by Mark Demetrius
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Robert Stadlober, Fritz Karl, Franziska Weisz
Intro:
… chilling and effective.
Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, said “I created the myth of the Fuhrer”. It was probably one of the few true statements he ever made. Speaking of which, he also said “the truth is what’s good for the German people”.
This film — which spans the years from 1938 to 1945 — is quite well made and historically accurate. Robert Stadlober is very good as Goebbels, and so is Fritz Karl as Hitler. Starting with the Austrian Anschluss (annexation), it proceeds to tick off most of the major subsequent events: Stalingrad… the initial plans for the Holocaust… the attempted assassination… And it ends, naturally, with the last days in the Berlin bunker and what then happened to Goebbels, his equally fanatical wife Magda (Franziska Weiss) and their six little children.
What makes the movie distinct from most others about the Third Reich and World War Two is that it’s presented — with a cautious if arguably superfluous disclaimer beforehand — from the Nazi perspective. Goebbels comes across as the oily, ingenious and brilliant manipulator he undoubtedly was.
Fuhrer And Seducer wouldn’t win any awards for innovation or imaginative direction — it’s pretty linear and straightforward — but then it’s not there to be artistic. The only trouble is that most people who see it will be very conversant with the history — and those who aren’t may not go. Still, it’s chilling and effective.
Be warned. The drama here is interspersed with heavy and graphic (black and white) actual footage. As it should be.
