| Hitler: The Rise of Evil | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Biographical film |
| Distributed by | Alliance Atlantis |
| 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 Thomas Sangster |
| Music by | Normand Corbeil |
| Cinematography | Pierre Gill |
| Editing by | Sylvain Lebel Stephen R. Myers Henk Van Eeghen |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Release date | 18 May 2003 |
| Running time | 150 min. |
Hitler: The Rise of Evil is a Canadian TV miniseries in two parts, directed by Christian Duguay and produced by Alliance Atlantis. It explores Adolf Hitler's rise and his early consolidation of power during the years after World War I and focuses on how the embittered, politically fragmented and economically buffeted state of German society following the war made that ascent possible. The film also focuses on Ernst Hanfstaengl's influence on Hitler's rise to power. The miniseries, which premiered simultaneously in May 2003 on CBC in Canada and CBS in the United States, received two Emmy awards, for Art Direction and Sound Editing.[1]
The film's subplot follows the struggles of Fritz Gerlich, a German journalist who opposes the rising National Socialist German Workers Party. He is portrayed as to fulfill the essence of the quotation disputably attributed to[2] Edmund Burke,[3] which is displayed at the beginning and at the end of the film:
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The story revolves around Adolf Hitler, from his childhood with his authoritarian father Alois and beloved mother Klara, to his life as a destitute student trying to pursue a career as an artist. It also documents his gradual embrace of anti-semitism.
Hitler is then shown to join the German Workers' Party and befriends Ernst Röhm, leading to the Munich Beer Hall Putsch and finally his quest to become Chancellor of Germany.
In this film, Hitler's rise is largely attributed to Ernst Hanfstaengl, who finances his cause and provides him with political connections. Hitler is shown to harbor romantic feelings for Hanfstaengel's wife, Helene. Hitler's friendship with Röhm is also well highlighted — including the latter's homosexuality — as well as his relationship with his niece Geli Raubal, and her mysterious death.
Major events shown in the later stages of the film are the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, the Reichstag Fire, the announcement of the Enabling Act, the Night of the Long Knives, and finally the death of President Hindenburg and subsequent burial in the Tannenberg memorial, where Hitler declares the "1000-year Reich" as his voice is drowned in the chants of "Sieg Heil" from an adoring crowd.
The miniseries received overall negative reviews but was nominated for an Emmy for Best Miniseries. Peter O'Toole was also nominated for an Emmy in the supporting actor in a TV movie or miniseries category. The miniseries won Emmys for Art Direction and Sound Editing.[1]
The New York Times said "The filmmakers worked so hard to be tasteful and responsible that they robbed their film of suspense, drama and passion" [4] but praised the performances of Peter O'Toole, Julianna Margulies and Liev Schreiber.
David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle gave it a positive review, praising Carlyle's performance as "brilliant". [5]
Entertainment Weekly gave it an F, calling it pointless, inaccurate and poorly dramatized. [6]
Originally, famed Hitler biographer Ian Kershaw had been on board as a consultant in the production of Hitler: The Rise of Evil. Alliance Atlantis, which had purchased the rights to Kershaw's celebrated biography, admitted their intention to adapt his book for film to make it more dramatic, but Kershaw found the miniseries to be so rife with falsehoods and historical inaccuracies regarding Hitler's life that he ultimately chose to have his name removed from the project.[7][8]
At the beginning of the film, Hitler's father Alois Hitler is shown dying in front of a young Hitler and Hitler's mother Klara, at their home during a meal. In fact, Hitler's father died when he went out for his usual morning drink at his local inn, the Gasthaus Stiefler.
Klara Hitler's doctor, Dr. Eduard Bloch (who diagnosed her with breast cancer) is portrayed as a Hasidic Jew. In reality, like most Jews in Linz at the time, Bloch was fully assimilated into Austro-Hungarian society.
Hitler is shown as fleeing from Vienna on a train bound for Munich in May 1914. In reality, the time of Hitler's departure from the then Austro-Hungarian Empire for Germany was actually exactly one year earlier in May 1913.
Hitler was awarded the Iron Cross for repeated acts of bravery in front line service, and not for the cynical political reasons given in the film (though historian Thomas Weber, writing some years after the series, states it was mostly for his proximity to regimental command and that he actually spent the war in relative comfort and safety as a regimental, rather than battalion, runner, though this detail was not known at the time the series was made.)
Additionally, there are multiple issues with military awards. For example, Erich Ludendorff is shown wearing a Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross. This exclusive medal has been awarded only twice, but Ludendorff was not a recipient. Furthermore, the German Army at the time did not wear Ribbon bars, as is depicted in the film.
When Hitler returns to Munich after the War, communist revolutionaries are shown beheading a statue of Kaiser Wilhelm II. In fact, there were no statues of Wilhelm II in Imperial Germany because it was deemed inappropriate to represent a living person (the only exception being one on the Hohenzollernbrücke in Cologne). Even so, the least likely location would have been the capital of Bavaria, a region whose inhabitants harbored deep resentments against everything and anyone they felt to be "Prussian".
In a scene depicting his first meeting in 1919 with the German Workers' Party, he said he "didn't drink". While Hitler diminished his alcohol intake after coming out of Landsberg Prison in 1925, he would occasionally drink beer and wine, which was ironically later depicted in the film when Hitler officially obtained his German citizenship in a ceremony in 1932.
Anton Drexler is depicted as not wearing glasses or having a moustache; in fact, he had both. Ironically Gottfried Feder is shown as wearing spectacles when in reality he actually did not. Feder is also shown without a moustache when in reality he had a trade-mark Toothbrush moustache.
One scene depicts Feder giving a speech at a beer hall advocating the separation of Catholic Bavaria from the rest of Germany. In reality, he said that the German state of Bavaria and Austria should annex together to form a nation separate from Germany.
In the scene in the Kroll Opera House, Hitler is shown to meet opposition from other parties. In reality the Reichstag largely supported the bill, which passed 444-94 with the only dissenters being the Social Democratic Party.
One brief scene shows Hitler forcefully kissing his niece, Geli. Though he was very close to her, there are no historical documents which say that Hitler actually ever had a sexual relationship with his niece. She is also shown to commit suicide the same night as the 1930 election, but in reality she died more than a year after this event.
Furthermore, Ludendorff is seen in full uniform when marching towards Odeonsplatz on the second day of the Beer hall Putsch. In reality, he wore civilian clothing, like Hitler.
Other notable inaccuracies include:
Ed Gernon, the executive producer, was fired for comparing the climate of fear that led to the rise of Nazism to the war on terrorism.[9] Gernon, an executive vice president at Alliance Atlantis, the production company behind Hitler: The Rise of Evil, was abandoned even after more than a decade of service to the company. CBS said that his "personal opinions are not shared by CBS and misrepresent the network's motivation for broadcasting this film".
Associates claimed that CBS was prompted to act by a New York Post article that claimed the comment was a sign of Hollywood’s anti-Americanism and stated that Gernon had said President George W. Bush should be looked at “through the prism of Germany’s psychopath.”[10]
It basically boils down to an entire nation gripped by fear, who ultimately chose to give up their civil rights and plunged the whole world into war. I can’t think of a better time to examine this history than now.—Ed Gernon
The film was banned in the Republic of Belarus.[11]
In Australia, the film was aired on the Seven Network. The network initially used a promotion which went as follows:
Boy 1: "When I grow up, I want to be a fireman." (shows drawing a fire truck)
Narrator: "Every child needs encouragement..."
Girl: "When I grow up, I want to be a nurse." (shows drawing of a hospital)
Narrator: "But what if you encouraged the wrong child?"
Boy 2: "When I grow up, I want to be much, much more..." (shows child violently drawing a Nazi flag)
The advertisement then proceeded to show the trailer for the film. After some review, the network decided that it was inappropriate to use such a tone to promote a film about Hitler, so the initial scenes were removed and the standard trailer was shown.
Filmed at Barrandov Studios (Prague)
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