The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

William Shire really out did himself by putting together all the footage he acquired to make this film. It gives you the feeling of actually being shot at and the awful feeling of being stared at and being spied on by the Gestapo. To this day it gives me the chills and makes me look around the block and who is behind me. This would be almost funny if it had not really happened. And anyone that tries to tell you it didn't happen well this will change their minds if they have any. I find the historical value of this movie right up there with the best.

Peter Salvatore Guzzo

This documentary showcases the Hitlerian strategy for conquering hearts and minds by exploiting people's capacity to hate, something as relevant in our time as it seems to have been in his. This is a lesson which is especially worth remembering at this point in history.

I might also add that the IMDb has goofed here, and that the narrator is not Richard Basehart, but in fact whoever it is is never identified in the titles. Also, while the music is darkly effective, it turns out that for some odd reason Lalo Schifrin reprises a prominent piece of his MISSION IMPOSSIBLE score (a march) even though that show was still running in prime time when this came out in 1968.

This also leads me to another point -- one of the other reviewers here made the bizarre comment that the Cold War was over in connection with this documentary; to the contrary, in 1968 it was still going strong, heated as it was by the escalating war in Vietnam. That reviewer also gets his dates wrong with regard to the United States; it entered the war against Hitler in December, 1941, not 1944. Before Christmas, 1942, the US not only had a significant presence at sea fighting German U-boats (it had actually begun that months before hostilities between the two were formally declared in 1941), but it had been an equal partner (at least) of the British in carrying out the invasion of North Africa. By the end of 1943 it had been the leading actor in conquering Sicily and invading Italy, and had began striking Germany in the European war's only daylight strategic bombing campaign.

This is too-severely cut down from the original 6-hour adaptation of William L. Shirer's classic history of the war in Europe, and it doesn't really work. The subject is simply too broad for this kind of hop-skip-&-jump treatment, though at this range, we might say (a little patronisingly) "Not bad for 1968".

We're essentially looking at newsreel that would have been almost as familiar then as it is now, and the film is little more than a chronological sequence of clips, overlaid with a few philosophical reflections, but no opportunity for creative theming. Of course, much new research has come out since, but I think it was already known that the Führer lost his temper with Ribbentrop for allowing Chamberlain to keep the peace in '38, because he'd been planning for war all along, and was in a hurry to get started, before his (uncertain) health declined any further. Also Albert Speer was out of jail by then, and had revealed that Hitler's first appetising taste of appeasement came in March '36, during the brief reign of Edward VIII, when that unwise monarch secretly reassured him that Britain would not oppose his occupation of the Rhineland.

Among the few interviewees, we meet a most impressive young Jewish survivor of the camps, recounting the genocidal acts that cost him the whole of his family. And Shirer himself pops up a couple of times, with insights that might have carried more conviction if he didn't keep nearly putting his pipe in his mouth the whole time.

Based on the best-selling book by the same name, this film documents the events that led to Germany transitioning from a democracy to a totalitarian state and from there to complete ruin. True to much of the book this documentary focuses mainly on the methods used by Adolf Hitler to achieve complete domination upon his subjects and the pure evil which resulted. Perhaps the most powerful point of this film was the way the Nazis treated the Jews and it was brought home very poignantly by the drawings of Jewish children on a wall prior to being led to their execution. Although quite sad it also serves as a very powerful indictment as well. Now, while I would have certainly preferred more details on the Russian Front as well as that by the Allies, this documentary provides more than enough historical information to keep the attention of most viewers from beginning to end. I have rated the film accordingly. Above average.

The only problem I have with this version is that it is way too abbreviated, and Richard Basehart is not the narrator! I saw a longer abbreviated version on TNT in the early 1990s, but have never been able to find it. The Wolper office at UC will not release the original 6 hour version for some very unexplainable reason. What a shame for such a great documentary. The person I spoke with on the phone did not give a reason for this. This is a great film version of Shirer's book with the same title. It is a great summary of life in Germany from 1918-1945, a period of unbelievable importance to today's world, a period which indeed did change the world.