Being the big WWII buff I am, my morbid curiosity forced me to watch the Hitler mini-series on CBS Sunday night.

I was actually pretty happy with Part 1. Unfortunately, it moved from childhood to adulthood far too quickly and Stockard Channing barely even had a cameo. But, I think Robert Carlyle is doing a great job protraying pure evil. He even gets the hand motions down pat.

The story of his rise to power is something I've never had experience with. I never fully understood why he was able to rally an entire nation behind his insanity, but given the conditions and mindset of the country protrayed in this mini-series the seeds of hatred already existed and he just "fanned the flames".

I also never knew Hitler was responsible for the design of the most hated flag in history.

I certainly think the Entertainment Weekly review giving it an "F" was overly harsh. But, maybe they're mainly referring to Part 2.

Anybody else watch?

I recorded it and am recording it tonight. I probably won't get around to watching it until the weekend.

Why did EW give it an F? I thought it was pretty good. I agree that it felt rushed, but thats a lot of stuff to cram into 4 hours of tv programming (meaning a little over 3 hours after commercials) so its understandable that they had to skim over a few things.

I did get a chuckle that Stockard Channing is featured in all the promos by name and was in the movie for about a whole minute. I thought they might have some flashbacks or something in part 2 that featured her more. Not that I'm really upset since I don't have any particular feelings one way or another about her, but just thought it was kind of silly to feature her name for such a small role.

A lot of people feel it is inappropriate to portray Hitler as anything but an inhuman monster, when the truth was he was human. I think it's important to remember that he was, and that given the right circumstances anyone has the capacity for doing evil things.

You're correct, but that's not why EW gave it an F. Read the review, they tore it apart on just about every level.

I've been searching their website to post the review, but can't seem to find the actual review. Unless somebody else can track it down, I guess you'll have to check out EW this week at the grocery store

How accurate is this mini-series to the real Hitler? Any history buff know?

I'm pretty sure that the real Hitler didn't get together with buddies and put on a strip show to earn extra money.

Some of it is accurate - I don't want to get into all of the details, but: his father did beat the hell out of him; he was a failure as an artist; he did earn the Iron Cross as a courier in WWI; and he was a delusional, paranoid piece-of-crap w/ little-man syndrome. I watched the first part of the miniseries, and besides the cast, there is nothing redeeming about it at all.

I agree, though I'm strangely drawn to seeing the 2nd half.

Actually, I wouldn't say it was THAT bad. It was fairly entertaining and interesting, but some of the directing and editing was getting on my freaking nerves. The first 20 minutes was atrocious. After it got to his adult life, it was much better.

I like that they portrayed him more as insane than evil incarnate. No doubt he was evil, but it appears he was evil because he was insane.

Overall though... it was pretty disappointing. Not that I expected much from a network miniseries.

So from the very beginning of Hitler's porpoganda, the very fact that he is was half-jew and a foreigner and shouting to kill all jews and foreigners were completely ignored?

HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?

I think they could have found a better look-alike for Hitler. Kind of runied it for me.

He was half Jewish? I think that's mostly speculative, isn't it? Even if true, I doubt anyone knew it.

He was from Austria. I think they pretty much consider themselves "brothers". A foreigner was most likely a "non-Aryan" or even a non German, as many Austrians were "German". Wasn't Austria and Germany once part of Prussia?

Many Europeans hated Jews... so his anti-semitism probably wasn't considered that extreme at the time. The Jews were the scapegoat of Germany's problems.

I enjoyed part 1 and I am looking forward to part 2 tonight. I think Robert Carlyle did a great job portraying Hitler. I agree with Breakfast With Girls, that it is important to realize that Hitler was just a man - flesh and blood - and given the right political climate, someone who knows how to read and manipulate others, particularly in getting people to lay the blame for all of their troubles on others, can come into power. Power gained by playing on people's fears is never is a good thing for the people. This series is obviously too short to tell a "complete" story of Hitler's rise to power, but the general aspects of his life are accurate, so I can accept certain liberties that have been taken to make all of the pieces fit together in a 3 hour period. Why EW gave it an "F" is beyond me, although to be fair, I've only seen half of it so far.

Many Austrians consider themselves to be "Germanic" people.

Austria wasn't part of Prussia, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Prussia was concentrated around Northern Germany and further east (parts of modern Poland, Lithuania, etc.).

I'm trying to get through Mein Kampf. In it, Hitler calls for a unified Germany, meaning Germany, Austria, and Hungary all under one flag. There is no irony in having an Austrian in power of Germany, in Hitler's racial-collective viewpoint at least.

The important thing to understand about evil is that it doesn't come up to us with horns and a pitchfork. It comes to us with a smile, and tell us what we want to hear, those things that appeal to the worst in us so that it gives us license to act upon them.

To simply write men like Hitler off as inhuman mosters only makes it harder to recognize the next one when he comes a calling.

I was only able to catch the last half of Sunday night's showing, and I thought it was quite good. Carlyle did a good job depicting Hitler. Hitler was a weasly, twitchy little man, but a charismatic speaker who had a way with words. And I thought he got that part down quite well. Also had a pretty good physical resemblence, too.

I still never understood this. **** Hitler. Just because he led a bad life, doesn't mean slaughtering millions is ok, just because he is "capable for doing evil things." If you have those thoughts, you are messed up...you need help...you get that help. Just making an excuse is ignorance...

Well, after tolerating Part 1 I was very disappointed with Part 2. So much so that I'd be willing to agree, for the most part, with the EW review.

Way too much time was spent on Hitler and his relationship with the niece and Eva Braun. If this was about his rise to power than attention should have been given to the chess game Hitler played from 1926 thru his complete seizure of power in 1933-34 thru the chancellorship, enabling act and SA Purge. Trying to cram all the events prior to the Anschluss (annexation of Austria in 1938, kicking off Hitler's territorial conquests) in 4 hours was gonna be difficult ... but wasting 30+ minutes on the damn niece was a terrible direction to go. And why center everything around the Haenfstengels? That was incredibly ridiculous. Seems to me they were to concerned with creating a TV drama than a historical account.

For those wanting a thorough account of Hitler and his ascent to(and descent from) power, check out William Shirer's The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich. It's a HUGE read, but if you're a history buff and interested in this topic the length won't matter. It's truly amazing what people around him did and did not do in the course of his rule.

I disagree. Hitler was very human in that he had one *huge* flaw -- a huge ego. It was this ego that was severely blown up by his supporters and this godlike mindset allowed him to do whatever he wanted, including killing a lot of people.