ShangLuda Admirable film.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

drd-07217 Whilst Hitler Rise of Evil may be historically inaccurate it is a riveting docudrama. Peter Stormare does a good job as Hitler but his portrayal is somewhat cartoon like. I don't blame him as I suppose they had to be careful as to not show Hitler in any sort of good light. Julianna Margulies does a magnificent job as Hitler's unrequited love interest. Moral of the story on one level is: Be careful when you crush and reject an 'Artist's' dreams. Well worth the watch if you want to get a quick over view of how Hitler was made possible.

bkoganbing Although some fine people like Alec Guinness, Anthony Hopkins, and Everett Sloane have played Adolph Hitler on the big screen, Robert Carlyle in playing the psychotic dictator of Nazi Germany struck out into new territory. For the only time I can recall we see the roots of Hitler first as a juvenile, a frustrated artist, a soldier in World War I and his gradual involvement with right wing politics in the post war yeas. The film ends with him finally attaining total power with the death of President Hindenburg and the combination of the offices of President and Chancellor. After that we get into grounds far more familiar to American audiences.Watching newsreels of Hitler these days with his Charlie Chaplin like mustache, not to mention Chaplin's own devastating satire of Hitler in The Great Dictator he comes off as a comic little character. Millions of feet of film from World War II with Nazis portrayed as bumbling idiots and the German language reduced to guttural double talk by comedians like Danny Kaye and the Three Stooges have tended to level the impact of Hitler. What Carlyle does and it's his greatest accomplishment is to show the power of Hitler as orator, something that I fear if you are not fluent in German you cannot comprehend. Carlyle's speeches in English show exactly how powerful this man could be and how he could sway a nation to evil.Another thing that Hitler: The Rise of Evil shows are the many women around him in the early years. In fact some of the other Nazi male figures are reduced to cardboard figures. Other than Carlyle, it's the women who have the best parts in this film from Stockard Channing as Hitler's doting mother, to Jena Malone his niece Geli Raubal and presumed first love who committed suicide as the official accounts have, to Julianna Margulies as Frieda Hanfstaengl married to Ernest 'Putzi' Hanfstaengl played by Liev Schreiber, an American who married Schreiber and became entranced by Hitler's charisma.The opposition as it were is characterized by Matthew Modine and his wife Patricia Neker. Modine is an investigative reporter who sees and writes about the danger that Hitler personifies. Not enough read what he has to say, but one of them was Adolph Hitler and Modine becomes one of the first inmates of the newly formed concentration camps. Peter O'Toole is the biggest name in the cast as President Hindenburg, a man who was just too old and tired to deal with the Bohemian corporal as Hitler was contemptuously characterized by a lot of the professional military. O'Toole is outstanding as usual. One thing not shown was that Hindenburg's own son had become a Nazi party member and that had to have had a crippling affect on whatever course of action Hindenburg wanted to pursue.This is one story that should get retold every few years and Hitler: The Rise Of Evil is as good a telling as it can get.

Jakealope Movies like this seem to attract two types of critics, those who admire him and those who demand historical documentary accuracy out of a docudrama. Also this movie attracted much criticism from Jewish and anti racism groups because it humanized Hitler. Well, Hitler was evil but human, as well as had some good qualities, brave, kind to his menials, etc.While this movie had some plot contrivances normal to any sort of drama, on the whole it did a good job of showing a real Hitler. Robert Carlysle did a good job and had that ascetic fanatic look of Hitler without being a caricature of him. Most important, the movie conveyed the feel of Germany and Germans at that time, and how Hitler's hate, racism, grandiosity mirrored what many Germans had bred into them. While even most period German skeptics and liberals believed Germany was great, based on her multifaceted achievements in so many fields that led to a prosperous economy and the best army, most Germans felt that they were mandated to rule and take without regard to the sentiments of others. Also, the intense Jew hatred was always there, but the Kaiser Bismarck Germany gave Jews full civil rights and at least attempted at first to live amongst the rest of Europe as equals and establish a modern regime.But after the defeat in WW l, the ugly side of Germany erupted. Though Germany was spared the ravages of war, unlike what she inflicted on Belgium and France, the Germans felt they were the real victims, and victory was stolen from them by backstabbing vermin from within. When the simple fact was that the Allies were winning and with America barely even in the field with our growing forces and the loss of her last two allies of Austria and Turkey, no rational German leader could see anything but defeat, when the allies had thousands of tanks and planes versus a dwindling air force and almost no tanks. But do to bad leadership, as well as allied blunders, by making the successors to the kaiser, the Weimar Republic surrender, the Stab in the Back Myth was born and Hitler simply fitted that in with the "evil Jews causing all the trouble in the world" theme.Okay lets get back to the movie at hand. It is a good thumbnail of Germany leading up to Hitler's rise to power.

wvisser-leusden "Hitler, the rise of Evil" is clearly produced by people emotionally unburdened by the horrors of World War 2. Which makes watching a refreshing experience.I think its greatest value lies in its crystal clear revealing of the Nazi-mechanism. Of the utterly corrupt ways Hitler used to make it to the top. Having arrived there, this film ends.When on top, the 'Fuhrer' (= German for 'leader') led his Germany to the biggest & most devastating war in history of mankind. Ending six years later in Germany's utter defeat. As a result, Germany lost its eastern provinces (= about 35% of its prewar soil), and was forced to accept a 44 year-split of its remaining territory. Both West and East Germany had to be rebuilt from scrap, their reputations severely damaged by the many Nazi-atrocities inspired by racism.As I said, "Hitler, the rise of Evil" makes an good watch. Set in an acceptable thirties-environment, with (more than) competent acting. In particular Peter O'Toole's role as the aged president von Hindenburg stands out, even adds an extra dimension.My copy of "Hitler, the rise of Evil" also provides a second DVD with two good documentary films. One is about Hitler's personality, the second deals with the forgery of the Hitler-diaries. In 1983 this forgery caused a hilarious scandal in England and Germany, damaging the reputations of several historians and journalists.