Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial

Shirer's book written in the early 60's was far better and more inclusive. This skips over many relevant actions. I've read too many books about WW1 and WW2 and have always been more fascinated by the first war and how it started. The release of this documentary seems to be a not so subtle suggestion that Trump is the new Hitler. Going so far as to mention Hitler's mountain lair being the equivalent of Trump's Mar-A-Lago. Not sure how long this was in the works, but I would guess this was timed to come out before the election. It's still good but read the book instead if you want a better account of the times.

Considering the voluminous information surrounding WWII, it's not going to cover every detail or aspect that one might want to see. However, I think they've managed to include the key moments of the narrative they're focusing on.

This documentary combines commentary, historical footage, and reenactment scenes. The reenactment scenes help enhance the documentary. A lot of important meetings were done behind closed doors and were not recorded, so the reenactment gives a sense of what might have happened.

I think this is a great documentary and shows how such dangerous regimes can come into power. Hopefully, although unlikely, such grand scale atrocities are behind us.

It is a very well done documentary that shows the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. A very good job of covering the aftermath of the devastation that they caused across Europe and gives some insight into what could have happened if they went unchecked.

To me, the most glaring omissions in all of these documentaries is not the why of the Nazi rise to power, but where they got all the funding and support. I guess, because no one wants to talk about the American money that funded them. Henry Ford, the Dulles brothers etc. There was a great deal of support amongst American money to bring them to power. This is well documented but not discussed in these things because it puts America into a bad light. It also is quite telling as to why America was not interested in really getting into the war, until it absolutely had to. Not that it was pivotal, that was the Russians.

Seeing other reviews notice the same thing makes me happy. I love the content and the topic. But it is hilarious when they make subtle references to "someone" when they say things like Germany was trying to "Make Germany Great Again" and that the eagles nest was "Hitler's Mar-a-lago".

It's embarrassing. America is not even close to being on the same path as the Nazi's, as annoying as our politics can be.

Why can't any scholar or traditional media or Hollywood have a unique thought in their brain? They all just echo each other on the latest "thing" and it's funny how rattled they are over Trump. Get over it.

Overall, a pretty good account of the rise of Hitler and the reign of terror perpetrated by the Third Reich. I've watched a number of similar documentaries about Hitler and this one showed me a few things I had never known.

The documentary is certainly taken down a peg by the atrocious casting of Károly Kozma as Hitler. When it comes to physical likeness, on a scale of 10 Kozma is about a 6. The casting department could have chosen from hundreds of capable actors with much more similar physical characteristics. Kozma's poor likeness to Hitler is one thing, but his abysmal performance amounts to little more than scenes of hysteria - usually unwarranted - giving Hitler very little depth. Kosta's scenes are all pantomimed (there are no speaking parts) and most of them are poorly executed. To say the least, this was a critical role and they made an awful choice by going with Kosta. You also have to blame director Joe Berlinger for encouraging Kosta's ridiculous style of performance.

There are other things that are seemingly glossed over, including Hitler's terrible health and booming drug dependency. Hitler was prescribed over 90 medications through his life, suffered from numerous serious ailments, and regularly consumed amphetamines, barbiturates, opiates, and cocaine. Between his very poor health and easy access to drugs, little wonder that Hitler devolved into the madman that he surely was.

There's also short shrift given to Hitler's pact with Japan, the courage of the British military, and various other facets of World War II. But, after all, I still did award the documentary a 7 out of 10, indicating I did find it very watchable and illuminating. It shouldn't be the ONLY documentary you watch about Hitler, but it certainly belongs in the upper echelon.