The Gun Counter

My best friend talked me into finally getting netflix on the computer just to see this movie. I cut the cable going on a year ago, just have internet and a landline now, no cell phone either.

The movie is a German movie with english subtitles called "Look Who's Back". The movie takes Hitler from 1945 and just teleports him to the site of the bunker in 2014, he has no idea why or how. And soon he gets his feet firmly grounded and then sets out to pursue his destiny and save Germany by starting the rise to power all over again. Meanwhile everybody thinks he's a method actor/comedian even as he starts gaining a political following. Some of it is funny, some it really makes you think. The people who made this one really ought to get an award from somewhere, it is very well done. I've got the book on the way from Amazon. The original German language edition sold 1.5 million copies in Germany.

In history, most of what you see of Hitler is the big ranting speeches at the party rallies and during the war, such as the speech he made after the British bombed Berlin the first time, and flying into a rages when it was all falling down, etc. You see glimpses of him after he had all that power and was in the process of losing it, and losing his mind to syphilis. But this movie, I think, shows you the superbly skilled politician who went from nobody in a party where he was member 555 and they were lying about members 1-500 to being a dictator in a decade, including jail time for the beer hall revolt.

And I think it portrays just how ripe Germany is for a charismatic, no apologies, GERMAN for GERMANY leader. Since Angela Merkel seems hell bent on making the German people disappear.

Heh. Watch Danger 5 for other glimpses into Hitler you never quite imagined.

The camp is EXTREME in this one, but it is pretty damned funny.

I wonder how he would react to seeing all the Downfall parodies...

This sort of reminds me of an idea I've got rattling around in my head that's basically a WWII docudrama filmed and plotted out like Game of Thrones. It would be similar to Downfall, but from every major leaders perspective and over the course of the lead up to the war, the war itself, and it's immediate aftermath.

In fact I think WWII, if it had not actually happened, would read like a fiction more so than any other war. Bad guys in snazzy uniforms? Super weapons? Risky Battleplans? Dictator surviving over 30 assination attempts? The rise to power and downfall from it? An insane cast of characters? WWII has it all.

Actually, there is a Downfall parody in the movie, a pretty good one. But not Hitler, it is a TV producer guy who is Hitler's enemy and tries to put a political knife in his back. Not because he opposes Hitler, but because he thought he was going to be the boss of the network and instead a woman got picked for it, and then she put Hitler on TV.

Agreed, most folks only know angry ranting Hilter. There's only one known recording of him not doing the angry speechifying; History channel did a documentary about a recording made when he was meeting with the Finnish leader at the time.
Also, a near complete divorce between Hilter and anti-Semitism in the movie. That one percent can best be encapsulated in the exchange "And no making jokes about the Jews." "The Jews are no laughing matter." Take that with as much menace as you will.