Both Douglas Sirk and Fritz Lang made films about the life of one of the greatest war criminals of all time;both were propaganda movies (made in 1943) ; Sirk 's work was closer to history ,but even today,both movies have stood the test of time .They focused on the resistant fighters and on the horrible reprisals (even today , Sirk' movie-John Carradine as Heydrich- seems extremely violent for the time) .But none of them really depicted Heydrich .
HHhH is dominated in its first two thirds by Jason Clark ,the straight-faced man with an iron heart ; its rise to power is depicted in rather succint style,(hardly one minute is given over to the long knives night, a pivotal moment ) but the actor rises to the occasion; the sharp contrast between the horrors he committed and the sweet scenes in which he plays the violin in a duet with his son are striking.
"Madman" was probably not the right epithet,most likely a man who did believe in "Mein Kampf" tenets , and when he straight-faced slaughtered lots and lots of human beings , did think he was working for the future pure generation intended by the precept "ein Volk ,ein Land ,ein Fûhrer".
The last third ,essentially concerning the resistant fighters ,is less convincing and features the obligatory impossible love ; they knew they would not change history ,and they are told that their people would have to suffer from ruthless reprisals ;but they wanted to be first to kill a Nazi dignitary;the last scene is downright embarrassing though .
HHhH is dominated in its first two thirds by Jason Clark ,the straight-faced man with an iron heart ; its rise to power is depicted in rather succint style,(hardly one minute is given over to the long knives night, a pivotal moment ) but the actor rises to the occasion; the sharp contrast between the horrors he committed and the sweet scenes in which he plays the violin in a duet with his son are striking.
"Madman" was probably not the right epithet,most likely a man who did believe in "Mein Kampf" tenets , and when he straight-faced slaughtered lots and lots of human beings , did think he was working for the future pure generation intended by the precept "ein Volk ,ein Land ,ein Fûhrer".
The last third ,essentially concerning the resistant fighters ,is less convincing and features the obligatory impossible love ; they knew they would not change history ,and they are told that their people would have to suffer from ruthless reprisals ;but they wanted to be first to kill a Nazi dignitary;the last scene is downright embarrassing though .