My Führer (2007) User Reviews

Worth seeing for how different and unique it all is

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 25 December 2016]

"Mein Führer - Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler" or "Mein Führer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler" or just "My Führer" is a German German-language movie from 2007, so only a couple more weeks and this one will have its 10th anniversary. The writer and director of this 90-minute film is Swiss filmmaker Dani Levy. The title already tells you what to expect here. Or does it really. Yes it is a film about Adolf Hitler, but it is really a fictitious film that has nothing to do with reality. When I tell you that Hitler in here is played by Helge Schneider, you should already know what to expect basically. Yes there are serious moments in here like mentions of concentration camps and other stuff, but they only way to enjoy this one is really only if you see it as a comedy for the most part. It is mostly worth seeing for how absurd it all is. Hitler suffers from burnout and lacks his usual power and determination. So Goebbels gets a Jewish artist/actor out of a concentration camp so that he can revive the old spirit in Hitler. Why a Jew you wonder? They explained that in the film as well because a Jew is the only one who can really evoke true emotion in Hitler because of how much he hates them. Does it really make sense? I doubt it. But that's not a problem at all as if there is one thing this film is not trying to be, then it would be to make sense.

It is all about giving us a different fictitious take on the subject and this idea makes a lot of sense. There are so many Hitler movies that try to be all accurate and realistic, but film is always about creative fiction as well, so why is it so underrepresented when it comes to depicting historic events? This is a different perspective here and as such it is indeed very refreshing. Yes not every joke is a true winner, but that's never the case for a comedy film anyway. I found it easy to appreciate this one for what it is and there were actually some really funny scenes like the one when Hitler impersonates a dog and his dog wants to jump on him and the Nazi officer is watching. Or the ending is also pretty good. Let me just say "Heal yourself." I think they chose a good way in making fun of the Führer throughout the entire movie and to show that there is another better response to him than fighting violence and cruelty with violence and cruelty. So yes, this film definitely has a good message as well. And completely aside from the story, it cannot be ignored that this film includes actors like Groth, Noethen, Schneider, Mühe and others and that is a cast that cannot be denied its talent. I personally do not like Katja Riemann, so I am glad she had almost no screen time despite playing such an important character. Oh well, I guess Eva Braun really isn't that important at all in this film here. She does hardly play a role at all.

All in all, like I already said, it is crucial that you approach this movie with the right idea. Then I am sure you also will not find it offensive. And if you take a look at Dani Levy's own religious background and understand that he is the man in charge, then there is no reason to be offended anyway I think. I believe this film was a good satire that rarely offers greatness, but gets more and more interesting the longer it goes on and has some truly hilarious scenes. People may ask if this film should be allowed and my response would be a resounding: Yes! I recommend checking it out and it's another example for me that Helge Schneider is really never a miss for me, regardless of him starring in his own movies or "only" acting. He also proved that he can easily hold his own against Germany's acting elite if he has to and I think he was a great choice for Hitler here. I am of course a bit biased when it comes to Schneider. But still, this movie was a hilarious watch, also very essential with this runtime and never drags, probably closer to a ****/***** than a **/***** for me and you really need to check it out.

intelligent Hitler parody

[ella_rebella · 7/10 · 6 January 2007]

I thought about leaving the sneak preview theater, because I wasn't sure if I could stand Helge Schneider as Hitler. I personally dislike Helge Schneider movies. But i'm happy i gave it a second thought when i noticed that it is a Dani Levy movie. I think Levy is an excellent director.

The movie seems to be a low budget production due to the crappy CGI work but nonetheless, it's a good satire dealing with a serious topic in the right way... i think satire is an appropriate approach to deal with the person Hitler was. compared to "Der Untergang", which made Hitler a piece of "pop-culture" and tried to portray his character as real as possible, this movie criticizes that and fascism with black humor, sarcasm and creativity.

Sometimes i found it quite Chaplin-esk (you know "the great dictator") and that's not a bad reference. I was surprised Helge Schneider's performance was decent and not as stupid as in "Praxis Dr. Hasenbein" (no offense to Schneider fans, but i couldn't sit through that movie, so i turned it off after 30 minutes). Schneider is a good musician though.

Ulrich Mühe's performance is great as usual. Dr. Adolf Grünbaum is an actor who gets out of the concentration camp Sachsenhausen due to the order to teach Hitler the art of acting, to perform his speeches right to seduce the masses and make them believe they still could win the war. But Hitler lost faith in the over all victory, so it's a tough job for Grünbaum. Hitler is pretty neurotic and a bed-wetter, who was beaten up by his father. Which makes it hard for Grünbaum to simply kill Hitler, when he got the chance. Although this might sound like a flat comedy, it's really not! It's a satire, and satire hurts sometimes, like reality does.

I really liked the other actors, who played Hitler's staff officers. It was Goebbels i liked most. Kudos to the casting, because in this movie the audience hasn't the problem that it's hard to distinct one staff officer from another like in "Der Untergang". They really got different characters.

All in all, go watch this movie. It's pretty refreshing after the hype around "Der Untergang".

Not bad

[a_mobbs · 6/10 · 28 May 2019]

It's a bit odd, a bit quirky and amusing rather than funny but it's worth a watch.

Poor Helge

[adiradathel · 13 January 2007]

Surprisingly, a lot of controversy has started around it in Germany. Many Jewish NGOs and notable persons like Marcel Reich-Ranicki criticize this movie, saying that making a Hitler-Satire offends the memory of all those lives murdered in WWII. They say, this movie ridicules Hitler's evil and therefore makes him human (Err, what else was he? Elephant?) PC-drivel. I couldn't care less.

The problem with this comedy is, it is not funny. Levy was obviously concerned about exactly these reactions and therefore included a morality play about Gruenbaum's attitude and difficulties. This in itself is a bad idea, but it sinks this wreck of a movie even faster by being overemphasized with no end.

To make a biting satire about Hitler, you have to go all the way like "To be or not to Be" did. If you're not the man to do it, don't try.

Awful, boring, not funny, hypocritical, totally irrelevant and definitely not recommended. I am not a friend of Helge's surreal antics, but he didn't deserve to sink in this tripe.

Neither fish nor meat - just Levy

[RudiRe · 2/10 · 13 March 2008]

This movie wants to be a funny satire, but it's just a piece of embarrassing garbage.

Camera, music and set design are very good, yet each of the actors seems to have another definition of comedy and the director was unable to communicate them HIS sense of it. Topsy-Turvy in the ensemble, although some good German actors do their best (esp. Ulrich Mühe).

The absolute disaster is the screenplay. Neither comedy nor drama, it keeps searching for an identity. That's why the whole movie fails - Neither fish nor meat - just another silly joke-ridden but unfunny, pseudo-operatic flop by Dany Levy as so many before.

Chaplin (The Great Dictator) and Mel Brooks (The Producers - Frühling für Hitler) have achieved with ease, what this movie tries hard but doesn't convey at all.

Dany Levy still has to learn a very important film school lesson - screen writing (and in part directing) is just not his cup of tea.

He's much better in fund raising money for (his) movies than making them.

As most Levy movies, they are a waste of the German taxpayers money, funded by costly German TV-stations and funds of various state-departments.

Good true story about 2 adolfs

[keatsa-kassa · 7/10 · 4 May 2021]

Imagine this as a big piece of cake top with comedy and end with drama.

Half a comedy

[praunss · 3/10 · 26 January 2007]

As I heard, that there will be a new comedy about the king of villains, I was positively surprised. In Addition to that, Helge Schneider, a discussable but in my eyes brilliant comedian was chosen to play the "Führer". Unfortunately, I had to recognize, that this movie was not, what I had in mind. Instead of creating an outstanding satire about the history of Germany and its development in our minds, they just couldn't manage to cross the border of moral standards founded in our own history school lessons. Not able to make real fun out of it, it seems that they just shot another movie to strengthen old-fashioned prejudices and long lasting jokes about the misuse of the word "Heil", at which has been laughed for about nearly 60 years now. Concerning these redundant lacks in satire, it is necessary to warn especially German viewers: it's not really funny, believe me !

Black comedy or farce? Make up your mind already!

[not_john_cleese · 7/10 · 19 January 2008]

I just watched this movie in German and without subtitles (i.e., even though my German is "anständig" I may have missed a few jokes). I find it difficult to get a grip on the movie. I think it would have worked if it had been purely a black comedy but somehow the director inserted farcical elements (such as the constant "Heil Hitler"-ing and the recurring ado about bureaucratic procedures). This may have been done to attract a larger (or different) audience but it didn't exactly benefit the movie. If it had been cast in the form of a low-key but biting (black) satire it would have been a far better movie. I give it a 7 for what it could have been (if it had been a brilliant black comedy, it might have scored a 9).

Interestingly, for me "Der Untergang" was never the great movie it could have been either for essentially the same reason. In my opinion, the latter movie should have focused exclusively on the psychology and claustrophobia in the bunker during the final days of the Third Reich. It could even have ended with Hitler and Eva Braun retreating. All the "above-ground" scenes were superfluous and indeed distracted from the drama that was going on below-ground. As in the case of "Mein Führer", one cannot help but wonder if this was done purely to attract a larger (or different) audience.

What a waste of time!

[stFun · 1/10 · 9 January 2007]

I was really looking forward to this movie but after having seen it, I was quite disappointed. Helge Schneider did some good acting and the also the idea of making a Hitler parody with him is great, but due to using only some old stereotype jokes instead of trying to benefit of Schneiders performance as a depressive and impotent dictator, "Mein Führer" presents itself as a boring attempt to benefit of the popularity and success of "Der Untergang". Nearly all the other characters seem to exist without a purpose. The don't contribute to the story in any sense besides making up some kind of conspiracy or being trapped in silly jokes. A sad example is the role of the "Reichsinnenminister": Himmlers part is reduced to standing around with his right arm being injured and forced to be stretched out, what a waste of Ulrich Noethens potential as an actor. I would have hoped for the movie to be more daring instead of relying on save politically correct jokes that were already used by many other previous directors.

You don't have to see it

[Blohmi · 2/10 · 20 January 2007]

I just went into this movie because of Helge Schneider and the big echo in the press, but what I saw was really boring: There was no deeper sense in the movie, Hitler has had parts of a small Baby, and it was not really funny. He tried to be funny and to make a movie with a lot of sense and higher interpretations of Hitler and his crazy actions, but not a single part of these was actually OK. So there are just 2 points from me for Dani Levi. Now I can understand, why Helge Schroeder has already said to the press, that he didn't agreed with Levi's understatement of the movie and the role of Hitler.

You should better watch Chaplins "The great dictator".

Smart if YOU are smart

[rkmille-30083 · 9/10 · 1 February 2017]

As the world is going through a new wave of nationalism, this movie reminds us that when times are tough, any racist, antisemitic or xenophobic extreme bigot can be elected and brought to the head of any country. Germans were probably the most educated people when Hitler was brought to power. Yet... so it is good to ridicule the myth of Hitler as a tough guy who ruled his Reich. The guy was rarely doing the dirty job himself. Making a movie about anything linked to the holocaust is not easy and I believe they found the right balance between comic and tragic. Your laugh will be coloured with a lot of philosophy and tragic while watching it. To all the neo-Nazis nostalgic of that time, do you still want to be associated with THAT?! do you have this little dignity? think twice...

Sort of like "The King's Speech"...but it's a comedy with Hitler...and it's not at all funny.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 15 April 2011]

While I like anachronistic comedies and have a high tolerance for the offensive, this film certainly is not for everyone. In fact, I wonder if it's for anyone! Who would enjoy a film that purports to be a comedy but often seems like it's trying to shed a better light on Adolf Hitler--to make him a vulnerable and even pitiable man?! Sure, films like "The Producers" and "The Great Dictator" have managed to poke fun at the Nazis and Hitler and succeeded....but "My Fuhrer" is certainly not in the same league a these classics.

The film is a fantasy set in January 1945--just months before the end of WWII. A Jewish prisoner is summoned from his death camp to, of all things, work with Hitler directly--and to coach him for an upcoming film. Instead of the broken man he has become, his Propaganda Minister (Goebbels) claims to want to have this Jewish acting coach help the Fuhrer to find his former strength. And so Hitler and Dr. Adolf Grünbaum work together--and in the process learn to need each other. Scenes where Hitler cries about his abusive childhood, talks about how the Final Solution wasn't really his idea and calls the Doctor his "Jewish friend" are very surreal--and in really bad taste. In another warm and fuzzy scene, Hitler visits the Doctor and his family late at night and soon is invited into bed to snuggle with them--and you think "My God--what are the film makers thinking?!?!". Sure, there's a bit more to the film than this (including a few interesting psychological insights into the man)..but mostly it's a film that seems to be saying that Hitler is not exactly the monster we all think he was--he had a 'nice' side or at least one not all that rotten.

The bottom line is that this is a highly offensive and dumb film. Trying to put a nicer face on Naziism seems gross--because it is. While technically reasonably well made, it's just gross and the film is probably not worth your time unless you are VERY curious and can allow yourself to watch the film without being overwhelmed with anger as well as not mind that it isn't at all funny--which is a problem, since it was intended as a comedy.

By the way, the film repeats a historically inaccurate 'fact' that many hope is true--that he's part Jewish himself. This actually was a rumor started by the British during the war to discredit the crazy leader. It is a fact we want to believe but there just isn't much evidence to support it.

More squirming than laughing in this misguided comedy

[LCShackley · 5/10 · 18 January 2012]

The movie poster and description might lead you to believe that this was a joke-a-minute "Springtime for Hitler" comedy. But it's not. It's really more like the Nazi version of "The King's Speech," with a supposedly famed Jewish actor being forced to help Hitler make a key speech in Berlin late in the war.

I suppose there might have been a way to make this succeed as a drama, but the creators chose to go the comedy route, and there are far too many squirm-inducing scenes of questionable taste for it to be genuinely funny. I will admit that there are some humorous bits: Hitler playing with a battleship in the tub, Hitler singing a love song while accompanying himself on the Hammond organ, Hitler giving a speech in a "borrowed" mustache; but they don't make up for the "jokes" about gas chambers, "dirty Jews," etc. The writer also seems to think that watching guys say "Heil Hitler" is funny in itself. There are poignant moments involving the Jewish actor's family, and one especially good scene in which he talks on the phone to a friend who's in a concentration camp. But then we jump back to more tasteless humor.

The climactic scene has some funny lines, but the way it plays out throws a bucket of cold water on the entire project. Don't watch this if you are expecting a light comedy, or even a well-made dark comedy. If you want to laugh at Nazis, watch Mel Brooks.

Strange Movie

[heike-23 · 4/10 · 17 March 2008]

OK.. first I have to say, that you shouldn't watch this movie, if you have not enough knowledge about the cruelty and sadness of this time. Sure its a satiric movie, but in a very dangerous way, including some of the quotes and speeches. Hitler is described as a pitiful, poor boy who was mistreated by his dad and has no control about the things going on around him.

After a while, the movie gets a little bit boring. You start to count the days, Grünbaum is working with Hitler. It seems endless.

Helge Schneider acts in an interesting way. His face is stiff and motionless most of the time, but he imitates the voice of Hitler very good.

in the shade of the Great Dictator

[dromasca · 5/10 · 24 April 2009]

Dani Levy's film is one of the first German films approaching the figure of Adolf Hitler and the last months of his reign in a comic register. The memory of Charlie Chaplin's masterpiece immediately comes to mind, as in both films we deal with one single simple man having the chance to penetrate into the higher circles of the dictatorship, and in both films Hitler's sinister character is dealt with in a furiously comic manner.

Levy's tentative is not very successful. The director does not seem to have made his mind about the register of approaching the historical facts, he is mixing the gross character satire with the historical melodrama. Some of the comical gags are too direct and too expected, and it falls to the melodramatic counterpoint of the story to counterpoint the overall tone. Here the big chance of the film is to have Ulrich Mühe distributed in his last important role, of the Jewish director and professor of acting who is charged no less but to saving the Third Reich by coaching Hitler in regaining his self-assurance and giving one of his historical speeches that could revive the faith of the German people and turn back the destiny of the war. While Hitler is pathetically portrayed as a madman in self-delusion and nervous breakdown, Ulrich Mühe's Prof. Adolf Israel Grünbaum is almost realistic, superb in the humanity of the humble man who is saving his own humanity and the whole humanity in his sacrifice. If it was only for this last opportunity to see this great German actor, 'Mein Fuhrer' is worth seeing.

A precursor to Jo Jo Rabbit

[chriskowalchuk · 1 December 2020]

A different take on the Hitler history in World War II - strong performances by the lead actors and a straight plot line mixed with tragedy and humour make for an engaging film. Like the later movie JoJo rabbit the fuhrer depicts Hitler in a way that can make it sympathetic and humanize him. The Dilemma of Grunbaum and his family provides juxtaposition to be empathetic portrayal, the ending gives a gravitas to the story

it's not funny and has nothing to do with reality

[a-j-rogge · 1/10 · 2 February 2009]

This is really an awful movie. The director, who also wrote the script, Dani Levy did a incredibly stupid job. I still wonder how he god money from German fonds for this script. I think in general, that he is overrated ("Alles auf Zucker" is anything but interesting or funny) but this is even though a huge disappointment. First of all the plot is far from any reality. There never was any Jew who had to help Hitler overcome his depressions. Also Hitler was not observed by Goebbels and Co. He also never wanted to flee. His hole character is wrong. This Hitler is just not the real Hitler. This film gives the impression of a nice Hitler who was not responsible for anything. Just a poor guy in a bad situation. That Helge Schneider said in public that this movie is not good, says everything.

What I don't get is the lack of ideas in this film. The Nazis and the second world war give plenty of possibilities to make funny scenes of it. Levi must be a very unintelligent and uninterested person.

Also the camera work is really bad.

A blend of comedy, irony, slapstick - and an underlying seriousness

[RKBlumenau · 8/10 · 25 November 2007]

I went to see this film with mixed anticipation because it was said to be a comedy about Hitler; but it had the great late actor Ulrich Muehe in it, and I was intrigued by what I had read about the plot of this film: a few days before the end of the war Hitler is a nervous wreck and incapable of making the inspiring speech which Goebbels has written for him. He needs coaching by an actor, and it must be someone who can rouse him to new heights of hatred which Hitler's favourite actors are said not to be able to do. So Goebbels gets a formerly famous Jewish drama teacher, Professor Gruenbaum, released from Sachsenhausen concentration camp with the task of coaching Hitler.

The acting was superb: Muehe's as Gruenbaum, of course, and also Helge Schneider's as Hitler, Sylvester Groth's as a smooth Goebbels, Ulrich Noethe's as Himmler (though it was surely unnecessary to have him have his arm strapped in a permanent Hitler salute), Stephan Kurt's as Albrecht Speer (not at all shown as the least guilty of the Nazis; and the members of Gruenbaum's family: Adriana Altaras' as his wife and Shawn Karlborg as his eldest teenage son. The production was also first class - excellent photography and absolute clarity of diction.

I think the film works very well except on the several occasions when the 'comedy' ('irony' would be a better word) tips over into slapstick which really should have been cut, both from the point of view of good taste and also because I think they weaken the film. The way in which Gruenbaum gradually acquires mastery over Hitler is beautifully paced and in terms of the film is even psychologically credible. Of course Gruenbaum, urged on by his wife, should use the opportunity of being so near to Hitler to kill him, and he twice comes near to do it; but in the end of course he doesn't - too proud of his success as a coach? And how does one end such a film? The climax is well staged, but doesn't, I think, quite come off.

With the reservations I have, I am glad I saw the film. There was little laughter during the showing I attended - and I think that was right and not a criticism of the film: the slapstick didn't deserve it, and the 'comedy' had of course underlying it a serious idea which forbids laughter.

Repulsive crap

[hasosch · 1/10 · 23 January 2010]

is probably the only adequate description for this movie whose main intellectual contribution is to portray Adolf Hitler as a „bedwetter, impotent and depressive". Neither the glorious beginning – the old joke based on the difference between the exclamation „Hail" and the verb „to heal" – nor the end, when the Führer is obviously not realizing anymore what Grünbaum lays in his mouth in occasion of his Big Speech - are remotely funny. However, I would by no means say that the nauseating hopping-around of the „Great Dictator" alias Chaplin was funnier. What I say, is: Put Herbert Achternbusch's „The Last Hole" finally (after almost 20 years) on DVD and observe the Nile's journey from the physician who describes him one schnapps in order to forget one Jew until his suicide in the Vulcano Stromboli, equipped solely with a war helmet, a tennis-racket and an amulet in which Last Susn has admitted him her eternal love.

Missing the point

[kneiss1 · 2/10 · 20 September 2010]

When it comes to movies, this is one of the biggest disappointments I ever had to experience. Maybe I have been expecting way too much from this movie. I expected it to be funny, intelligent or at least interesting. - It was neither.

I would have been fine with a comedy movie about Hitler. I find those usually very funny. But this movie wasn't funny at all. I would have been happy with a crazy satire. But it's also hard to accept it as a satire. The critical tone is there. It has a paradic element, and characters are exaggerated. So I guess, defining this movie as a satire would come the closest. But then, I wonder what it wants to criticize. Because the whole world agrees on Hitler and Nazis being bad and evil. Where is the "point" of making this movie?

Actually, now that I think of it, characters are more ridiculed, less exaggerated. To be satirical, you need to exaggerate characters, right? To me it seemed, that they simply made up new Characters. Ridicules characters, that barely have anything to do with the real historical people. Simply ridiculing characters is the job of comedy, not parody - right? For a comedy movie though, this movie simply isn't funny enough.

So this movie is neither a satire, nor comedy. I felt like waisting my time completely. I haven't been amused, I haven't been entertained, I didn't learn something, gosh, I wasn't even moved emotionally in any way. And that is the no.1 purpose of a movie in my opinion. This movie simply passed by, without leaving anything behind.

Unfunny comedy about Nazism, offensive as well

[Andy-296 · 3/10 · 19 February 2011]

Germany 1944. As World War II enters its final stage and Berlin itself is under heavy bombardment, a worried Joseph Goebbels decides to retrieve from a concentration camp one Adolf Grunbaum, a once famous Jewish actor, so that he can train Hitler to give better speeches (???) that would boost the morale of the Germans. Or something like that. And this is just the beginning, since the movie becomes more and more absurd, as the actor becomes some sort of psychoanalyst to the Fuhrer (talk about stereotypes, the character of Grunbaum has Weak Jew written all over it). Reportedly, the director decided to make this film after seeing Downfall and feeling that Hitler and the other Nazi top leaders were respected too much in that movie. He wanted to make a comedy where Hitler would be ridiculed. One can see this intention from the start, when Hitler is shown in a grotesque makeup. Fair enough. I have no problem with a movie mocking Hitler. The problem, I see, is that the plot is offensive and ridiculous. You just can't mix the Holocaust with a comedy. The great Dictator looks terrible now, but Chaplin at least has the excuse that he filmed it before the Holocaust. To give an idea, in its "let's have a humor out of the third Reich" theme, it's as offensive as Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful. And the fact that the director of this is Jewish itself can hardly justify it. Note: playing Grunbaum is the actor who was the Stasi officer in The Lives of Others. Sadly, soon after this film was released he died of cancer.

Too soon?

[Nevergivea10 · 5/10 · 15 May 2022]

I was surprised to see a satirical comedy about the Nazis. I was even more surprised to see it was from Germany. You'll get a few laughs. It's unique but average.

Great tragic comedy, a must see

[heywood-15 · 8/10 · 20 March 2007]

When I heard that Helge Schneider acts as Adolf Hitler, I thought the movie would be kind of a slapstick comedy, but it really isn't. If you like subtle humor then this is for you.

Dr Grünbaum, a Jew, finds himself in a dilemma between honor, pride & family. His only choice is to work with Adolf Hitler. Dr Grünbaum helps the one person that is responsible for the deportation & genocide of the Jews.

It's one of those movies that you'll hate or love... I loved it and had some really good laughs. And even if you don't like the humor, it's still a good drama.

Very good comedy, knowledge of German history recommended

[run-it · 8/10 · 2 January 2007]

When "Mein Führer" turned out to be the movie of the night at the sneak preview, most of the cinema moaned. I guess it was because most, including me, expected a "not-that-funny movie" on a dark chapter of German history. Rather confirming that expectation, the movie starts out with original black and white footage from that time.

Yet, it turned out to be a very good comedy with a simple story, kept alive by the brilliant actors, especially Helge Schneider. And it has been the first movie I've seen that made a whole German cinema laugh about Adolf Hitler, Nazis, Jews and the jokes they make thereon.

My impression is that such a movie would not have been possible to be produced by a German studio ten years ago. It would have broken too many taboos. However, that does and may not mean that we are getting to a point that Germans forget about the cruelty of the Nazi regime. People might criticize the movie especially because of the belittlement and humanization of Adolf Hitler, illustrating him partly even as a victim of his generals, mainly Göbels. Yet, in my opinion, it performs extremely well in striking the balance between comedy and reminding the audience of that cruelty of the regime, for example by inserting the very serious element of Grünbaum's eldest son. But for understanding both, the comedian elements as well as reminders of the cruelty, it is highly recommended to have knowledge of that part of German history.

I hope and it is my impression that the movie sets a visual starting point for the time that German people learn to handle that history without tabooing or forgetting it.

A lot more than I expected

[sklose32 · 9/10 · 17 February 2007]

Before writing my commentary, I should tell you that I went into the Movie theater not really expecting a Movie that I would call a total smash hit. The reasons for my low expectations regarded mostly the lead, "Helge Schneider". If you were unfortunate enough and saw one of his previous works you know what I probably expected. In this movie however, he proved that he actually can act. (And quite well if I may say so). The story starts 5 days before the End of 1944. Berlin is totally destroyed and Hitler (brilliantly portrayed by Schneider) is supposed to give a new years speech. The Minister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, however feels, that Hitler lost his touch. So he enlists a Jewish Professor to help him get Hitler ready for the speech. It's a long story why exactly this person is chosen, so I won't bother you with it. After being freed from the Concentration Camp he and his family (who also has been freed) he begins tutoring Hitler. The movie contains a lot of these scenes which, once again, showcase the brilliance of "Helge Schneider" (Hitler) and "Ulrich Müehe" (Prof. Adolf Israel Grünbaum). There are a lot of other small story lines throughout the movie but I am really trying to give you an Idea of what's going on in the main-story. The final Information I will give you about the plot is, that 'Goebbels' isn't convinced that Adolf Hitler can actually do what's required of him, so he comes up with another plan. So much for the story. Now for the movie. The movie is packed from beginning to end with jokes about Hitler, their need to greet themselves with "Heil Hitler" all the time, the excessive bureaucracy in the third Reich also provides a LOT of very good jokes. Well, I guess the only way for you to find out is to go to the Movie theater yourselves, which is was reluctant to do. I paid so off though, that I watched this movie. There is not a single minute in that movie where you are not forced to laugh, sometimes even out loud. I know that there is a lot of controversy surrounding this movie, but I can only say the following about it: Go and decide for yourselves. My opinion is though, that this movie doesn't take the matter at hand too lightly and shouldn't threaten anyones believes. It was time that a German Director had the guts to make a Comedy about this. Finally I want to say that this Film is by far not as tame as commented by some.