Recently, I came into contact with an CBS drama called "Hitler: The Rise of Evil". The title alone is indicative of the level of bias that permeates this woeful attempt at a docu-drama. I was watching this in History class, of all things - which is akin to showing a Nazi racial science video in Biology. Basically, it chronicles the life of Hitler up to him becoming Chancellor in 1933. Ostensibly a docu-drama about Hitler's early life and originally known as "Hitler: The Early Years", the title was changed because people started complaining that someone might - gasp - attempt to portray Hitler as slightly less than Satan incarnate! And so, apparantly, was the script.
The biographer they hired as a consultant requested to have his name removed from the TV series, and it is easy to see why. There are Saturday Morning childrens' shows that feature more fleshed-out characters. Hitler, who should - according to the title - be the designated protagonist actually ends up as the antagonist, with a journalist (Fritz Gerlich) taking centre stage. Gerlich is a Mary Sue of epic proportions, seeming to be the only man in the whole of Germany actually opposed to the NSDAP. All his scenes basically consist of him trying to bring Hitler down while being impeded by his obstructive editor-in-chief because HE JUST CAN'T SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE, GOD DAMNIT!
Since Hitler is supposed to be the focus of this tale, it seems appropriate to start off by saying just how pathetic his characterisation is. It seems that the writers decided to base Hitler's personality purely off his appearance in "Captain Planet and the Planeteers" - complete with Hitler Death Stare™! Everything Hitler says and does is accompanied by ominous background music, just so the audience can remember that the anti-Semitic Fascist may have been - you know - a bit of a jerk. Furthermore, Hitler doesn't seem to be capable of having normal conversations or, indeed, of having emotions; all his dialogue is ripped straight from a James Bond villain - and not one of the good ones, either. If this was a Hollywood blockbuster, this villain would have been merely uninspired. As an allegedly faithful docu-drama, it is downright insulting to both history and the intelligence of the viewers.
To paraphrase the great Yahtzee Croshaw, apparantly the real-life Nazis weren't evil enough for the writers. So they decided to ignore that whole annoying "historical basis" nonsense to ham up their evil to epic proportions. Forget about that Hitler who owned a dog, hated hunting and implemented animal safety laws - say hello to the Hitler who mutilates animals as a child and kicks his dog as an adult! Gone is the Hitler who won the Iron Cross for several acts of genuine bravery during the First World War - our Hitler simply whined and begged for one until he received it! Say adios to the Hitler who had an authoritarian yet caring attitude towards his niece - we all know that he was actually sexually abusing her instead!
As you may have gathered, this POS is rife with historical inaccuracies. In fact, Wikipedia has an entire section for them; ranging from the relatively innocuous, like using the wrong ribbons for German uniforms, to the horrific, like the aforementioned fictional sexual abuse. What could have been an informative, insightful drama about the rise of the Nazis instead descends into farce. Even with its black-and-white moralising notwithstanding, it simply fails to even explain why Hitler became so popular. Why did the NSDAP begin to win more seats? Because every German was just a big anti-Semite, of course! The Great Depression - which caused the number of Nazi seats in the Reichstag to rocket from 12 in 1929 to 288 in late 1933 - is mentioned for all of twenty seconds. Anti-Communist sentiment gets an even smaller mention, with no mention of the fact that the Weimar Republic was as likely to fall to Communism in 1933 as it was to Nazism. All of Hitler's other rhetoric - repealling the harsh Treaty of Versailles, restoring Germany as a great power, condemnation of political unrest - is ignored in favour of his anti-Semitic rants. Again, because viewers apparantly need reminding that one of the orchestrators of the Holocaust wasn't too fond of the Jews.
In short, it fails as both an entertaining drama, due to its uninspired acting and poor character development, and as a historical documentary. It is fitting that the TV series is preceded and succeeded by a title card "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing", with the quote being (wrongly) attributed to Edmund Burke; this is an inaccurate piece which sacrifices all historical integrity in favour of demonising the Nazis - and by extension, the German public - to cartoonish levels of malevolence. This is to "Downfall" what "Pearl Harbour" is to "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
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So yeah. What does anyone else think about this