|
Posted by  TheArtrix on 04/07/2006, 12:32 CET (@481 BMT) |
|
/10
America is not the only country that makes good movies, Europe makes it's share of movies as well, and they're not all low budget cult flics.
One of the most controversal movies of 2004, jet, it ranked 2nd and 3rd on the national box office for a few weeks, and still going. The idea about a movie specifically about Hitler caught my attention. If there's one fascinating person in relatively recent history, it's Hitler. A man with insane ideas that are completely incompatable with human values.
There are a few pre-judgements about this movie. People complain that this movie shows Hitler as a human being in this movie. What do these people want, do they want to bullshit themselves with constant scenes of Hitler running though the corridors screeming like a stressed gorrilla? Get a grip.
Hitler had an IQ of around 140, so he was definately not stupid, evil, but not stupid. This movie shows that Hitler had no one-dimensional personality.
Also, people like to believe that this movie is pro-Nazi propaganda, to glorify Nazism, wrong again, this movie is as objective as you can get, It's the viewer who has to put the movie in contex. This movie does not glorify Hitler, does not glorify nazism, it doesn't glorify the Soviet Union, it doesn't glorify prinsesism, it doesn't glorify anything at all.
The movie begins in 1940. Five Secretaries are waiting in a room to meet Hitler, their potential new employer. In this particular scene we meet the main chacater for the first time, a humble secretary from Munich, who get's hired by Hitler, who's in his glory days: he's confident, and calm. It's kind of an akward beginning.
This sequence won't take long though. We fast forward and arrive in 1945, just a few days before the Soviets would completely take over Berlin. Defeat is inevitable, the German forces will lose, it's just a matter of time. Hitler's confident attitude is gone instantly.
The entire movie is based on experiences from said secretary, who died in 2003 in Dusseldorf, DE (I think). Hitler is played by Bruno Ganz, and man, he really puts a really convincing Hitler.
The movie is one big downward spiral of defeat. Most of the film takes place in the bunker where Hitler spends his last days. You can taste how desperate everyone is. Defeat is everywhere. The once powerful fuhrer is reduced to a misserable man who's growing more naive and misserable by the minute.
Highlights of the movie are the moment Hitler heard that his last army had been defeated. The way this scene was done was simply priceless. The marriage of Hitler and his wife was an eyebrow raiser. Not forgetting to mention the scene where Hitler was about ready to commit suicide.
Another interesting scene is where Hitler inspects a bunch of child-soldiers. There's actual footage of this event. In this particular scene there was someone... taping this. Now that's accurate.
The movie's pretty depressing, although not as depressing as Schindler's list, which is in comparation a dottomless well of missery. This movie comes with a fair share of violence. Some of the violence is slightly amusing, but it's nullified by the thought that it actually happened, and makes it very intense to sit though. That aspect makes the movie more varied unlike Saving Private Ryan, which was boring IMO.
Score: 8.8/10
Yes, that's almost a 9/10. This movie deserves it. If you're a self-prociamed WWII know-it-all, there's no valid excuse not to see this movie. It's a movie that shows the other side of the story, a story about defeat, frustration, desperateness and death. A story about a once powerful man reduced to a misserable wreck, whose, yet evil, vision is detroyed.
The next day at work, I helped a Surinam guy, who had a broken arm, at replacing his car's front lightbulb. We also had a nice conversation too. [cynical]Yup, I guess that movie really turns people into Nazis.[/cynical]
|