Hitler: The Rise of Evil
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
The opening of the film features a montage of Adolf Hitler's life during the years 1899-1914, when he left Austria for Munich. His participation in the First World War on the German side is then shown in a series of episodes which includes his promotion to the rank of corporal, his winning of the Iron Cross for bravery, and his blinding during a gas attack.
Hitler returns to a revolutionary Munich in 1919 and, still employed by the army, is assigned to report on the newly formed political parties in the city. After attending a meeting of the German Workers' Party, he is recruited by the party’s leader, Anton Drexler, to organise its propaganda activities and give increasingly popular speeches that harp on the themes that Germany has been betrayed by the leaders who surrendered in the last war, and that Communists and Jews are sapping the German spirit from within. After meeting the wealthy art publisher Ernst Hanfstaengl, Hitler is encouraged to refine his image and create a symbol for the party - which he does by adopting the Swastika. Hanfstaengl also puts Hitler in contact with the city’s elite, including the war hero Hermann Göring, and the militant Ernst Röhm, eventual organiser of the paramilitary SA. In 1921, Hitler forces Drexler to resign and takes over as leader of the renamed National Socialist Party.
In 1923, the Minister of Bavaria, Gustav von Kahr, urged on by his speechwriter, the journalist Fritz Gerlich, tries to outfox Hitler by convincing him that he is preparing to stage a military coup against the national government in Berlin and that Hitler must remain silent or else his party can play no part in it. Upon learning that the proposed putsch is merely a ruse, Hitler confronts Kahr at gunpoint and coerces him and his associates into supporting his own plan for a putsch. Röhm and the SA plan to take over the military barracks in preparation for a march on Berlin, but the attempted coup is quickly crushed. Hitler takes refuge at the Hanfstaengl home, almost resorting to suicide before Ernst’s wife takes the gun from his hand.
Arrested by the authorities and tried for treason, Hitler manages to use the trial to his advantage, winning over the audience and the Judge with his courtroom theatrics. Consequently, he is awarded a lenient sentence in Landsberg Prison, during which he writes his memoirs (later published as Mein Kampf). In 1925, Hitler goes to the countryside to escape from politics and is joined by his older half-sister, Angela, and her daughter Geli Raubal. When he returns to Munich, Hitler takes Geli with him but, distraught by his overbearing control of her life, she later commits suicide.
Eschewing revolution, Hitler now demands that the party follow a democratic course to power. This declaration puts him into conflict with Röhm, but Hitler’s demand for complete subordination of the party to himself as Führer (Leader) wins the approval of most others, including an impressionable young agitator named Joseph Goebbels. During the late 1920s, the party’s political fortunes improve, with the National Socialists gaining more and more seats in the Reichstag with each election. Alarmed by the party’s growing popularity, Gerlich continues to write articles in opposition to Hitler and, when the paper’s editor fires him, forms his own newspaper.
In 1932, Hitler becomes a German citizen and runs for President against the incumbent, Paul von Hindenburg. Although he is unsuccessful, the party has become the largest in the Reichstag, which emboldens Hitler to demand that he be made Chancellor of Germany. Though Hindenburg despises Hitler, the former Chancellor Franz von Papen helps bring this about in 1933. Thereafter, the Reichstag building is set on fire, allegedly by a communist, and Hitler uses the incident to have parliament award him dictatorial powers, which include suspension of civil liberties and suppression of the press. As a consequence, Gerlich's newspaper is shut down and he is arrested by the SA and sent to a concentration camp.
Germany now becomes a police state and Hitler crushes all his opponents, both inside and outside the party. Röhm is shot and the SA is absorbed into the German Army. Following Hindenburg’s death in August 1934, Hitler combines the office of President and Chancellor into one – thus making himself the country’s absolute ruler.

Review: Being a fanatical semi-professional historian on WW2, and utterly fascinated by Hitler's third Reich and all it's military power, I could hardly wait for "Hitler; the rise of evil" to come out after having seen the theatrical trailer.Heavens, I never felt so completely confused about a movie after pushing the 'stop' button on my DVD-player's remote.
not really impressive job I might say.but one of the most compelling things about the whole film (or series, I 've seen it as a film) is the fact that it is very obvious the director desperately wants to show the world Hitler was a sick-minded, over-emotional and completely mentally unstable person.
Hitler`s childhood and youth are portrayed way too short, which makes it quite difficult for historically uninformed people to understand the character of this frustrated neurotic man.
The film makes it look as though Hitler's sole ambition from the start was the Holocaust.If you want to identify the next person who will cause the death of tens of millions, you can ignore fleck-lipped ravers life the one portrayed here.
His unstable behavior and rage outbursts started in the turning point of the war.I'd like to see a film about Hitler's life that is based upon real historical facts and not accusations.
I really hate when people point a blaming finger at for example Hitler and others and tell inaccurate stories just to paint a picture of them as pure evil.
Just imagine the real Hitler, who was a master of propaganda and speech, would have been such a mumbling moron as Carlyle portrayed him in this film.Nobody would have followed him, not even a desperate, unemployed guy in the 1920s.This is just a Hollywood cardboard piece of propaganda itself, disguised as "true history".I pity everyone who actually believed anything from this show.
I can only to say that there is much better films about Hitler and Germany in those years and that Rise of evil is very much under average.
Ultimately, making him such a one-dimensionally evil character is both boring and confusing (one must ask how the inept, phsycotic character in the film cold ever persuade a nation to follow him or be named Time's man of the year).
I watched this hoping to find out something I didn`t know about modern history`s most infamous man and couldn`t help thinking that history has been rewritten in HITLER:THE RISE OF EVIL .
The German humiliation of the 1920s caused by the allied powers seems to be entirely missing therefore there is no way that HITLER:THE RISE OF EVIL can be taken seriously as a historical document, and I haven`t even mentioned that Himmler and Goering are conspicous by their absence 
So the real Hitler haven't shown his evil side to the people.Have any of you Yankees watched the movie "Der Untergang" or "The Dawnfall"?
Jenna Malone as the fated Geli Raubal, was splendid though, she captured the innocence and confusion of this tragic young woman who ultimately ended her own life to escape what her future would have been like in Hitler's shadow.If you would like a tremendously fantastic and historically accurate account of Hitler's early years leading up to and including the war/holocaust, rent "Inside the Third Reich" 1983 starring Rutger Hauer as Albert Speer and Derek Jacobi as Hitler.
The German language has a certain sound to it, and especially Hitler himself only sounds like Hitler when he's speaking/yelling German.The way the story is told made me believe it was improvised on the spot, the characters were empty and the movie seems to be a collection of random events that could have happened.Whether it's the English or the fact that I've already seen Der Untergang, everything about this movie was fake and ridiculous..
It is necessary to know the story of how Hitler was able to come to power to prevent it from happening again."Rise of Evil" is highlighted by a brilliant, career best performance from Robert Carlyle, who makes Hitler a human being without ever redeeming him in any way.
Carlyle flawlessly captures the look and mannerisms of the Nazi leader, while never letting the impersonation become cartoonish or distance us (something Anthony Hopkins was not quite able to accomplish when he portrayed Hitler in "The Bunker", another very good made-for-television film).
This movie goes a long way towards doing that.An important point that the series makes is that Hitler was not all there was to Nazi Germany, there was the Nazi party too and the social, historical and cultural forces that brought it into being.
The depressing thing is that the mini-series succeeds so well in representing Hitler as a monster in honest ways -- but they just couldn't resist the cheap shot.All in all, however, Hitler: RISE OF EVIL is a soaring success highlighted by powerful performances..
In the Putch of Munich in 1923 he rebelled against the government of the Weimar Republic but didn't achieve it.After that he was condemned to prison where he writes "Mein Kampf" dooming the Jewish race.Then he obtains the power being helped by Rudolf Hess, Goebbles, Goring , Ludendorff and Rohm.The performance by Robert Carlyle is good but overacting, Peter Stormare as Rohm is better .
First, before reading further, you must understand that I'm not neo-nazi, I'm just trying to understand correctly Hitler to be sure nobody like him take power again.I've seen this series and found it awful.
The whole point of Hitler's RISE TO POWER was his charisma and that he was worshiped/viewed in a very positive light by his followers, think of Hans Landa in "Inglorious Basterds" but even more so(almost all the people that met Hitler in real life were impressed).
The facts are that he was decorated 3 times as a war hero, he was voted by Germany to power and he was a very able politician and political figure(think that for 12 years, and long after they lost the war, many Germans still viewed him with the highest regard vs.
today when politicians are hated in the first 2 years or so), and he created 6 million jobs in the first two years while in power VERSUS this movie -> "Hitler is chaotic evil clown, and I'm offended", cool story bro, with a lot of unhistorical elements and plot twists just to accentuate "the evil", but you fail to show us his actual rise to power and how he got the masses to follow him(otherwise nobody would follow him, no matter how evil/good you think a guy is).
Although some fine people like Alec Guinness, Anthony Hopkins, and Everett Sloane have played Adolph Hitler on the big screen, Robert Carlyle in playing the psychotic dictator of Nazi Germany struck out into new territory.
Millions of feet of film from World War II with Nazis portrayed as bumbling idiots and the German language reduced to guttural double talk by comedians like Danny Kaye and the Three Stooges have tended to level the impact of Hitler.
Carlyle's speeches in English show exactly how powerful this man could be and how he could sway a nation to evil.Another thing that Hitler: The Rise of Evil shows are the many women around him in the early years.
Other than Carlyle, it's the women who have the best parts in this film from Stockard Channing as Hitler's doting mother, to Jena Malone his niece Geli Raubal and presumed first love who committed suicide as the official accounts have, to Julianna Margulies as Frieda Hanfstaengl married to Ernest 'Putzi' Hanfstaengl played by Liev Schreiber, an American who married Schreiber and became entranced by Hitler's charisma.The opposition as it were is characterized by Matthew Modine and his wife Patricia Neker.
One thing not shown was that Hindenburg's own son had become a Nazi party member and that had to have had a crippling affect on whatever course of action Hindenburg wanted to pursue.This is one story that should get retold every few years and Hitler: The Rise Of Evil is as good a telling as it can get..
Nobody but Robert Carlyle, could better represent Hitler.His work was, terrific.Have someone, notice that in all Nazisms films people talks about the Fuhrer, but he never appears, why???
That could have been better developed.I could go on and on, but the fact remains, Hitler was the most evil man in all of human history.
In showing Hitler's rise to absolute political power, this movie is OUTSTANDING..
I believe the truth is far more sobering and frightening than what this movie portrayed, particularly because Hitler was very cool, logical and calculated in his rise to power.
An entertaining miniseries, filmed mostly in Prague and with good production values, about Adolf Hitler and his rise to power, taking him from his childhood (dealt briefly) until the night of long knives.Unfortunately, and presumably in order to avoid any charge of creating sympathy for Hitler, the filmmakers portray him as an always angry and ranting sociopath.
Some other Hitler movies have been more honest in this respect: the German film Downfall is the first movie that comes to mind, but even the little known Hollywood film from 1944 "The Hitler gang" shows Hitler as friendly and charming with his associates.I found it also somewhat disappointing that most of the actors don't resemble their characters much: the actor playing Goebbels is the one that resemble it most; the legendary Peter O'Toole is fine in his brief turn as Von Hindenburg; Carlyle don't look a lot like Hitler; the actors playing Goering and Rohm none at all.
Hitlers War is a film which states the Nazi Dictators rise to power in Germany and how he begun to declare war upon the world.Robert Carlye's performance however does not even compare to that of Bruno Ganz's in, Downfall.
I was also struck by the originality of its plot, wrapping Hitler's life-story around an American couple in Germany, gambling on his policies to make their fortune.However, the biggest surprise in this movie was actor Peter O'Toole, playing Von Hindenburg.
This is one of the best mini series I have ever seen, Robert Carlyle's portrayal of Hitler through his early years into total madness is spellbinding!
I just finished watching the movie Hitler: the rise of Evil.
When you hear Robert Carlyle shouting in English it is such a big difference with the original German footage.Anyway, despite that it is really worthy watching this movie (mini-series)..
A good drama documentry which i throughly enjoyed,Hitler was strange indeed ,but this drama got over his power to dominate people and showed how politically astute he was.The situation in Germany was unique and Hitler used it to his advantage crushing down any one who opposed him,I think this drama will be regarded as an essential history lesson for teenagers being educated about world war 2.9/10.
The kind of acting by Robert Carlyle and the way he has portrayed Hitler is simply fabulous and amazing.
The film has shown the character of Hitler and how he was great and at the same time showing that how foolish he was.
Loved the movie.They put a lot of thought in how to make the scenes to fit historical facts.All the way from Hitler's youth to the power being HANDED to Hitler.Loved the way they did the Beer Hall Putsch.Hitler is one of the most monsters of all time.I'm so glad there was a movie made that was done correct and to the facts.Thank you to all the actors who did a fine job.All the actors did very well.The only thing in this movie that was a little off beat was the use of Robert Carlyle as Hitler.Don't get me wrong he did very well.(A+)But he is not as tall as Hitler and his face was to small.And that there was no character to play at least a small part as Himmler..
The acting is great and the plot and history were well shown.Robert Carlyle and an all star cast are sure to not only entertain you but will make you think.
"Rise of Evil" may be considered too good for TV, so I don't know (nor really care) how it's doing with the ratings.The portrayals by mostly British actors is realistic, from Hitler in a WWI bunker to the 1st meetings of the Nazis while the sets are in actual Munich locations (presumably).
Both West and East Germany had to be rebuilt from scrap, their reputations severely damaged by the many Nazi-atrocities inspired by racism.As I said, "Hitler, the rise of Evil" makes an good watch.
In particular Peter O'Toole's role as the aged president von Hindenburg stands out, even adds an extra dimension.My copy of "Hitler, the rise of Evil" also provides a second DVD with two good documentary films.
The editing strictly follows the story journey again and was required a little.I will strongly recommend this movie to all the people who would like to know the Rise of the Evil as the tag line says.
The theme is the quote that is relentlessly driven into our heads: "The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing." Hitler is portrayed (brilliantly by Robert Carlyle) as a vicious, twisted sociopath.
It portrays Hitler's rise (as the title suggests) through the ranks of German politics prior to World War II, and certainly lends credence to the fact that evil can flourish merely when good people do nothing.
When television rises to heights where series like this comes into being it is truly living up to the potential the creators of this particular medium envisioned.Hitler here is portrayed slightly humanized, or at least more so than ever before; and that makes him more of a monster in the end: he is no boogey-man of our nightmares, no invention to scare the young, but a real man who walked, talked, and plotted evil.
The sheer fact that he did live makes him even more of a warning to the present and future of mankind--too easily can people slide into inaction, fall into the crowd mentality of "groupthink" and allow for good to be overcome.This mini-series depicted the beginnings of the evil that would shape the century's most devastating conflict; and my only complaint is that the actor portraying Hitler did not don colored contact lenses--this would have completed the role and brought about a stunning bit of realism to the performance.Television, most often maligned for its violence and sex, rose to heights not often seen with this.
That the German people were taken in by a nutcase, who merely delivered speeches with a great delivery, says something not good about the German people.As someone who over the years has seen lots of stock footage of Hitler, I can state that Robert Carlyle's performance was memorable.
I've been doing some research: Even the part about the journalist's glasses at the end is true.What a good-looking film this is (for a made-for-TV movie), and surprisingly faithful to the historical record.
It is a movie that gives an insight into the more personal aspects of the man and the tyrant.One of the more impressive aspects of "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" was the cast.
And it was quite interesting to see Robert Carlyle in the role as Adolf Hitler, and he did pull off that unique look quite well, and he also portrayed his quite good.
However, the movie does suffer a bit under the fact that it is an English speaking cast, as that just takes away some authenticity from the story."Hitler: The Rise of Evil" does offer a good portrayal of how Adolf Hitler came into a position of power, and just how much can be accomplished with a charismatic force behind the voice of a nation.
He is the reason this film works.The theme of Hitler:Rose of Evil isn't to humanize Hitler or the Nazi's as some have incorrectly stated, rather to show what can happen "when good people do nothing" as Edmund Burke said.
The fast cuts, coupled with the repeated use of shot/ reverse shot sequences and close-ups made it seem as if this production had been filmed very quickly, despite the historically accurate costumes and European locations (with the Czech Republic standing in for Thirties Germany).Hitler: THE RISE OF EVIL might be watchable as a mindless slab of evening entertainment, but don't expect any penetrating insights on the subject's life or why he had such a mesmerizing hold over the German people for over two decades..
It is a good thumbnail of Germany leading up to Hitler's rise to power..
Scottish actor Robert Carlyle plays Adolf Hitler with great guts, conviction and flare to give a real portrayal of this man.It is a good screenplay and narrative, that educates the audiences on the main events that lead Hitler into power, and also tries to show the probable psychological make up of Hitler.
This film tries to adhere to the known facts about Hitler's youth, personality and rise to power.
I remember watching the Rise of Evil when it came out a few years ago...And the other day, something made me think of it, and I looked it up on the net...I love history, and especially WWII and Adolf Hitler...
I have read 4 different books on the rise of Hitler, since 99% of the material about Hitler almost always starts right after he gains power, I was always fascinated by how it could have happened in the first place.This mini-series matches up very well with pretty much everything I have read, when the series would get to a point in which I hoped they wouldn't skip an important occurrence 9 out of 10 times it didn't disappoint.The biggest flaw with this movie, despite its overall low budget and lack of polish has to be the scene where Hitler beats his dog in the trenches in WWI.
Though I am glad that it keeps people thinking about this import part of human history, and reminds us all how easy evil men can rise, if you already know the subject mater it will do little for you.