Mein Kampf

Rating:
Summary: Sensationalist Propaganda
Review: In this Irwin Leiser production, interesting rarely-seen newsreel footage is marred by extremely hostile anti-National Socialist commentary. Many of their facts are wrong and other inconvenient historical aspects are completely ignored to fit their political agenda. (Sound familiar?) The reconstructed scenes with a Hitler look-alike from the "Hitler" bonus feature gave me a good laugh, but unless you have money to burn (and a mute feature on your TV), I recommend just renting this one--or skipping it altogether--until a more objective documentary becomes available.

Rating:
Summary: Sensationalist Propaganda
Review: In this Irwin Leiser production, interesting rarely-seen newsreel footage is marred by extremely hostile anti-National Socialist commentary. Many of their facts are wrong and other inconvenient historical aspects are completely ignored to fit their political agenda. (Sound familiar?) The reconstructed scenes with a Hitler look-alike from the "Hitler" bonus feature gave me a good laugh, but unless you have money to burn (and a mute feature on your TV), I recommend just renting this one--or skipping it altogether--until a more objective documentary becomes available.

Rating:
Summary: My Struggle by Adolf Hitler.
Review: Mein Kampf is a great soldiers movie. It is filled with glorious Nazi "Fascist", Parades, it Depicts the full Pure Glory of Germany,
and the rise of an internationl Superstar Adolf Hitler the Supreme Leader of Germany, Mein Kampf shows how through Hitlers good Humour and leadership Talent he cleaned up Europe in the late 1930's and into around 1944, but as Mein Kampf shows that the jews broke into Germay to Capture Hitler and Eva Hitler and in doing so destroyed all of Europe.
Some of Hitler Speeches in this video are Great.

Rating:
Summary: Thankfully NOT an adaptation of the notorious book...
Review: The original Swedish title is "Den blodiga Tiden" (which means the "bloody era") and would have been more appropriate. The filmmakers in no way intended to honor or provide a cinematic equivalent to Hitler's vicious work of propaganda. The English speaking distributors doubtless realized that _Mein Kampf_ was a title which would resonate with viewers. It does, I suppose, but it also unnerves. When this was broadcast over a decade ago on A&E, I was a little taken aback--what was THIS all about?

Well, it's a relief to report that this documentary is in no way an homage to Hitler and his murderous beliefs. It is, overall, an effective statement against such thinking--and in these perilous times, with Holocaust denyers and neo-Nazis of various stripes afoot, we can certainly stand the reminder.

I'll leave to others to decide whether this is the MOST effective anti-Nazi statement possible. It does try to crowd a lot of detail into its 111 minutes, and sometimes comes off a bit sketchier than it might. The footage is, however, often dramatic (if sometimes familiar). "Never again" type messages are appended to the film's beginning and end--they are not really necessary and actually could be said to diminish the film's power. This is one instance where the pictures are worth at least a 1,000 words.

Rating:
Summary: Thankfully NOT an adaptation of the notorious book...
Review: The original Swedish title is "Den blodiga Tiden" (which means the "bloody era") and would have been more appropriate. The filmmakers in no way intended to honor or provide a cinematic equivalent to Hitler's vicious work of propaganda. The English speaking distributors doubtless realized that _Mein Kampf_ was a title which would resonate with viewers. It does, I suppose, but it also unnerves. When this was broadcast over a decade ago on A&E, I was a little taken aback--what was THIS all about?

Well, it's a relief to report that this documentary is in no way an homage to Hitler and his murderous beliefs. It is, overall, an effective statement against such thinking--and in these perilous times, with Holocaust denyers and neo-Nazis of various stripes afoot, we can certainly stand the reminder.

I'll leave to others to decide whether this is the MOST effective anti-Nazi statement possible. It does try to crowd a lot of detail into its 111 minutes, and sometimes comes off a bit sketchier than it might. The footage is, however, often dramatic (if sometimes familiar). "Never again" type messages are appended to the film's beginning and end--they are not really necessary and actually could be said to diminish the film's power. This is one instance where the pictures are worth at least a 1,000 words.

Rating:
Summary: Thankfully NOT an adaptation of the notorious book...
Review: The original Swedish title is "Den blodiga Tiden" (which means the "bloody era") and would have been more appropriate. The filmmakers in no way intended to honor or provide a cinematic equivalent to Hitler's vicious work of propaganda. The English speaking distributors doubtless realized that _Mein Kampf_ was a title which would resonate with viewers. It does, I suppose, but it also unnerves. When this was broadcast over a decade ago on A&E, I was a little taken aback--what was THIS all about?

Well, it's a relief to report that this documentary is in no way an homage to Hitler and his murderous beliefs. It is, overall, an effective statement against such thinking--and in these perilous times, with Holocaust denyers and neo-Nazis of various stripes afoot, we can certainly stand the reminder.

I'll leave to others to decide whether this is the MOST effective anti-Nazi statement possible. It does try to crowd a lot of detail into its 111 minutes, and sometimes comes off a bit sketchier than it might. The footage is, however, often dramatic (if sometimes familiar). "Never again" type messages are appended to the film's beginning and end--they are not really necessary and actually could be said to diminish the film's power. This is one instance where the pictures are worth at least a 1,000 words.

Rating:
Summary: Inaccurate and dated
Review: This is one of the most poorly-made documentaries ever produced about Adolf Hitler or the Third Reich. Originally made in the early 60's, the sound and picture quality on this DVD borders on the dismal. Perhaps this would be acceptable in VHS format, but not for the DVD. The content of the film is flat, extremely dated and is burdened with so many errors one can't calculate them. Briefly, Martin Bormann died in Berlin in 1945, he did not escape to Paraguay (!), Joseph and Magda Goebbels did not have 9 children, Paul von Hindenburg was not half-Jewish and Hitler's mother died of cancer, not typhus. These types of errors are ridiculous and could easily have been avoided had any research gone into this product.

As for the selection of video, it is all commonly used stock footage or Hitler, most of it lifted directly from Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will. There are also grainy stills of concentration camp victims and others shots of Hitler's victims. There is no earthly reason to watch this video in the 21st century when dozens of other documentaries have supplanted this in content and form. Quite a disappointment.