" Heaven help us if we ever forget.
To make a film of this power required total confidence in the director's palette. Visconti shows it here. The Damned is a bitter pill, not for many, but for those able to look honestly in its mirror.
It is superlative film making of rarely equaled brilliance.
Review of The Damned
