Customer Reviews

The Goebbels Experiment

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While the crisp tones of British actor Kenneth Branaugh's reading of Nazi Propaganda Minister Doctor Joseph Goebbels' diary entries might not be the German accent you'd expect, don't let this put you off of what is arguably a fine example of the Doctor's intelligence and brilliance. Coupled with excellent film footage, "The Goebbels Experiment" is nothing but excerpts from Goebbels' diaries (no other narration is used) which reveal the man's obvious intelligence (he was the only intellectual, degreed member of Hitler's court, outside of Albert Speer, who was also vastly intelligent and talented) and his almost superhuman talent for political propaganda.

Throughout his life, Goebbels had been a prolific diarist, and his writings give us a colorful, detailed portrait of his days as Propaganda Minister of the Third Reich. All aspects of his personality - his intelligence, his cunning, his passion for his wife, Magda, and the other women with whom he engaged in sexual liaisons (and they were many) and, of course, his total devotion to the Nazi party and its leader, Adolf Hitler - are revealed "in his own words" without outside comment or censure.

While the Nazi movement was driven in large part by Hitler's will and charisma, it was the words of Dr. Joseph Goebbels that perpetuated the Party images and its myth, coaxing forth the loyalty and blind devotion of the German people until finally rallying them with the doctrine of "Total War" which nearly destroyed Germany completely.

Goebbels has been described by one historian as being the most interesting man in the Nazi party apart from Hitler, and this documentary shows you why. Loathe him though you may, there is no doubt of his genius. Without him, I personally doubt the Nazi movement would have survived as long as it did. It was as much Goebbels' war as Hitler's.

A "must see" for anyone interesting in WWII and Nazi Germany in particular.

This is an amazing film. Don't even know where to start.

- All you hear or watch are either documentaries or Goebbels own words. Of course, the facts can be used out of context etc, but still it's as close to truth as you can get.
- Quality of materials. We usually used to see WWII videos in black and white and it makes you feel disconneted from that time. Here they found some rare color films. It makes big difference!
- Feel the time. You here the sounds of that time, watch scenes from that time, listen to Goebbels own words. Looks like the authors were trying carefully to preserve that experience. The are not trying to give their own opinions or inject anything modern. So it's a very unspoiled view into pre WWII and WWII Germany.
- Great history lesson on propaganda, democracy etc. Some people would be probably surprised to realize that government got it's power in a democratic way by winning a series of elections and it had support from masses. That shows you the limits of democracy.

Overall, one of the best documentary films about that time released in the recent years!

I had never heard of this movie until I saw it in the documentary section at my local Blockbuster the other day. Having long possessed an interest in the Nazi regime, as well as in the ways in which states use propaganda to boster their legitimacy, I decided to pick it up.

The documentary is structured in a rather unique way. It consists of Kenneth Branagh, the narrator, reading excerpts from Goebbels' diary while showing film footage from Goebbels' personal life as well as of the Nazis' rise to power. There is no outside commentary; the entire film is shown from Dr. Goebbels' own perspective. Because of this, the film doesn't provide a lot of background on the political events leading to the Nazis' usurpation of power and the onset of WWII. I think that a person could take away a lot from this movie even without knowing this historical background, but at least a basic knowledge of the Third Reich would definitely augment the experience.

I haven't actually read Goebbel's diaries, but I found the film entrancing. One of the more remarkable aspects of the film was the way in which it revealed Dr. Goebbels' internal contradictions. On the one hand, he was obviously a vile anti-Semite and a vulgar, unabashed proponent of German nationalism. On the other hand, at various times he reveals himself to be a highly cultured individual. His appreciation of cinema and the fine arts, however, is clearly due to his belief that these cultural media could be exploited to advance a particular political agenda, and this is obviously something that Dr. Goebbels' pursued rather successfully.

Without giving away the ending, I can say that the ending of the documentary contained some very disturbing images. I already knew before watching it what the fate of Dr. Goebbels' and his family was, but I was nonetheless shocked and unprepared for the final images.

I wouldn't recommend this film for anybody who is simply looking for a History Channel-style narrative of the rise and fall of the Nazi regime. I would highly recommend the movie for those interested in the ways that regimes exploit propaganda for their own political ends. Additionally, by telling the story from Goebbels' own perspective, the documentary provides an interesting account of why people are drawn to fascist, nationalist ideologies and the political movements that espouse those ideologies.

'The Goebbels Experiment' is a magnificent documentary about the infamous Third Reich Propaganda Minister, Dr. Joseph Goebbels. Kenneth Branaugh is the narrator but where this differs from most documentaries is that instead of using a typical commentary approach, Branaugh solely reads excerpts of Dr. Goebbels extensive diary collection while images and film footage of the Minister roll in the background. This is a unique approach in the fact that it lets Dr. Goebbels essentially speak for himself and it succeeds in juxtaposing his private thoughts and feelings with his public persona. The diary entries begin circa 1924 when Goebbels was basically a discontented nobody, working a low-level job at a bank and oft complaining of depression and lack of purpose in life. He visibly comes to life after he becomes involved in the Nazi party and comes across as a rather happy-go-lucky guy. His admiration of Hitler is evident-"I love him" he says at one point-and the footage of these early party days reveal him as a constantly smiling and rather charming fellow. As the film-and the movement-proceeds, we see Goebbels gradually evolve into the bitter, and cynical propaganda master that he is remembered as. With that said, he seems to have maintained an unwavering loyalty to his Fuhrer and the movement up until the moment of his death.

There is some fantastic black and white film footage of Nazi party rallies and "behind the scenes" events that I have never seen before. Also utilized are a number of nice photographs of Goebbels' and company throughout his life. While I don't think this documentary is for everybody-my wife rolled her eyes when I told her what I was watching-anybody interested in the Third Reich or history in general will no doubt enjoy this film immensely. It is definitely one of the best documentaries on a historical figure that I have seen and it certainly gave me much insight into the mind of one of the most notorious men of the twentieth century.

This is an well conceived and executed film. The vintage footage from the Weimar Republic and Third Reich era is gripping, truly giving one, as an earlier reviewer puts it, a "feel" for the period. The selections from Goebbels' diaries focus on many of the pertinent hallmarks in his life, although it's puzzling that Goebbels' reflections on the concentration and death camps, the Americans (and especially FDR), and Aryanism are completely absent from the film's narrative.

What's especially intriguing about the film is the ambiguity surrounding its title. Just what was the Goebbels experiment? It seems to me that two answers are possible. The first, and perhaps most obvious, is the "experiment" of creating a huge propaganda machine capable of manipulating public opinion. This, of course, is what Goebbels did as Minister of Propaganda. Although he initially resisted the assignment, resentfully believing that he was being side-lined, Goebbels was in pretty much complete control of German radio, propaganda, film, press, and theatre by 1934. He insisted that effective propaganda must be the right mixture of entertainment and information, and recognized the power of dramatic film in manipulating the public (the production of "Kolberg" towards the end of the war is a good example of such manipulation). As he said, "German cinema must conquer the world"--that is, cinema was an effective weapon if properly wielded.

So in one sense, Goebbels' experiment was testing the limits of public credulity, and it can scarcely be denied that his successful tactics changed the relationship between governments and media. But at another level, the Goebbels experiment refers to Goebbel's self-creation. Perhaps his greatest propaganda coup was himself. Suffering through an unhappy, sickly childhood, lonely, alienated from a culture he always referred to disdainfully as petite bourgeois, Goebbels experienced profound and sometimes suicidal depression as a young man. By 1924, he was writing that "my life lacks meaning. What a terrible fate" and "Everything I do goes wrong. No purpose. Nothing to get up for." By 1926, however, he'd found the motivational center of gravity that would give his directionless life some meaning: Hitler and National Socialism. For the next two decades, Goebbels would continue to experience bouts of self-pitying depression. But his allegiance to the "cause" of National Socialism also provided him with the prop he needed to give himself an identity. In seeing how that identity gets built, layer by layer, the viewer can't help but be struck by how powerful the human need for a sense of purposefulness is--a need so compelling, in fact, that it can be satisfied even by the destructive mythology of the Third Reich.

So I saw this was getting fairly high reviews on here and, since I have an interst in the TR and WWII I decided to go ahead and purchase...though the price seemed a little high to me for a single DVD.

Anyhow, this is a unique documetary in that it is alomst entirely (or, maybe it does entirely...) consist of excerpts from Joseph Goebbels diary being read by Kenneth Branaugh. I thought Branaugh did a fine job with his task and I saw a great deal of footage I had never seen previously in any era documentaries I've viewed.

I recommend it really only for those with an interest in the period...not certain this would really do much for the casual documentary fan or WWII or TR enthusiast. I don't give it five stars because I thought it was a little overpriced. Still, I enjoyed it.

"The Goebbels Experiment" is a 107 minute historical documentary focused upon the life and work of Joseph Goebbels, one of the key figures in the Nazi movement that took control of Germany in the late 1930s and was in charge of Hitler's propaganda machine throughout World War II until he took his life rather than fall into the hands of the Russians with the fall of the Third Reich in 1945. Drawing upon rare footage from the archives of German film and television, and interweaving quotations from Goebbels diaries (which he kept from 1924 to 1945) and his recorded speeches, the filmmakers Lutz Hachmeister and Michael Kloft decided not to interject commentary but let Goebbels words and recorded images speak for themselves. The German language is ably narrated in English by Kenneth Branagh. "The Goebbels Experiment" is a superbly produced documentary whose DVD format allows for the addition of Film Notes, Filmmaker Biographies, and a World War II Film Collection Preview. With its underlying message of the danger to a free and democratic society from a monolithic governmental control of the means of communication, "The Goebbels Experiment" is very strongly recommended viewing and a welcome addition to both school and community library video collections.

This is a first-rate and surprisingly original documentary. The main audio track is Kenneth Brannagh reading from (translated) diaries of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazis' propaganda chief -- except when the film cuts to film footage of Goebbels himself, usually from the events being described in the diary entries. The visuals are almost all from stock, newsreel and other surviving footage of the time.

We get to follow the rise and fall of Hitler's regime through the eyes of one of his chief deputies. The film makes clear that one of the Nazis' main weaknesses was an incapability of looking at themselves critically. While Goebbels has plenty of criticism for other Nazis -- Goering, Himmler, et al -- there is no hint that he may have doubted the fundamental idea of German supremacy at any time.

Goebbel's biting, contemptuous criticisms of the English and Americans and how they went about the war are chilling with the hindsight of history. It just drives home how much psychological necessity the Nazi leadership had in thinking others were inferior, how much ideology and hatred were the guiding forces behind German policies of the time, and how little room there was for cold, dispassionate rationality.

As a music fan, I was hoping there would be more -- or even anything at all -- about the Berlin Philharmonic and Wilhelm Furtwangler, its conductor. There isn't. But that's fine.

The diary entries apparently run out a few days before the end. The last we hear of Goebbels is not from his pen, but his last radio speech given as Berlin was under siege. The movie closes with the images of the charred bodies of Goebbels and his wife lying next to their children, whom they had killed with cyanide before committing suicide themselves. The film drives home more than most how pointless the brutality of Nazism really was.

I now own both this edition and the German (Region 2) DVD. The German version has both the original German-language soundtrack and Kenneth Branagh's terrific English Language narration - why the American release of this DVD didn't include the German language track is a mystery, and very unfortunate...

Of all the Nazis, Goebbels was one of the most vile and abhorrent. As the propaganda minster, he was one of the two or three most important Nazis. He was one of the key players in all of the major decisions made domestically by the Nazis (he played a much smaller role in military affairs). This documentary consists almost entirely of Kenneth Branagh reading excerpts from Goebbels's diary, a remarable document that reveals how petty and paranoid and vengeful he was. It is not a full picture of Goebbels, since he clearly is blind to his own foibles and shortcomings. For instance, he speaks repeatedly of how vile he considers the Jews to be, but he had several affairs with beautiful Jewish females. He was also famous among the Nazis for his sexual appetite, something that does not receive full attention here. All in all, this is one of the finest documentaries about the Nazis that I have ever seen, a film that stands out despite a very crowded field. This is without any possible question a must-see film.