Customer Reviews

Hitler: A Career

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The 1977 documentary Hitler: A career (original German: Hitler: Eine Karriere) is widely regarded as one of the best (and some would say the best) documentaries on that evil man. Written by Joachim C. Fest (who also authored the book Hitler, 1973 German, 1974 English), directed by Fest & Christian Herrendoerfer, and well narrated by British actor Stephen Murray, the 151-minute documentary offers an in-depth look (4:3 format in B&W, with some color) at Hitler's rise to power and his consolidation of it during the 1930s. Although there are scenes of warfare, this is not stressed per se but rather used as a context for sociological, political, and military events.

Extras on this excellent DVD are minimal: a photo gallery with pics sans date or context; ads for 12 other First-Run DVDs, including 3 trailers.

I bought Hitler: A career (1977) in 6/08 and after watching it decided to view the 2003 TV movie Hitler: The rise of evil (2 DVDs), which I had purchased in 11/07. Image my surprise to find the complete documentary Hitler: A career as an extra on disk 2 of the movie Hitler: The rise of evil. Hitler - The Rise of Evil

RECOMMENDATION: Do NOT buy Hitler: A career (1977), which has minimal extras as noted above. INSTEAD, buy Hitler: The rise of evil (2003), which not only has the movie but also the 1977 documentary. Although the movie DVD (Rise of evil) and documentary DVD (Career) list for the same price, used copies of Rise of evil are much less expensive than used DVDs of Career.

Agree with Mr. Lassen's detailed review. This is a great documentary, well executed, and with great use of lots of archive footage...some of it rare. This was previously available on DVD from a small company at a much higher price...glad to see that it has now been picked up by a more mainstream distributor. More people should see this film to better understand the evil that men do.

A very detailed look at Hitler's rise from a German perspective. Focuses less on the war than the rise to political power. Lots of rare footage. Highly recommended.

Good footage, and overall a o.k. documentary, but the moments of unscholarly and silly slander in the commentary are too frequent to warrant owning this.

There are many WW2/Nazi documentaries, and this one is a good example of why so many people think they can do it better.

I borrowed this from the library. Glad I didn't purchase it.
I don't think the cause of the rise of fascism in Germany can be so easily explained as is attempted here. As so sagely said by 19th century social critic, Alexis de Tocqueville: "the public will believe a simple lie rather than a complex truth".
This wise perception applied as much to Germany in the thirties as much as it does today to us.
Ironically it also applies very aptly to this documentary.
Otherwise if the thesis presented in this documentary were accurate how to explain why and how fascism gained such popular support elsewhere in Europe (Britain with Moseley, Spain with Franco and Italy with Mussolini)?
To suggest that the Germans were so very different to every other nationality in Europe in the forties, as Joachim attempts to do in this documentary, seems to me like some form of self-denial.
And that we still today fall into the same failing that Tocqueville discerned is evident by the rave reviews this DVD has been given. i.e we still haven't learned the lesson.

The reason why Germany was particularly ripe for fascism is better explained by the unjust and humiliating Treaty of Versailles, which stripped it of its colonies and forced it to compensate the allies for war damages, thus plunging it into a major economic crisis.

Both Italy and Germany, (the one a "winner" and the other a loser in WW1), were both bitter about the Treaty of Versailles and anxious to reverse its verdict.

If you want an accurate analysis of the rise of Hitler and Fascism in Germany then this I regard as so deeply, deeply flawed that despite its fine collection of footage, it gives a distorted and superficial understanding that I regard as worse than no clear understanding.

As written by another reviewer this documentary is just more inaccurate propaganda that resorts to easy demonisation of Hitler and Nazi Germany without giving any proper understanding of the rise of each.

It's not easy to cover the entire career of this man in 2 1/2 hours, but this film does a pretty good job of it. Hitler A Career gives new insight into Hitlers actions, and also some footage I have not seen before.

I would not use this film as a complete look at Hitler and his party, but rather an addition to other films about him and the war. I have several documentaries about the war and if you really want to put it all together then you will need to do the same.

That said, I highly reccomend this dvd although I find the price a little higher than what I would have liked.

ALAONG THE LINE OF WORLD AT WAR. IF YOU LIKED THAT SERIES, YOU'LL FIND THIS DVD VERY INTERESTING INDEED.
PAPA C

Pretty good. Very interesting footage I'd never seen before. Had to cover a lot of ground quickly but as an insight into AH's personality it was fairly good. I'd also recommend the book "Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics" by Frederic Spotts. I was surprised at one error. It was stated that 6 million people died in the camps. Actually number is difficult but generally is considered to be over 11 million.