Spring time for Hitler. . .

[catscradle]

I was talking to ari about the possibility of this one day and lo and behold, it has become true. CNN had a report on the controversy surrounding the making of a miniseries on Hitler. Of course, our conversation was more to the point of a movie highlighting Hitler and Eva's love life in much the same way there have been miniseries on Napoleon and Josephine, but I thought the timing was rather amusing. I'd be curious as to why this movie is controversial - a movie looking at the rise to power of a tyrant isn't exactly groundbreaking, it's been done before. And as the report notes, with so many movies out there on the Holocaust, why is this subject any more or less touchy? I suppose it depends on how the subject matter is handled, but the article makes it look as though the point of the movie is to document Hitler's rise to power - which frankly is aired at least once a week on the History Channel in one form or another.

Comments

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Kind of a disappointing article there. It doesn't explain what the controversy is, so I don't know enough to comment on it.

[catscradle.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know. That's why I'm so curious - what the hell is spawning the fury? Thanks for telling us CNN. You're a model of fine journalism. Christ =P

My comment was more to the fact that ari and I were *just* discussing Hitler on a thread of fanfic squicks and what crosses the line. I believe we were wondering if a 100 years from now a movie on Hitler and Eva would be as acceptable as one on Napoleon and Josephine today. Now if this movie focused even a bit on the love of Hitler and Eva, I might see the controversy - but other than that, I can't think of what might cause it. Maybe if National Socialism was paralleled a little too closely to today's patriotism? Hope we have a chance to find out.

[http://users.livejournal.com/ari_/]

I *think* I heard something about the controversy, because somewhere, someone said that Ewan McGregor *might* play Hitler (hm - must have been on M_A, then).

Basically, they want to show the human Hitler, before he became a dictator, and many people were dismayed, because they thought Ewan was sexy, and they said that that would make them like Hitler.

Or something.

I don't have a problem with making Hitler human - there is a very good Austrian author who has written about Hitler's time in Vienna, and he was very human - and somewhat of a failure, to put it nicely. All dictators are human, and that's something important. RL Hitler had women swooning all over him, because for the standards of him time, he was sexy and charismatic.

I'm withholding judgement on what they really want to do until I know more, but Hitler's youth and his twenties (the time he spent in Vienna) are rather important in regards to where he got his ideas from (many racial theories he knew because he was living next to a snall publisher that published magazines with somewhat obscure theories that were all the rage back then).

I doubt they could give him much of a social life - he didn't have one.

[catscradle.livejournal.com]

I have to admit when I read that Ewan might play Hitler I laughed.

But seriously, making Hitler human has been done before. Kurt Vonnegut wrote a book called Deadeye Dick where there main character's father was friends with Hitler back in the Vienna days. I think they might have both been painters - it's been a long time since I read that book. The father had tried to show support by flying a swastika flag on his front porch in some small Ohio town (or midwestern US town). He had no idea his friend had turned into a tyrant. It's a good read.