The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Directed by Jack Kaufman
Written by Jack Kaufman, Alan Landsberg, etc. from a book by William L. Shirer
1968/USA
IMDb link
First viewing/YouTube
[box] What good fortune for governments that the people do not think. – Adolf Hitler[/box]
Loved the book; liked the movie.
Surely everybody is acquainted with the story of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and his downfall. Narrated by Richard Basehart.
For some reaon, I have to watch all of these things. I live in eternal hope that one will add to my understanding of how people could have been so evil. The search continues to be futile.
The title was irresistible. I love Shirer’s book so much. What makes the book so great is that the author was a Berlin-based correspondent from 1933 to 1940. Later he had unprecedented access to documents seized by the Allies at the end of the War. The result is an intimate and personal perspective on the time.
Despite Shirer’s participation, the film is reminiscent of the many, many documentaries on the same subject. Most of the films seem to rely on the same newsreel footage and/or on scenes directly taken from Leni Reifenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935). This one doesn’t really add a lot to the others.
