Does anyone here recall seeing "Hitler: the Rise of Evil"...

[whistle]

....a CBS miniseries aired about two years ago? If yes, how was it? Is it worth renting the video? Here is a link to a critique of the series from May 2003:

<snip>

Robert Lopez

The best Hitler I've seen in years

I’ve seen a lot of films about the atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler, but the CBS miniseries Hitler: the Rise of Evil is the first I’ve seen that visualizes how he actually came to power.

Hitler, the convenient cliché invoked whenever somebody has an enemy, is easy to conceptualize as a madman with supernatural powers. Often people describe the crimes committed by Nazi Germany in the third-person-singular, making it seem as though Hitler single-handedly sewed every SS uniform, laid every brick of the concentration camps, and invaded all his neighbors with a lone machine gun and a will to dominate—a convenient scenario, insofar as it assures not only Germans, but everyone who’s susceptible to bad ideas, that as long as there is no Hitler, there will never be another Holocaust.

That version of Hitler comes complete with a whole country under his jackboot, a demonic ideology of genocide and world dominion, and an army of spellbound minions in lockstep. He rises like a two-dimensional pop-up, without a human history and without a historical context.

The CBS miniseries departed from the standard fare and instead focused on Hitler’s life from childhood to the moment when he assumed exclusive executive power over Germany in 1934.

CBS produced the show in conjunction with the Canadian company Alliance Atlantis. Unfortunately, the executive producer from Alliance Atlantis, Ed Gernon, lost his job for saying the miniseries was "a cautionary tale for contemporary America" (1). In April, TV Guide printed an interview in which Gernon compared Germany’s ripeness for extremism in the 1920s and 1930s to America’s situation after September 11.

<snip>

I came away from the film afraid to compare Bush to Hitler, because I realized that that, too, is deflecting the critical scope away from myself. After the credits came on, I felt eager to question, to debate, and to complicate things. <more>

<link> http://buffaloreport.com/articles/030523lopez.hitler.html

[proud patriot]

1. if that was the one with Matthew Modine , I thought it was good

it really showed a lot about the slow clamp down
on dissent in the media .

[slor]

2. Is it available at...

libraries? I would like to see it too.

[whistle]

3. I can only find DVD for sale from UK and they are expensive...

...and are on back-order.

<snip>

Hitler - The Rise Of Evil

CHRISTIAN DUGUAY, PIERRE GILL

£ 17.99
Available for dispatch within 48 hours
ALL PRICES INCLUDE FREE DELIVERY

Neither Adolf Hitler nor the Germany of 1939 exploded onto the world stage fully formed. Both evolved. Both were running from the failures in their past. Both were looking for someone to blame. Together they entered into a macabre dance to find security and a stronger identity. Whipped into a frenzied fear inflamed by the "Hitler-roar", Germany happily surrendered its voice to one man. Adolf Hitler came to power aided by the silence of people who could have spoken out, but did not.


INFO
Certificate: 18 - Suitable for persons over 18
Starring: Robert Carlyle,Stockard Channing,Jena Malone,Julianna Margulies,Matthew Modine,Liev Schrieber,Peter Stormare,Peter O'Toole
Number of Discs: 1
Format variant: Standard
Special Features: Trailer
Subtitle Languages: English for the hard of hearing
Original Language:English
Region: 2 - Europe and Japan
Colour format: Colour
Producer: Ed Gernon, Peter Sussman, John Ryan
Label: Momentum Pictures

[whistle]

4. Another review of the DVD...

Hitler: The Rise of Evil | 04-10-2003 06:00
The young sensitive Adolf grows up with quite a penchant for art but finds little acceptance in the Viennese art school and ends up homeless until the first world war thrusts him into the trenches where he miraculously survives many mortar and chemical attacks. Though failing to impress his superiors, he is still retained at the end of the war as a informant on various political groupings operating within Munich. With the fear of revolution gripping the beleaguered nation, most political groups are seen with great suspicion by the authorities but Hitler finds some common ground with the nationalistic German Worker's Party and finds in himself the talent of an electrifying speaker.





Robert Merle in his fictive biography of the commander of Auschwitz told us that just labelling him as evil sidesteps any attempt to comprehend what happened and it can be argued that Hitler: RoE fails to do that at all - even the title sets out the point of view taken. Shown as a two part TV drama, the film follows Hitler, imaginatively played by Robert Carlyle, from his childhood until Hindenburg's death and his accession to absolute power but is too embroiled in the strangeness and nastiness of the character to take a wider view or attempt to analyse what is going on in his head; the economic effects of the Versailles Treaty, for example, are portrayed only through Hitler's words making the less historically-minded viewer wonder if he was just whipping up a frenzy out of nothing.

Visually, it's quite obvious that CBS poured an awful lot of money into this production - the costumes and the set design look incredibly good for a TV venture and the cinematography is agile and fluid. Though the cast is not really A-list, there's plenty of talent to make the film work, and the film flows evenly throughout its three hour running time. Historically, the script does make some strange choices, erasing some very important characters and groups (Himmler or the SS seem completely absent) and has to bend some facts to create some dramatic tension but generally sticks to the facts. Also the choice of filming this entirely in English was economically inevitable but the violence of Hitler's speech delivery seems to be lost in translation despite Carlyle's best efforts. Compared to 1989's The Nightmare Years, an outstanding TV adaptation of William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, (not available on DVD), Hitler seems by far the less impressive of the two, though comparing the two may be a little unfair given their slightly different focuses.

None of this should take away from the fact that the film is supported by some excellent performances from the cast - casting Carlyle as Hitler was probably not obvious but for all purposes, it works out relatively well. The rest of the cast put in convincing performances though Peter O'Toole's minimal performance is ill-served by the costume assistant putting him a suit 5 sizes too big and padding it up with paper! Generally, the film stands up perfectly well despite its various flaws and should prove to be more than watchable to most - just don't watch it expecting it to be completely accurate or a deep analysis of what happened.

The DVD:
The image:
Filmed in widescreen, we get an anamorphic transfer that reveals few print marks or blemishes. There is some grain apparent on close inspection but nothing that noticeable to the naked eye. The colour scheme is generally quite monochromatic with some outbursts of red and this is well rendered in the transfer. The blacks do at times seem a little unstable but generally they hold up quite well.





The sound:
Unusually for a TV production, we get a 5.1 mix which is the sole sound option. The war scenes make good use of the surrounds and sub-woofer but the rest of the film tends to solely use the surrounds for ambiance noises (music, crowds). Still it's a good mix with most of the dialogue clearly in the centre and exhibits no major flaws.

The extras:
Given the topic, it's a shame that there wasn't a greater effort to have some historical tie-in like we had on The Quiet American or Palestine, Palestine - all we get is a rather hyperbolic trailer focusing mostly on telling us how many awards each member of cast has won.

Conclusions:
Though far from being perfect, Hitler: RoE is a decent TV production that it quite watchable. The DVD, though bereft of real extras, provides a good image and very good sound and will be released on 20th October.