Adolf Hitler faces himself and must come to terms with his infamous career in an imaginary post-war subterranean bunker where he reviews historical films, dictates his memoirs and encounters... Read allAdolf Hitler faces himself and must come to terms with his infamous career in an imaginary post-war subterranean bunker where he reviews historical films, dictates his memoirs and encounters Eva Braun, Josef Göbbels, Hermann Göring, and Sigmund Freud.Adolf Hitler faces himself and must come to terms with his infamous career in an imaginary post-war subterranean bunker where he reviews historical films, dictates his memoirs and encounters Eva Braun, Josef Göbbels, Hermann Göring, and Sigmund Freud.
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- 7 wins & 1 nomination total
- Hitler Youth
- (as Christopher Levitus)
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Most people feel a need to discard Hitler as merely "insane" and "evil" because it conveniently avoids the stickiness of trying to develop an understanding of his psychology. Most other material about Hitler and the Third Reich may try to offer honest insights, but more often then not devolve at some point into oblique moral condemnation "All you REALLY need to know is that they were all very NAUGHTY/BAD/EVIL." They don't trust you to be intelligent and reach your own conclusions.
The Empty Mirror takes a reasonably unclouded look - the majority of Hitler's lines are taken directly from _Mein Kampf_ and his interaction with other significant figures of the era provide us with insight (conjectured but believable) into his thought processes, motives, and rationalizations.
The movie occurs in a surreal, dripping dark stone bunker which the camera never seems to quite capture the dimensions of. It's more of a "dream" state than actual location as the rooms change, occupants shift, uniforms taken on and off.
See the movie yourself. The director is for once not insulting our abilities and is providing an opportunity to reach our own conclusions. Swallow your distaste for the subject for an hour and a half and try to objectively form your own opinion.
Remember that this is the last movie hitler would ever want anyone to see - one that demystifies the "Fuhrer-myth" by showing him to NOT necessarily be a 2-dimensional cartoon hellbeast, but alas, merely a man.
Over the years, I've seen multiple object lessons on the benefits of tolerance and the sheer self-destructiveness of intolerance. I've seen everything improve from my love-life to my job prospects, as I have become more tolerant, more "easy-going" over the years.
Maybe it's because World War Two is one of the cases in which good really did vanquish evil.
On the other hand, maybe there is something mesmerizing about mental pathology, or at least the type that this neurotic SOB had. This guy was no BS-ing Spiro Agnew, no sobbing Jimmy Swaggart, he was the "real deal", a man who truly did the devil's work. And yet, who coolly maintained a distance between his person and the "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem". An animal-loving, sentimental vegetarian who loved bloody war. A raging maniac who revelled in his own anger, but who never himself killed anyone in civilian life. An adherent of "physical culture" who was sallow-skinned and infected with syphilis. A charismatic figure who spent his private life in an odd sort of solitude. A man who lived for a "glorious" past, but whose operatives created jet airplanes, robot bombs and the first ballistic missile, majorly contributing to the Twentieth Century which he so detested.
Yeah, sometimes pathological men are entertaining. And this movie tells us something about him and a great more about ourselves. Research on the Third Reich itself can become a form of conquest.
The story illuminates the power of illusions and how someone could delude themselves into believing almost anything. It humanizes Hitler a bit, examining how he destroyed himself in his lust for power, and how the same thing could happen again.
Did you know
- GoofsWhen Hitler wears his uniform with the brown coat and white shirt he wears a black tie. The real Hitler, when wearing this uniform, would wear a brown tie with a tie pin of an eagle astride a swastika.
- Quotes
[first lines]
Adolf Hitler: Before us lies Germany, within us marches Germany, and after us comes Germany!
- ConnectionsEdited into A. Hitler (2010)
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $4,688
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $4,688
- May 9, 1999
- Gross worldwide
- $4,688