The Empty Mirror

Rating:
Summary: Compelling, hallucinogenic, and terrifying
Review: "Who of your poets could touch the edge of the Fuhrer mystery?"

Welcome to the Third Reich on acid, or perhaps it's just another day in Hell with Adolf Hitler. This surreal trip through the twisted visions of history's most dreaded dictator is a brilliant tour de force for director and co-scripter Barry Hershey. Norman Rodway gives a commendable performance as Hitler (who once declared, "I am the greatest actor in Europe", a line repeated in this film), and there are smaller roles for henchmen Goebels and Goering, wife Eva Braun, and Sigmund Freud (who pops up on occasion to spar wryly with the Fuhrer). Add the victims of WWII, making cameos through the use of back-projected archive footage -- a sort of silent Greek chorus -- and you truly have the proverbial "cast of thousands" (or millions, if we include *all* the dead).

This is not a simple film, nor a simple subject, and the avant-garde approach taken here works superbly, lending insight and dramatic effect to what might otherwise have come off as a static monologue (or a staid conventional film, such as "Hitler: The Last Ten Days"). The pace lags a bit in the latter third, but the fluid transitions and liquid foldings of scene into scene, the use of special lighting and camera effects, and the imaginative editing generally keep the viewer entranced. The underground setting is unspecified -- perhaps it IS Hell, or merely the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin, 1945, as Hitler dreams away his last sunless days -- but many architectural features are taken from real places, Nazism's court composer Wagner is used effectively in the soundtrack, and much of the dialogue comes from Hitler's own speeches or writings, lending an air of authentic menace.

To gaze into the depths of the human soul is an unnerving experience; Rodway succeeds in displaying to us the many facets of Hitler's persona, in a voice that is sometimes reasonable and seductive, at other times a bestial howl. "I wasn't put in a lunatic asylum -- I *created* a lunatic asylum. I fused the symbolic with the real ... I exuded spiritual terror!" From gloating over his accomplishments and grandiose plans (including the rebuilding of Berlin to glorify his projected masoleum) to invoking a tidal wave of war and destruction, the evil sorcerer of National Socialism looks back on his reign knowing that his progeny would be many and that his legacy would hover, spectrelike, over the new millennium. "We gave them all much to brood over, didn't we, Joseph?" he chortles to his propaganda minister. But by the film's final Gotterdammerung, even the bloody megalomania of a Hitler is unable to cope with the horror unleashed. Even a Hitler can be brought to awareness, and despair; even a Hitler, eternally accursed and tormented beyond salvation, can be pitied as his horrible destiny ends with the proverbial whimper.

Read the history books to learn what happened, but watch "The Empty Mirror" to comprehend HOW it happened.

Rating:
Summary: THE HITLER PSYCHE
Review: A PENETRATING AND DRAMATIC LOOK AT THE INNER LIFE OF ADOLPH HITLER. SET IN A SURRREAL BUNKER SETTING AFTER WORLD WAR II, HITLER REVIEWS THE PLUSES AND MINUSES OF THE THIRD REICH. A MUST VIEW FOR ANYONE TRYING TO UNDERSTAND HOW THIS MAN CAME TO POWER AND ULTIMATELY, DESTROYED HIMSELF AND HIS COUNTRY.

Rating:
Summary: The Empty Mirror is Full of Thought and Artistic Vision
Review: A truly brillant treatment of the subject. Goes deep into the Philosophy and motives of Facism and Nazi Racism. All Words are Hilter's own (!) taken from various sources and acted superbly by Norman Rodway. This makes the film so interesting. Freud and Hitler spar in a interesting postmodern dialogue. Hope it is on DVD soon!

Rating:
Summary: Just watched this GEM of a movie
Review: As I am reading some of the reviews, I begin to realize that this masterpiece is not for the unsophisticated who draws a blank at symbolism. It also would not hurt to have read some of the more comprehensive works on the subject such as J. Toland's "Hitler" to understand the making and the pathologies of this sometimes gentle monster. There are so many outstanding moments in this film. Like when Hitler tallies up the murdered Jews and comes up slightly short of six mio., then trivializes it by claiming the other side is always embellishing. The illuminated part where he stands in the light beam of his projector directing Handel's Messiah. Yes, he is the creator! The phallic symbol of shattered mirror he holds up. Yes, there was a problem with potency. Finally his jailer becoming himself. And his last act to immerse into the tunnel and into the light, cleverly staged through the light beam of the projector. Frustratingly clawing entry into the projection. No, he is not permitted entry. His pained face shows utter torment and eventually takes on the image of a distorted mask against a black background. Norman Rodway as Hitler did a fantastic and believable portrayal of Hitler. No, he is not the spitting image of the egomaniac, but remember looks can be deceiving!

Rating:
Summary: A journey into a dark and complex mind
Review: I really hope this film gets released on DVD sometime soon as it is truly a rare and extraordinary find, a brilliant artistic acheivement. For those whose tastes run deeper than the mainstream and who may have a more than casual interest in World war 2 in general and Adolph Hitler in particular, or the very mysterious nature of evil itself, this film is a definate must see. The premise, portrayal and characterization indeed evoke the sense of a desolate self absorbed soul whose only possible source of comfort in an eternity of self reflection would be the constant reinforcement of his own pathological lies to any one who would still be foolish or gullible enough to listen. A soul unable to face ultimate truth, the realization of which could only equal pitiful agony and hopeless despair.

Rating:
Summary: Contrived
Review: I'll keep this short. Who ever made this film had a good idea and turned it into something that would've never happend. Tyrants don't think their bad and question themselves in the mirror. Who ever played Hitler played him like an american schoolboy mimicking him during the war. Stay away from this film.

Rating:
Summary: Contrived
Review: I'll keep this short. Who ever made this film had a good idea and turned it into something that would've never happend. Tyrants don't think their bad and question themselves in the mirror. Who ever played Hitler played him like an american schoolboy mimicking him during the war. Stay away from this film.

Rating:
Summary: A waste of time and film
Review: Okay, first -- I love independent films and surreal films and anything that's not mainstream. Well, almost anything. This film was so bad that within 10 minutes I considered turning it off. Rodway's portrayal of Hitler was abominable with his melodramatic, Shatner-esqe overdramatization. Some elements of the film simply did not work; for example, the snippets of film on the projector that were shot in color. It was a schizophrenic film -- which I think was an admirable goal on the behalf of the writing talents of R. Buckingham and Barry J. Hershey -- but instead of giving us a taste of Hitler's mental disturbances, it made the film disconnected and difficult to follow. It turned me off to the film very quickly. The only redeeming quality of the film was Joel Grey's performance as Josef Goebbels. As I've come to expect from Grey, he portrayed his role with skill and talent.

Rating:
Summary: The Foundations of an Effective Analysis
Review: Someone below commented that someone like Hitler would not have stood in the mirror and questioned himself. But anyone whose studied him a little, or just read the wartime psychological profile of him knows that this is exactly what he would have done, and in fact did. He was enfatuated with himself, and couldn't get enough footage, photographs and paintings of himself, especially if they supported the myth.

The movie correctly identifies that it is the myth that Hitler was in love with, and that he truly hated the reality behind it. But at the same time the movie runs off in a hundred different directions along the way, pointing off the psychic stage at parts alleged and unknown. Bringing in the ghost of Freud was pointless and distracting. Hitler as shown in the eyes of himself and those around him could tell so much more, and did.

But Hershey understood the key to Hitler, based on the evidence gathered. But his efforts to round out the character to the point of psychadelic rhapsody takes too much liberty with the facts. Also, he left out any reference to Hitler's time as a failed artist in Vienna, where he lived a beatnik lifestyle in a flop house. I'd love to see a director tie that younger Hitler to the Feurher. That would be a fascinating and instructive lesson of history. What evil do a poor radical artist and a warlord share in common? Wat sickness was there all along?

Rating:
Summary: A convincing vision of Hitler in Hell
Review: The great 18th century mystic Swedenborg, who claimed prolonged visions of Heaven and Hell, reported that souls in Hell don't know they're in Hell because they're behaving as they did in life; the angels, however, look upon them and see them as terrible beasts. As I watched this profoundly engrossing film, I had no doubt by its end that it's not just an artistic "turn" dealing with Hitler's psyche, image, and horrific legacy but instead is a powerful portrayal of him in Hell. Hell for Hitler may well be eternal self-absorption and facile self-analysis punctuated by the rare inkling of consequences of his acts and awareness of the reality of others--sporadic insights that reduce him to befuddled torment and (his worst nightmare) weakness. The actors' portral of Hitler and Goebbels are brilliant, and the film itself left me shaken. It seemed not so much an artifice as a true vision of Hell.