The Secret Life of Adolf Hitler

Secret Life of Adolph Hitler, The (1958)

** (out of 4)

WW2 made documentary covering the life of Hitler from his early childhood to his final days. I was really looking forward to this film since Hitler's sister and several men who knew him during his final days were interviewed but in the end this turned out to be a major disappointment. Even with the first hand accounts of his life, there's really nothing to learn here as the only thing the documentary keeps saying is how evil he was. We never really learn what might have been behind his evilness and the accounts of his final days is rather dull. Some of Eva Braun's home movies of Hitler are on display here.

And besides this the first part of the movie is just the same we saw 1000 times. But after it we see some home uncommon home videos from Hitler's private life. It's an interesting part of the movie.

Just interesting, because we can see, that Adolf Hitler was not a monster or something like this, and allows seeing us some real footage. 60 years after the war, it is worth to see something, which is not just 100% war propaganda. (Only 80% is war propaganda first of all the audio).

We see some home movies, which show Hitler and his wife's life. It's worth a look for those wanting a different take in a Hitler biography.

Nazi history buffs will find some interest in the obscure Hitler and Eva home movies found in the second half. I echo the suggestion of another reviewer to just turn the sound off, negating the lurid, badly-dated narration. The domestic scenes have the effect of 'humanizing' Hitler, for those who might be naively surprised to find there was an actual man behind the colossal 'historical figure.' The conclusion I have come to is that Hitler was a authoritarian crank like millions of others, who by a combination of historical circumstance, certain talents, and 'luck' gained supreme power in a certain major industrialized European nation--with incredibly horrible results.

Oddly, this late-50's made-for-TV documentary was dropped into a 2011 'made for DVD' documentary entitled "Hitler and the Nazis," expanding the 2011 feature to five 'episodes' (the first four are more recent productions, through also far from first-quality work).

Which thing surprised me. For the most part people like Adolf Hitler are referred to by others as "monsters". I understand that we do this in an effort to disassociate these others from us, thus making us immune. We believe that WE could never do such things. Only someone, some THING, other than human could commit such atrocities. This documentary is striking in that Hitler, and those around him, are treated in a very human manner. Given that its production was so soon after the war, and considering that a great many of the people who would have viewed this in '58 would've been in their 30s and 40s and WWII veterans, makes the treatment and mentality all the more surprising to me. Aside from this "The Secret Life of Adolf Hitler" is also scary in many respects. The interviews strike home in a very strange and terrifying way. The words, chosen with what seems so much care, would seem to indicate that these people were still worshiping their national hero and that he would always be for them their "beloved Leader". Put together almost completely of REAL footage, I only saw one short part that looked staged for the documentary itself. All factual, all straightforward, all human, all the more frightening.

The life of Hitler and the Third Reich is told through news reel footage and a few interviews. For the most part its a rapid march through the years of Hitler's rise.A good portion of the film is the same old story you've seen a dozen times before,however the film stops about midway in to delve into the relationship between Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun. Using home movies the film shows the transformation of Eva from playful young lady to proper "wife".

Its an odd movie. For the most part a straight forward telling of the story, it takes some odd turns. First off it uses sped up footage in a couple of sequences that result in a comedic effect. There is an almost silly insistence that Hitler liked women that seems somehow meant to rehabilitate the image of the fallen leader. Actually the film at times seems to have an almost "gee whiz Hitler wasn't such a bad guy" attitude. I'm not sure what to make of it, especially since some of the narration seems more tongue in cheek rather than serious.

More a curio than anything else, its worth a look for those wanting a different take in a Hitler biography.