Dawn of Evil: Rise of the Reich   Starring: Tom Schilling and Anna Unterberger Revolver Entertainment RRP: £12.99 REVD2660 Certificate: 18 Available 28 February 2011

Moving to Vienna, to apply to the Arts Academy, Adolf Hitler takes lodgings in a home for penniless artists, where he shares a room with an elderly Jew. His rejection by the academy and the subsequent humiliations he suffers lead him to hate the Jews, a hate he takes to extremes, when he gathers together a group bound for Munich and historical infamy...

Dawn of Evil: Rise of the Reich (2009 - 1 hr, 46 min, 03 sec) is a drama loosely based on the early life of Adolf Hitler, directed by Urs Odermatt, from a script by George Tabori.

I’m not really sure why this film was made. In recent years Germany has come to terms with its war record to the point of producing some insightful films about Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, however this isn’t one of them. The only historical fact here is that Hitler was a failed artist, other than that we are looking at pure fiction. What eludes me is that given there is a rich vein to explore in his real life, why muddy the waters with this film.

As the movie opens we see the young Hitler (Tom Schilling) arriving at Vienna by train. Alone and penniless he takes lodgings, sharing a room with Schlomo Herzl (Götz George). Hitler is an untalented, emotionally unstable young man, who is more pathetic than threatening. But Schlomo sees something in the young man worth saving, so he takes him under his wing.

When Hitler is rejected by the Academy, Schlomo poses as his father to beg for his entrance. When that fails to happen he encourages Hitler to paint postcards, which Schlomo could sell. Hitler’s main concern is his jealousy that the blond beauty, Gretchen (Anna Unterberger) prefers Sclomo’s company to his own.

The film is full of character and factual absurdities, with little reason to distort the historical record, the most absurd of which is the assertions that it was Schlomo who wrote Mein Kampf as well as giving Hitler his distinctive Charlie Chaplin moustache. The home is surrounded by a collection of bizarre characters, Himmlischst (Wolf Bachofner) who believes that he is God; a molester of children; and a post woman who thinks that she is Death. All this means is that the film is either trying to convey something metaphorically deep, or is a confused piece of old pooh - not that the former automatically precludes the latter.

We don’t even particularly learn anything new about Hitler as Schilling plays him as a completely unlikable character, I think that I would have found it more disturbing if the film had explored how a man who considered himself an artist, vegetarian and could feel love for both his partner and his pets would go on to order the murder of millions. The ordinary man who is able to do the most evil acts is scarier than the Hitler presented here.

With the problems with the script put aside, the acting in the film is good; there is a real pathos in Götz George’s portrayal of the doomed Schlomo and Schilling cuts another chunk off his mortgage with a convincing turn as a completely unlikable loon, although the film fails to address Hitler’s madness as particularly nature or nurture.

The DVD is presented in German - either a DD 2.0 or 5.1 audio tracks - with burnt in subtitles and no extras.

Historical inaccuracies aside, the central performances of George and Schilling make for some riveting scenes and the film is worth watching for this element alone.

6

Charles Packer