Swastika

Home movies of Hitler with Goering & Goebbels & Eva & the gang (much of it at der Berghof, much shot by Eva), a bit of Bormann, Himmler, & Speer as well, interspersed with plenty of domestic documentary footage, predominantly from 1933 to 1939.

Eva exhibitionistically posing in a swimsuit whilst hanging from a lakeshore tree branch; Adolf lovingly petting a German shepherd, & elsewhere observing that a recreational-boar-hunting "Göring should go into the forest with a spear." A squadron of planes flying in perfect swastika formation, Neville Chamberlain's declarations of triumphant diplomacy, even Jesse Owens praising his hosts' treatment at the 12th Olympics.

These were gay, heady times in the Third Reich, and the camera was there to capture it. Fairly fascinating to hear Adolf talk in a calm, conversational tone without spewing venom, and even more refreshing to endure no predictably prejudising Allied-oriented narration, even when things inexorably but slowly begin to take a darker turn in the last third of the film, and der Juden problem begins to emerge (to which a recently fled Einstein vaguely makes a public response).

Quite enlightening to just slowly take it in and in a measured manner comprehend for yourself what you're seeing; thank you, Mr. Mora, for that liberty. Released in the year 1973 (apparently causing something of a riot at its Cannes premiere), was banned im Deutschland for the next 36 for fear that seeing the human side of Hitler would de-demonize him. (The director followed up this effort with his first feature film, Mad Dog Morgan with Dennis Hopper.)

Among the special features (in the Australian version of the DVD, at least), the Leni Riefenstahl attack piece has received both praise and excoriation.

This feature length documentary will knock your socks off ... if you're ever lucky enough to see it. If you have ever wondered how Hitler and his thugs wooed the Germans? Philippe Mora has assembled an incredible body of film footage here and let the material tell the story ... there is no narration, something Philippe does particularly well (see his next doco, BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME). He was even able to find Eva Braun's home movies of Hitler, mostly taken at Obersalzburg, and with the help of German lipreaders, bring them to life. Students of history will find it particularly enlightening. It is also horrifying. Most people didn't think Hitler was at all bad. Famous reporter Dick Brinkly singing the praises of Hitler in the mid 30s must be embarrassing. See it if you can. Pray it comes out on DVD one day.

This film consists entirely of footage taken during the Third Reich, without the usual background comment. Some is official and mostly in B&W; speeches by Hitler and his henchmen, Nazi celebrations and rituals, the 1936 Olympics, ordinary Germans going into ecstasies over the view of the Führer, exhibitions of awful Nazi "art" and so on. The rest is mainly in color, home movies taken by Eva Braun and others (using an 8mm camera gifted by Hitler) featuring members of Hitler's inner circle plus assorted visitors in his Obersalzberg mountain retreat and environs. I believe this latter footage was made public by the first time in this film, which was shown at the Cannes festival in 1973.

The movie's purpose is clearly stated on the first screen: "If the human features of Hitler are lacking in the image of him that is passed on to posterity, if he is dehumanized and shown only as a devil, any future Hitler may not be recognized simply because he is a human being." Indeed Hitler was not an abstraction like a "devil" or "monster," but a human being, albeit one capable of almost inconceivable levels of evil. This take on Nazism was controversial, aroused violent responses at Cannes and the film was banned for many years in Israel and Germany. Since then, the home movie footage has been featured in many documentaries and is available in You Tube.

The last shots are of German cities razed to the ground and one particularly horrifying sequence filmed in the recently liberated Belsen concentration camp, with Noel Coward's wartime satyrical song "Don't let's be beastly to the Germans" as background music.

In some of the home movies shown, snatches of dialogue (mostly unintelligible) are heard. Since the original footage was soundless, the dialogues were reconstructed. We don't know how or from what sources. Much later (in 2006) the conversations were almost entirely restored using sophisticated lip reading software. This footage can be seen in Hitler's Private World, a 2006 episode of the British TV series Revealed.

Seeing this doc without a word from anyone, l'd realized a bit awkward, how l love documentaries, this one was an too unusual, all those old footages from the Third Reich in every places, endless speechs by the Fuher, all those political meetings, whatever happens l'll see it until to the end, and it arrives in worst ways, all those death bodies buried by tractors, all cities bombed and were quite often destroyed almost entirely, all those people trying running away from the soldiers or by buildings collapsed by fire, well l'd though poor german people who were compelled to believe in a such mad men, who ruled by force, all those barbarism ends up in a true massacre of sixty millions people in all Europe, Africa and Asia, that is serves as example forever, sorry for the last song mocking for german people, fully unnecessary, this war nobody won!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5

Watched version available in Youtube.

What is interesting is to find the narrative implemented by choice of shots and their editing, and the adding of dialogue(it is not the original) and music. That turns the sucession of shots something that may or intends to convey a message. Is it neutral? If not, is it for or against Nazism? Some earlier critics said it humanized Hitler. Well, he was a man (of sorts). When we hear epic Wagner music accompanyng some parts we get a bit suspicious... But the intelectual montage of shots of children with hitler and juden children starving (altough kind of speedy and forced comparing with the rest of the movie) and last part showing USA nazi party, makes it more somewhat balanced.

About the sound and dialogue added: first of all, it sounds very artificial, second it is supposedly added via lip reading, but in some cases it was clearly not possible, like when we hear Hitler saying that Churchil and Chamberlain are asleep and we can only see his back.

Nevertheless, I think it is not so polemic today as it was when first shown.