Hitler: The Rise of Evil

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Hitler: The Rise of Evil
A Scene from Hitler: The Rise of Evil depicting the Beer Hall Putsch. From left to right in foreground: Ernst Hanfstaengl (Liev Schreiber), Adolf Hitler (Robert Carlyle), and Herman Goering (Chris Larkin). Behind Goering is Rudolf Hess (James Babsen).
Directed by	Christian Duguay
Produced by	John Ryan Ed Gernon Peter Sussman
Written by	John Pielmeier G. Ross Parker
Starring	Robert Carlyle Stockard Channing Peter O'Toole Peter Stormare
Music by	Normand Corbeil
Cinematography	Pierre Gill
Editing by	Sylvain Lebel Stephen R. Myers Henk Van Eeghen
Distributed by	CBS
Release date(s)	May 18, 2003
Running time	150 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
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Hitler: The Rise of Evil is a TV movie that aired in two parts in May 2003 on CBS, and was produced by Alliance Atlantis. The film explores Adolf Hitler's rise to power during the years prior to World War II and focuses closely on how the embittered, politically fragmented and economically buffeted German society after World War I made that ascent possible. The movie attempts to illustrate how Hitler's hatred of the Jews became central to his political mission in Germany and found a broad resonance among the German public. Also central to the plot is the influence that Ernst Hanfstaengl had on Hitler's rise.

The subplot of this film follows the struggles of Fritz Gerlich, a German journalist who opposes the rising National Socialist German Workers Party. He is portrayed in the role of a martyr to fulfill the essence of the quotation attributed to^[1] Edmund Burke [1], which is displayed at the beginning and at the end of the film:

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

1 Criticism
2 Cast
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Criticism

This movie has been heavily criticised by historians and Hitler experts as portraying an anti-social, almost autistic Hitler who behaves contrary to what is known about the man.^{[attribution needed]} For example, Hitler, who loved animals, is shown beating a small dog in an early scene, which is a completely fictional event. Contrastingly, the German film Der Untergang has been commended for a very realistic and "human" portrayal of Adolf Hitler, unlike the usual "cartoon villain" of many other productions.

[edit] Cast

Robert Carlyle as Adolf Hitler
Peter O'Toole as Paul von Hindenburg
Matthew Modine as Fritz Gerlich
Justin Salinger as Joseph Goebbels
Chris Larkin as Herman Goering
James Babsen as Rudolf Hess
Friedrich Von Thun as Erich Ludendorff
Peter Stormare as Ernst Röhm
Stockard Channing as Klara Hitler
Julianna Margulies as Helene Hanfstaengl
Liev Schreiber as Ernst Hanfstaengl
Jena Malone as Geli Raubal

[edit] See also

Filmed in Barrandov Studios (Prague) Roger Denesha as Courtroom Reporter

[edit] References

^ Boller, Jr., Paul F.; George, John (1989). They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505541-1.