Customer Reviews

Hitler's War

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

 

 

Hitler's War is a very fast paced documentary which specifically looks at Hitler's strategy and actions from 1940 to his bitter end in 1945. The film consists of mostly real war footage with narration. This is a no-nonsense and at times, confusing coverage of six years of war in less than two hours. It mainly looks at Hitler's plan for war with Russia and its resulting failure. The Russian weather and T34 tank apparently had a big role in holding back Hitler.

Those of you looking for a complete documentary of the war, or who are fairly new to the subject should only use this film as a supplement to other films. It's fast paced look at Hitler's actions may very well go over most peoples heads who are trying to understand the war itself. This somewhat reduces it's emotional impact. There just isn't enough time to contemplate what you have just seen as the next segment comes about.

Most of this film is real war footage. Something I can always appreciate given my disdain for History-Channel style re-enactments.

This film is in two distinct parts. Make sure to come back to the main DVD screen and watch part two when finished with part one.

A correct account of Hitler's raise to power and fall to disgrace

Most of the stock footage I have seen before but there's only so much film to go around. The dialog was eloquent and flawless.

There was rare footage that was excellent that I have not seen before.

I watch Hitler's War every week and see and hear new accounts of the Wars.

I definately have a new view on Hitler and the Nazi's after watching this gripping documentary.

It gets to the heart of Hitlers chronic inability to comprehend the realities of war

Hitler's use of past Germanic War History did not help him when the reality of Barbarossa fell on its Head. Hitler's use of time and space lost the war that he had already won. Thank God for that.

This documentary consists of two parts; the first recounts the ascendancy of Nazi Germany to the domination of Europe while the second tells the story of its downfall following the Russian campaign and the entering of the United States in the War.

The images are gripping and the narration follows them in short sentences and quick style. In it most of the major battles and events are recounted, yet mostly from the perspective of how Hitler viewed them - the title of the documentary is revealing. It is not easy to say that the story told is biased yet I had some qualms while watching it; at first without knowing why but gradually I came to grips with what seemed to me disturbing.

First of all the music: apart from the classic Wagner stuff, there was the elegiac second part of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Now what is wrong with the use of this music? What is wrong is that combined with scenes that show the sublimity of war - because war and especially WWII, despite its cruelty and because of its immensity is a sublime spectacle - e.g. the formation of bombers crowding the English skies or the panzers on the Russian plains, it emphasizes this aspect of war (sublimity)and subtly forces upon the viewer to perceive it as an artistic phenomenon. If this seems far fetched, then what is not is the fact that as the documentary ends by telling a detailed account of the last moments of Hitler and Eva Brown: how Eva Brown in the Bunker sits on the sofa besides Hitler, takes of her shoes, leans her head against him and bites her cyanide capsule while Hitler points his revolver at his right(!) temple - Beethoven's elegiac music is playing while a picture of Hitler is shown on screen and the credits scroll briefly and the picture remains on screen for us as if to pay tribute to this personality. The use of such sublime and mournful music to accompany the recounting of the last moments of one of history's grimmest figures is for me unacceptable. And this subtle attempt at glorification is not unintentional as the end credits reveal: "written by David Irving". David Irving as you might well know is a controversial WWII historian who has been described as pro-nazi and has argued that Hitler was unaware of the mass extermination of Jews, Gipsies and other groups of people. Of course everyone has a right to express his own views, but why not noting on the cover of the dvd by whom this documentary is written. Especially when the writer is such a controversial figure. Instead of that we have the words: "Gripping Drama, Complex Characters, True Stories". If this is not an invocation for pleasure watching, then what is?

The above objection has mainly to do with the form of presentation of the documentary, but there are other objections concerning content also. Emphasis is laid to the fact (?) that Hitler was hoping for a negotiation with the British and that Churchill was the one who stiffened the resolve of his people to fight thereby leading to an escalation of war, while most other nations, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine are portrayed as seeing in Hitler a liberator. This, sided with Hitler's wish to build autobahns from the Urals to the Pyrenees makes one wonder whether Hitler was really such a dark figure as he is usually portraid or whether he was a someone with less gloomy intentions. While acknowledging that Germans mistreated Ukrainians, more emphasis is laid on the atrocities of the Russians when they came to the offensive than those commited by the Germans. Also a remark Hitler made to the effect that Russia was going to be his India is mentioned. For what reason? Could German aggression be excused because Europeans exploited other nations in the past? As far as the Holocaust is concerned, a few images are shown of people gathered for deportation - in not very bad conditions - and something outrageously racist and vague otherwise, is said about the deportation having to be bloody of which we are not told if is a quote from Hitler or not. All this lasts for just a few seconds! Apart from this at one point it is mentioned that there has been some unrest in Germany following the spread of the news concerning the euthanasia project and that Hitler agreed on Goebbels proposed intensification of measures. And the matter is left at that.

While I could not describe this documentary as lying in the sense of telling something untrue -(neither the spectacular support Hitler had from the German people, neither the atrocities of the Russians, nor the bombing of "Europe's most beautiful cities" are lies) - the emphasis laid on the various events recounted lends to my opinion - not overtly though, and maybe this is more dangerous - a pro nazi flavour to the film.

Hitler's War is a very informative documentary. I had seen some of these clips before, but not as good in picture quality as you will see here. You see footage of Hitler giving speeches with English subtitles, which is always interesting to see. Although I disagree with his actions, his bravery and dedication to improving Germany held good intentions (unfortunately, he chose a path of slaughter to reach his goals). Great archival footage of soldiers fighting, planes dropping bombs, Hitler leading his followers, buildings burning, and hostages being shipped away (never to be seen again).

Saw this on PBS years ago,the war as seen through Hitler's view.Lots of good accurate footage used.

This is my third copy of this DVD because I'ma a WW2 Historian. Very long (over 2+ long) and divided into two parts. Great nararrator bot to mention fantastic music (ala Beethove). It will also be useful to students (young and old) over Hitler's madness. For the absurdly low price it is a fine collection to and historians collection. highly recomended (espc. for the low price!)

Needing only a few bucks more to complete a free shipping order, I tacked this on. Normally I read some reviews of a product before I decide to get it, but I skipped it this time. It came back to bite me in the butt. After watching the first of 2 parts I started to get the impression that this was a little different than the war I had had an interest about for 40 some years. Lo and behold the credits revealed it written by a revisionist named David Irving. Had I read a few of the reviews by some of the other very observant participants who purchased this item, I would have skipped it.

There may be some good footage as well as a general overview of the course of the war, but it interjects some subtle "poor Germany" and "vicious Allies". into the narrative. I won't go into much more other than to say save your money and put it towards something like BBC's "The World At War" or Millcreek Entertainment's "War In Europe". Don't let this one come back and bite you in the butt.

The quality and production values are good, but the script is definitely Pro-Hitler. Really that is not what I expected. I was just looking for additional documentaries after purchasing World At War. The script blames the German High Command for mistakes and not much blame is placed on Hitler himself. It also describes the attempt on Hitler's life as "murder" which I think is incorrect. Also the script suggests that Stalin wanted to put together a peace agreement with Germany late in the war, an idea I think shows how off base this documentary is. For the history buff it has some interesting parts, but some of the script is way too pro-Hitler.

Everybody is fed up with WWII documentaries, but this one is a MUST OWN one. I was particularly interested to have it after I found out that the British historian David Irving wrote the script of this documentary. In order to fully appreciate the wealth of information on this DVD, and what makes it different from others, one must first know or find out who David Irving is and what books he wrote (all of them are currently available for download on his publisher's site, some of them still in print, are also available to buy on Amazon).

This is probably one of the best WWII documentaries I've seen. Great footage of a very high quality, some of which I hadn't seen before.

The only caveat is that the entire war is covered in a short two hours. But for students of WWII, this DVD should be used as a good overview, prompting further inquiry into the specifics.