Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 A “good war” no more: The new World War II revisionism
- 2 From history to memory and back again: Debating the Holocaust’s uniqueness
- 3 Probing the limits of speculation: Counterfactualism and the Holocaust
- 4 Nazis that never were: new alternate histories of the Third Reich
- 5 Humanizing Hitler: the Führer in contemporary film
- 6 Between tragedy and farce: Nazism on the Internet
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Humanizing Hitler: the Führer in contemporary film
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 A “good war” no more: The new World War II revisionism
- 2 From history to memory and back again: Debating the Holocaust’s uniqueness
- 3 Probing the limits of speculation: Counterfactualism and the Holocaust
- 4 Nazis that never were: new alternate histories of the Third Reich
- 5 Humanizing Hitler: the Führer in contemporary film
- 6 Between tragedy and farce: Nazism on the Internet
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
‘You’re an awfully hard man to like,
Hitler, but I’m going to try.’
German Jewish art dealer Max Rothman’s exasperated remark to the struggling artist, Adolf Hitler, in the 2002 film, Max, highlights an important new trend in recent cinematic representations of the Nazi dictator. Since the turn of the millennium, there has been a notable surge of films featuring Hitler. Directed by an array of American and European filmmakers, these films have focused on several aspects of the Führer’s life. Some, such as Hitler – The Rise of Evil (2003) and Mein Kampf (2009), have followed the lead of Max and concentrated on Hitler’s early years. Others, such as Downfall (2004), Mein Führer (2007), and Inglourious Basterds (2009), have portrayed Hitler’s last days, examining the circumstances that precede his death. These films have differed substantially in style. Some have aimed for documentary authenticity, while others have embraced historical fiction. Some have adopted the narrative trope of tragedy, while others have pursued the path of comedy. No matter how much they have varied in their subject or method of representation, however, most of the films have been linked, to one degree or another, by their attempt to humanize Hitler. Like Max Rothman, the directors of these films have tried to overcome their distaste for the Nazi dictator in order to understand him.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Hi Hitler!How the Nazi Past is Being Normalized in Contemporary Culture, pp. 234 - 291Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014