| Hitler: The Rise of Evil | |
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| Written by | John Pielmeier G. Ross Parker |
| Directed by | Christian Duguay |
| Starring | Robert Carlyle Stockard Channing Peter O'Toole Peter Stormare Thomas Sangster Liev Schreiber |
| Music by | Normand Corbeil |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 2 |
| Production | |
| Producers | John Ryan Ed Gernon Peter Sussman |
| Editors | Sylvain Lebel James R. Myers Henk Van Eeghen |
| Running time | 179 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBC (Canada) CBS (US) |
| Release | 18 May 2003 (2003-05-18) |
Hitler: The Rise of Evil is a Canadiantelevisionminiseries in two parts, directed byChristian Duguay and produced byAlliance Atlantis. It starsRobert Carlyle in the lead role and exploresAdolf Hitler's rise and his early consolidation of power during the years after theFirst World War and focuses on how the embittered, politically fragmented and economically buffeted state ofGerman society following the war made that ascent possible. The film also focuses onErnst Hanfstaengl's influence on Hitler's rise to power. The miniseries, which premiered simultaneously in May 2003 onCBC in Canada andCBS in the United States, received twoEmmy Awards, for Art Direction and Sound Editing, whilePeter O'Toole was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.[1]
The film's subplot follows the struggles ofFritz Gerlich, a Germanjournalist who opposes the risingNazi Party. The quotation disputably attributed to[2]Edmund Burke is displayed at the beginning and end of the film, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
The opening is a montage ofAdolf Hitler's life from 1899 to 1913, when he left Austria forMunich. His participation in theFirst World War on the German side is then shown in a series of episodes that includes his promotion to the rank ofcorporal, his awarding of theIron Cross for bravery and his blinding during a gas attack and his subsequent medical treatment, during which he learns Germany has surrendered.
Hitler returns to a revolutionary Munich in 1919 and, still employed by the army, is assigned to report on the newly formed political parties in the city. After attending a meeting of theGerman Workers' Party, he is recruited by the party's leader,Anton Drexler, to organize its propaganda activities and give increasingly popular speeches, harping on the themes that Germany has been betrayed by the leaders who surrendered in the last war and that Communists and Jews are sapping the German spirit from within. After meeting the wealthy art publisherErnst Hanfstaengl, Hitler is encouraged to refine his image and create a symbol for the party, which he does by adopting theswastika. Hanfstaengl also puts Hitler in contact with the city's influential figures, including the war heroHermann Göring, and the militantErnst Röhm, eventual organizer of the paramilitarySA, whom Hitler had met previously but whose services and men he was then unable to afford. In 1921, Hitler forces Drexler to resign and takes over as leader of the renamedNazi Party.
In 1923, the Minister of Bavaria,Gustav von Kahr, urged on by his speechwriter, the journalistFritz Gerlich, tries to outfox Hitler by convincing him that he is preparing to stage a military coup against the national government inBerlin and that Hitler must remain silent, or his party can play no part in it. Upon learning that the proposedputsch is merely a ruse, Hitler confronts Kahr at gunpoint and coerces him and his associates into supporting his own plan for a putsch. Röhm and the SA plan to take over the military barracks in preparation for a march on Berlin, but theattempted coup is quickly crushed. Hitler takes refuge at the Hanfstaengl home, almost resorting to suicide before Helene Hanfstaengl takes the gun from his hand.
Arrested by the authorities and tried for treason, Hitler manages to use the trial to his advantage, winning over the courtroom spectators and the judge with his theatrics, with only Gerlich and the prosecutors unmoved by his speeches. Consequently he is awarded a lenient sentence inLandsberg Prison, where he writes his memoirs (later published asMein Kampf). In 1925, Hitler goes to the countryside to escape from politics and is joined by his older half-sister,Angela, and her daughter,Geli Raubal. When he returns to Munich, Hitler takes Geli with him.
Eschewing revolution, Hitler now demands that the party follow a democratic course to power. That declaration puts him into conflict with Röhm, but Hitler's demand for complete subordination of the party to himself asFührer wins the approval of most others, including an impressionable young agitator namedJoseph Goebbels. During the late 1920s, the party's political fortunes improve due to Hitler's speeches and the stock market crash ruining the economy, with the National Socialists gaining more and more seats in theReichstag with each election. Alarmed by the party's growing popularity, Gerlich continues to write articles in opposition to Hitler and, when the paper's editor fires him, forms his own newspaper called The Straight Path.
Meanwhile, Hitler forms a relationship with Geli but eventually, distraught by his overbearing control on her life, she commits suicide, after which Hitler forms a relationship withEva Braun.
In 1932, Hitler becomes a German citizen andruns for president against the incumbent,Paul von Hindenburg. Although he is unsuccessful, the party becomes the largest in the Reichstag shortly after, which emboldens Hitler to demand that he be madeChancellor of Germany. Though Hindenburg despises Hitler, the former ChancellorFranz von Papen helps bring that about in January 1933. Later, the Reichstag buildingis set on fire, allegedly bya communist, and Hitler uses the incident to have members of the Reichstagaward him dictatorial powers, which include suspension of civil liberties such as freedom of the press. As a consequence, Gerlich's newspaper is shut down and he is arrested by the SA and sent to a concentration camp.
Germany now becomes a police state, and Hitler crushes all his opponents, both inside and outside the party, which seesRöhm being arrested and the SA greatly reduced. Röhm is later sentenced to death along with others like von Kahr and Gerlich, and the rest of the SA is absorbed into the Reichswehr army. After Hindenburg's death in August 1934, Hitler combines the office of president and chancellor into one, finally making him the ultimate ruler of Germany.
Originally, Hitler biographerIan Kershaw had been on board as a consultant in the production ofHitler: The Rise of Evil. Alliance Atlantis, which had purchased the rights to adapt Kershaw's biography, had wanted to make it more dramatic, but Kershaw found the production's liberties so historically inaccurate regarding Hitler's life that he ultimately chose to have his name removed from the project.[3]
Executive producer Ed Gernon was fired for comparing the climate of fear that led to the rise of Hitler's Nazism toU.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush'swar on terrorism.[4] CBS was prompted to act by aNew York Post article that claimed Gernon's comment as an indicator ofanti-Americanism in Hollywood.[5]
The miniseries received mixed reviews but was nominated for sevenEmmy Awards and won two.[1] It received a nomination as "Outstanding Miniseries" and Peter O'Toole was nominated for anEmmy in the supporting actor in a TV movie or miniseries category. The miniseries won a Primetime Emmy Award for Art Direction andJohn Douglas Smith won the Emmy Award for "Outstanding Sound Editing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special" as Supervising Sound Editor.[1][6]
The New York Times said: "The filmmakers worked so hard to be tasteful and responsible that they robbed their film of suspense, drama and passion", but commented positively on the performances of Peter O'Toole, Julianna Margulies, and Liev Schreiber.[7]
David Wiegand of theSan Francisco Chronicle gave it a positive review, praising Carlyle's performance as "brilliant".[8]
The German magazineDer Spiegel called the film a "soap opera" and "flat melodrama with invented key scenes - Hitler for dummies."[9]
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