Hitler: The Rise of Evil (TV Mini-Series) [DVD] [2003]

Robert Carlyle stars as the German dictator during his rise to power in this television miniseries. After spending years as a frustrated artist in Vienna, Adolf Hitler enlists in the German army during the First World War. Embittered by Germany’s defeat, Hitler begins his gradual rise to power in the ranks of the newly-formed National Socialist Party. At the same time, he begins a tortured relationship with his half-niece Geli (Jena Malone), and a more stable relationship with the devoted Eva Braun (Zoe Telford). Meanwhile, commentating on the rise of the invigorated Nazi Party is anti-Nazi journalist Fritz Gerlich (Matthew Modine), compelled to record the growing violence in his country as Hitler achieves the Chancellorship in 1933 and begins to drag Germany into the war that will destroy it.
Starring Robert Carlyle as the Nazi dictator, Hitler: The Rise of Evil is a lavish made-for-TV two-parter that traces Adolf Hitler’s early life, including his boyhood in Austria and impoverished period as a struggling artist in Vienna, culminating in 1934, by which time he had assumed the chancellorship of Germany. We bear witness to the rhetoric, ruthlessness and obsessive determination that propelled him to power, despite the best efforts of opponents like Matthew Modine’s campaigning journalist. His inadequate but despotic relationships with women, such as his tragic half-niece Geli Raubal, are also examined.
Carlyle fares very well in what is traditionally considered the invidious task of bringing Hitler to dramatic life, conveying him plausibly as an impenetrably evil man, complex but irredeemable. However, this drama fails to explain just how and why such a pathetic, psychotic, unattractive individual such as Hitler could make such an immediate, profound impression on, for example, Ernst Hanfstangl and his wife Nina (ER’s Julianne Margulies). Disproportionate attention is paid to Hitler’s relationship to this American-born couple, perhaps as a sop to US audiences. In contrast, the social, cultural and political context of inter-war Germany is skimpily depicted here, making Hitler’s ascendancy seem almost absurd.
On the DVD: Hitler: The Rise of Evil is, as you would expect, a decent transfer from the TV original, but there are no additional features. –David Stubbs