Random Thoughts on "HITLER"

I watched it out of curiosity and wasn’t terribly impressed by it. The earlier years of his life (from his teen years up until shortly after the first world war) were glossed over but should have been explored in full to explain how Hitler developed his ideas and opinions. He certainly did not become an anti-semite all by his lonesome. The prevailing public opinions and mood of the country during those years, and the impact of events in Germany as well as all over the world were not used to their full potential. I think they did a pretty good job at casting the actor that played Hitler although they should have tried to bulk him up for the later years. (And I did think he had blue contacts in.)

Some of the movie contradicted what I have always read about Hitler. For example, I was under the impression Hitler met Eva Braun in an office where she worked. Not during a photo shoot, but in an office setting. From the movie, I was left with the impression that Eva Braun lived in Hitler’s apartment with his half-sister, and from what I’ve read, Eva Braun initially lived with her family during the early portion of their relationship (who were concerned about the relationship), and then moved into her own apartment paid for by Hitler. And that she did not shoot herself, but took pills or poison (and did not intend to die, as she arranged it so she would be found), and Hitler did not react with anger but with concern that another woman would try to take her life because of him.

Also, I was under the impression many party members submitted suggestions as for party symbols and the flag was taken from those submissions (and then later Hitler claimed his idea had been similar to what was finally chosen.) The movie showed it to be Hitler’s idea solely–creating a flag and image for the party all on his own.

The first world war portions showing his fellow soldiers giving him a hard time and then Hitler subsequently beats a dog (and therefore escapes death)… I’ve never heard of that before, but I have read that Hitler had dogs and treated them well.

There’s more, but I don’t remember offhand.

At the end of the movie, it did provide a website to back up their claims… I am going to look it up because there were many instances during the movie that I thought, “am I wrong?”

what I want to know is what the heck did the Thule Society really do & what was the extent of Hitler’s involvement & why do no movies ever show that?

The best movie Hitler was Anthony Hopkins (not surprisingly) in THE BUNKER

The authoritative source for such themes is Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke’s The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935. Cthulhu is conspicuously absent.

I’ve always been partial to Derek Jacobi’s performance in the ABC mini-series Inside the Third Reich. It’s about the best I’ve ever seen for portraying Hitler as an actual person who did evil things, rather than a raving basket case permanently accompanied by ominous theme music. Arguably it doesn’t do much to get inside his head, but we have Mein Kampf for that.

Readers of this thread such as Baranlaith might also find this article from last month’s Atlantic Monthly to be of interest.

Weren’t Hitler’s eyes brown?

I’ve done a bit of a google search and came up with some issues of contention there.

Quite a few links saying he had piercing glassy blue eyes, some pages saying although Hitler had brown eyes most germans thought they were blue due to propaganda and even after meeting hilter they swore the eyes they saw were blue, and a whole bunch of sites saying they were brown.

Did a couple image searches - found a bunch of black & white photos, and unlike my grandpa who was blue eyed, his eyes did not have that glassy look that blue eyes have in black & white photos.

I also found a few color photos and using zoom & my handy eye dropper in photoshop the colors are yellows and oranges and browns when I select the iris.

So what color were they really?

Is it just me, or did Robert C. have black contacts in his eyes? Those were the blackest eyes I’ve ever seen.

Originally, the mini-series did have a good bit about Hitler’s childhood, but when it was shown, people started screeching and bleating that showing Hitler’s childhood “humanized him too much.” :rolleyes:

So, the producers changed things and cut out bits here and there.

Facist parties all over the world?

Let’s see, there was Mussolini in Italy, Franco in Spain, Hitler in Germany, and that’s it.

Hardly what I would call “all over the western world.”

Payton’s Servent: There were definetly Fascist parties in the US and UK during the 1930s. The Fascists were also strong in France, being just barely beaten out in the elections by a coalition of the rest. So, yes, there were Fascist parties all over the Western world. They won out spectacularly in three countries, but the movement was spreading.

Yes, Hitler’s rise needs to be taken in the context of the times. If a Hitler-type were to appear today, he’d stick out like a sore thumb. Look at the semi-hysterical media reaction to the right-wing government in Austria, or Le Pen in France – and they’re nowhere near Hitler. But back then, Hitler was but one of many fascists.

And Salazar in Portugal, and Mosely in Britain, and Peron in Argentina, and Salgado in Brazil, and Szalasi in Hungary, and Dolfuss in Austria, and Tsankov in Bulgaria, etc. A lot of countries had fascist parties in the interwar years, and in some cases, such as in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway, when the Germans invaded, they used native fascists to administer the government.

The actor that played Hitler Robert Carlyle had the ferocity angle pretty well down but his physical presence was kind of lacking. He was so small and thin relative to the other beefier actors he looked like a 12 year old playing dress up.

Recgarding Cpl. Hitler’s army days, I understand that his company officer was a jew (a Capt. Hugo Guttman). Is there any evidence that hitler got his hatred for the jews from this commanding officer? Presumably, he (Hitler) had to be recommended for his “Iron Cross” combat decoration-so he had to be on reasonable terms with his C.O.

There is also a “Why Hitler hates Jews” hypothesis that was explored in Salon (I think) about a year or two ago about a fairly influential Jewish university student/teacher he clashed with, and who is rumored to have humilitated him in debates or clashes they had while they were students. I forget the name.

For me, it’s kind of hard to buy that Hitler hated Jews because of any one incident. There may have been things that shaped his actions, I don’t know. But I’d say it’s some personal experience + prevailing cultural attitudes + a big dose of his own psychological issues.

Don’t forget Ante Pavelic and the Ustase in Yugoslavia-they were responsible for the murder of King Aleksandar and Louis Barthou in 1934.

There was also a French fascist party that gathered significant support in the interwar years – particularly on pressing for French families to produce larger numbers of children to replace the huge demographic gap left by the so-called annees creuses. Fascism was certainly not isolated to Italy and Spain.

Even Pilsudski’s regime in Poland is sometimes called fascist.