iman-roder

I watched this mostly to learn more abouthow Hitler managed to gain power and the Nuremberg trials. I definitely learned a lot about both I didn't know. Also I learned of the reporter William Shirer and found it very engaging to have his first hand account of the disturbing events become the narrative voice in a way. The AI generated voice was very effective to me as well as many of Shirer 's original voices recorders even those of others. As an avid documentary watcher I I overall found this one very compelling especially due to the aforementioned details, however there is one, for lack of a better word, annoying documentary trope that I feel the film should have done without: dramatic reenactments, particularly the scenes with Hitler. The actor they used appeared to be a cartoon version of Hitler straight out of Disney shorts from the time. He was constantly yelling and spitting, his hair falling over his face. Hitler saved such performances for his speeches in front of masses of people. He wasn't going nuts all the time. From footage I've seen he actually seemed quite calm and charming in more intimate settings which I find quite telling and even more disturbing somehow, because I see the parallel in Trump. During his speeches he is unhinged but privately many say he is very charming and well mannered. Anyway I just found the performance of whoever played Hitler to be very unrealistic and just annoying. There was a film about Hitler a few years back called Downfall where Hitler was played superbly I think by Bruno Ganz. I wish they hired him for this.

I like the lead actress Gillian Jacobs do I have it a go, but soon realized she was miscast. She's a great comedic actress and her performance and the writing a farcical comedic tone that made me cringe, and not believe the proceedings to be real, even though they are based on true (remarkable) characters and (terrible, harrowing) events. This misplaced tone I feel leads to all other performances to be, I feel, confusing. It's as if the actors didn't know how to play it, should I be funny and lighthearted or serious? I lost interest in the characters and plot very quickly and that's a shame because these are some of the most important, remarkable and heroic people of world war 2 and they are treated without due respect I think. It all feels like a silly Woody Allen Movie rather then say Schindler's List.