Max (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Max

Directed by	Menno Meyjes
Produced by	Andrea Albert Damon Bryant
Written by	Menno Meyjes
Starring	John Cusack Noah Taylor Leelee Sobieski
Music by	Don Jones
Distributed by	Lions Gate Films
Release date(s)	2002
Running time	106 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

Max is a 2002 fictional drama film, that depicts a friendship between art dealer Max Rothman and a young painter, Adolf Hitler.

1 Plot
2 Critical response
3 Finance
4 Cast
5 Stills

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film begins with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Max Rothman (Cusack), a fictional Munich art dealer, is a Jewish veteran of the Battle of Ypres, where he lost his arm. He has returned to Germany to try and put his life back together by opening a Modern Art gallery when he is approached by a young Hitler (Taylor), who wishes to have his work shown. Rothman feels the young painter has a good technique but that his work could go deeper. Rothman encourages him to delve deeper while at the same time Hitler is being urged by Captain Mayr (Thomsen) to go into politics and make a career out of rousing, anti-Semitic propaganda. The film studies the questions of what could have been if Hitler had been more accepted in the art community and when it was that his views that became Nazi ideology began to take shape, while also studying the artistic and design implications of the Third Reich and how their visual appeal helped hypnotize the German people.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Critical response

The film garnered some controversy and was protested by some groups who feared the film would try to humanize or make a sympathetic character out of Hitler.

[edit] Finance

When director Menno Meyjes was shopping the script around Hollywood, he at first approached Amblin Entertainment for funding. Steven Spielberg told him that he felt the script was well written but he would personally feel uncomfortable funding the film, so he encouraged him to make the film but without support of Amblin.