Great visuals -- fascinating information. But, good grief, it sounds like a high school English class wrote the script. Everything revolves around the (very) thinly based concept of "charismatic leadership" -- and all of Hitler's support from the Germans and his acts are based on his "charisma." That's an element, of course. But three hours of repetition of the term...ugh!
8 Reviews
The focus on how charisma influenced a nation
gaylemcbain31 July 2015
I couldn't disagree more with skyscorpio in regards to this documentary. Granted, the segues using the red screen with the Swastika & the music was a bit cheesy, but this documentary is about how charisma & censorship can influence an entire country and how dangerous that can be.
His brilliance was the ability to take advantage of the what was going on at the time. The German people did have a right to be angry after WWI. The allies took terrible advantage of their surrender & being greedy, demanded revenge. This caused extreme hardship on the economy causing poverty & homelessness. The middle class was being wiped out of any savings due to ridiculous inflation. Unfortunately, the blame was wrongly placed on the Jews & Communists. Hitler, being extremely Anti-Semitic, spoke about this in depth. That's when he found his true calling, public speaking.
The film highlights the orchestrated, but subtle steps Hitler & his cohorts took to gain total control of an entire country. With his charisma, he was able to totally convince the population that by their specific genetics alone, they were superior to anyone else on the planet. If you did not fall into a precise set of parameters, you were inferior. And who wouldn't want to believe that they belonged to a group that was better than everyone else. This was especially taught to children, starting at a very young age. He preached to them that he was their Savior, and he along with his inner circle, really started to believe that. Between this and severely controlling the type of information being communicated or allowed, he took over.
Sure, he was devastated when his mother died. His biggest cheerleader, who had always doted on him, telling him he could do no wrong, & feeding into his ego, was gone. She made him feel like he was the sun, the moon, & the stars, and now that was finished. He had also just a few weeks before found out that he wasn't going to school for art & he was shattered.
One thing I really learned about about him was how much of a narcissistic, sociopath he really was. He didn't know anything about military strategy, & and actually his first successes were mostly luck & apathy on the part of the allies. But he constantly made bad decisions regarding day to day combat. He didn't support his troops or their leaders with enough resources, but demanded that they fight until death. Maybe he wasn't a buffoon, but he was clearly insane.
This film is more about the German people than of Hitler & how easily it can happen. How when people are living in deplorable conditions, they may believe, do, and allow anything to transpire including losing their humanity.
His brilliance was the ability to take advantage of the what was going on at the time. The German people did have a right to be angry after WWI. The allies took terrible advantage of their surrender & being greedy, demanded revenge. This caused extreme hardship on the economy causing poverty & homelessness. The middle class was being wiped out of any savings due to ridiculous inflation. Unfortunately, the blame was wrongly placed on the Jews & Communists. Hitler, being extremely Anti-Semitic, spoke about this in depth. That's when he found his true calling, public speaking.
The film highlights the orchestrated, but subtle steps Hitler & his cohorts took to gain total control of an entire country. With his charisma, he was able to totally convince the population that by their specific genetics alone, they were superior to anyone else on the planet. If you did not fall into a precise set of parameters, you were inferior. And who wouldn't want to believe that they belonged to a group that was better than everyone else. This was especially taught to children, starting at a very young age. He preached to them that he was their Savior, and he along with his inner circle, really started to believe that. Between this and severely controlling the type of information being communicated or allowed, he took over.
Sure, he was devastated when his mother died. His biggest cheerleader, who had always doted on him, telling him he could do no wrong, & feeding into his ego, was gone. She made him feel like he was the sun, the moon, & the stars, and now that was finished. He had also just a few weeks before found out that he wasn't going to school for art & he was shattered.
One thing I really learned about about him was how much of a narcissistic, sociopath he really was. He didn't know anything about military strategy, & and actually his first successes were mostly luck & apathy on the part of the allies. But he constantly made bad decisions regarding day to day combat. He didn't support his troops or their leaders with enough resources, but demanded that they fight until death. Maybe he wasn't a buffoon, but he was clearly insane.
This film is more about the German people than of Hitler & how easily it can happen. How when people are living in deplorable conditions, they may believe, do, and allow anything to transpire including losing their humanity.
Absolutely riveting
antimatter3330 January 2018
This film makes the essential point that Hitler did not succeed because he was Hitler - he succeeded, for a while, because the Germans believed as he did, that they were morally, physically, and mentally superior to everyone else. It was a form of mass insanity and it needs to be seen that way. Such delusions can overtake any society at any time that loses its moral compass, and it threatens to happen here, although comparisons of Trump to Hitler are, as yet, a far stretch. More concerning is our fetishism of militarism and penchant for authoritarianism. Only by seeing clearly can these traps be avoided. This is a wonderful film.
A bit repetitive and has annoying bursts of music, but still a decent watch
bryno9231 December 2017
As someone who isn't an expert in WWII and has just recently became interested in the topic, I found this to be very informative. It did seem to drag on at times (especially the last episode), but it was worth it as I left knowing much more about Hitler than I did before. I was a bit disappointed at how misleading the title was however. They don't really go too deep into his personality but instead just showed a few speeches he did and gave a quick reason why it connected to the audience. It's really more about the rise and downfall of Hitler, not an in-depth analysis of his charisma. It seemed like a tacky thing they tried to plug in to try to differentiate it from all of the other documentaries on Hitler.
The footage they showed was rather interesting. They did have some cheesy re-enactments that weren't necessary, but it was more of a background thing so I wasn't too upset. The music however, was rather obnoxious at times. They played the same music between their transitions that would blast for a few seconds. It was rather over the top at times.
Another thing I disliked, was that the series seems to repeat itself. Episode 3 repeated so much from episode 2, that I thought I was watching episode 2 again on accident for the first 10 min. They also throw in their charisma "analysis" which gets repeated over and over but doesn't add too much.
Overall it is a decent watch, especially for those who are beginning to learn more about WWII. You won't learn a lot about Hitler, but it gives a decent overview of the rise and fall of him. I do understand why WWII buffs would be disappointed in this however.
The footage they showed was rather interesting. They did have some cheesy re-enactments that weren't necessary, but it was more of a background thing so I wasn't too upset. The music however, was rather obnoxious at times. They played the same music between their transitions that would blast for a few seconds. It was rather over the top at times.
Another thing I disliked, was that the series seems to repeat itself. Episode 3 repeated so much from episode 2, that I thought I was watching episode 2 again on accident for the first 10 min. They also throw in their charisma "analysis" which gets repeated over and over but doesn't add too much.
Overall it is a decent watch, especially for those who are beginning to learn more about WWII. You won't learn a lot about Hitler, but it gives a decent overview of the rise and fall of him. I do understand why WWII buffs would be disappointed in this however.
Nothing New Here
Kaptain_Bluddflagg12 November 2017
The title is a bit deceptive, as it seems to spend more time just going through the events of WW 2 rather than really examining the psychology behind Hitler's rise to power.
That fact alone would be forgivable if this program wasn't so overproduced; the music is blaring and distracts from the subject matter, and some of the visual effects are just tacky. Also, for reasons that I cannot begin to fathom, there are random reenactment scenes peppered throughout that don't really add anything.
It's hard to recommend this.
That fact alone would be forgivable if this program wasn't so overproduced; the music is blaring and distracts from the subject matter, and some of the visual effects are just tacky. Also, for reasons that I cannot begin to fathom, there are random reenactment scenes peppered throughout that don't really add anything.
It's hard to recommend this.
This "documentary" is highly inaccurate and lacks focus
saramgia23 August 2019
It's unfortunate anyone would make a historically inaccurate film about such important world events. Also, most of the film regurgitates known history. Then, it misinforms regarding Adolf Hitler. Seems to be an exploitative film for profit.
So far, it's good!
chitown_babe8 June 2018
I am only on the middle of the 2nd episode, and so far, I thought it was pretty good. Unlike some of the reviewers, I found it to be very accurate and I thought the title was completely appropriate. I especially loved the music and didn't find it distracting at all. I'm not positive, but I thought it sounded like Wagner. If so, it is also appropriate because Wagner was Hitler's favorite composer. I also enjoyed the new photos and the visits to the various cities where he visited. I'm very impressed with it so far.
Color photography/colorization
outerbreak6 January 2018
My takeaways from this documentary were lot of footage I have never seen, the colorization and/or actual color photography, and the many translations of his speeches. It made this entire work contemporary in feel since the reproduction of the movie clips and photographs was pristine...as if the photographs were made last night.
The classical music score seemed to be more ironic than dramatic.
The aerial filming back to cities where the actual speeches and incidents took place were a new twist/technique I had never seen applied to Hitler with nearly a current day European travelogue look to it...
I do agree with the other comments on here that there was not hardly enough inspection of the "charisma" theme to warrant it being mentioned in the title of the series. However the way this was presented left it up to the viewer to somehow make that connection on their own by laying all these various parts out on a table and letting you personally develop your own assembly of the parts to draw some sort of conclusion re charisma .....
The musical score and the rare color photographs/movies with sufficient new narrative information in this chronological format with copious translations made this worthwhile to watch IMHO to give us current day clues of how this kind evil gets started and sustained.
The BBC obviously had a dog in this fight but the use of all this rare footage lets what happened speak for itself to some great extent.
On many levels this film leaves you somewhat uncomfortable ...it did me... and I am a student of WWII films and documentaries. This is a different kind of documentary and worth the watch.
The classical music score seemed to be more ironic than dramatic.
The aerial filming back to cities where the actual speeches and incidents took place were a new twist/technique I had never seen applied to Hitler with nearly a current day European travelogue look to it...
I do agree with the other comments on here that there was not hardly enough inspection of the "charisma" theme to warrant it being mentioned in the title of the series. However the way this was presented left it up to the viewer to somehow make that connection on their own by laying all these various parts out on a table and letting you personally develop your own assembly of the parts to draw some sort of conclusion re charisma .....
The musical score and the rare color photographs/movies with sufficient new narrative information in this chronological format with copious translations made this worthwhile to watch IMHO to give us current day clues of how this kind evil gets started and sustained.
The BBC obviously had a dog in this fight but the use of all this rare footage lets what happened speak for itself to some great extent.
On many levels this film leaves you somewhat uncomfortable ...it did me... and I am a student of WWII films and documentaries. This is a different kind of documentary and worth the watch.
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