Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003) (TV)

Director:

Christian Duguay

Writers (WGA):

John Pielmeier (written by) and
G. Ross Parker (written by)

Release Date:

18 May 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History

Tagline:

"The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

Plot:

A unique slant, profiling the life of Adolf Hitler as a child and his rise through the ranks of the National German Workers' Party prior to World War II.

Plot Keywords:

Nazi | Germany | Austria | Reporter | Rise To Power

Awards:

Won 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 3 wins & 15 nominations

Cast

Robert Carlyle	...	Adolf Hitler
Stockard Channing	...	Klara Hitler
Jena Malone	...	Geli Raubal
Julianna Margulies	...	Helene Hanfstaengl
Matthew Modine	...	Fritz Gerlich
Liev Schreiber	...	Ernst Hanfstaengl
Peter Stormare	...	Ernst Röhm
Friedrich von Thun	...	General Erich Ludendorff
Peter O'Toole	...	President Paul von Hindenburg
Zoe Telford	...	Eva Braun
Terence Harvey	...	Gustav von Kahr
Justin Salinger	...	Dr. Joseph Goebbels
Chris Larkin	...	Hermann Göring
James Babson	...	Rudolf Hess
Patricia Netzer	...	Sophie Gerlich

Also Known As:

Hitler: La naissance du mal (Canada: French title)
Hitler - Aufstieg des Bösen (Austria) (Germany) [de]
Hitler - Der Aufstieg des Bösen (Germany) (DVD title) [de]
Hitler - La naissance du mal (France) [fr]
Hitler - Ondskans natur (Sweden) [sv]
Hitler - Uspon zla (Serbia) [sr]
Hitler - ondskans födelse (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
Hitler - pahan nousu (Finland) (DVD title) [fi]
Hitler - pahuuden nousu (Finland) [fi]
Hitler: El reinado del mal (Spain) (DVD title) [es]
Hitler: I arhi tou kakou (Greece) [el]
Hitler: La naissance du mal (Switzerland: French title) [fr]
Il giovane Hitler (Italy) [it]

Runtime:

Australia:179 min (video version) | France:130 min | USA:240 min (including commercials) | Spain:177 min (DVD edition)

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | Spain:13 | UK:12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

Prague, Czech Republic

Company:

Alliance Atlantis Communications

Trivia:

All Nazi-themed costumes and props (flags, medallions, pins, tie-tacks) were destroyed after filming wrapped, to prevent any items linked with Nazism from finding their way into the hands of neo-Nazis.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: During the segment set in "July 1918" the Lieutenant informs a young Hitler that the unit is to be redeployed to the Eastern Front. Russia had already signed a peace treaty with Germany in 1917 so by this point in the war there was no longer any "Eastern Front".

Quotes:

Adolf Hitler: If a thief takes your money and you take it back, does that make you also a thief?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Cinemania: I anodos kai i ptosi tou Nazismou" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Horst Wessel Song

Nobody would have followed *this* Hitler

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. Carlyle and the producers didn't get anything right with this.

Why was Hitler able to win so many people, a whole county for his ideas if we was such a sausage? Why did people follow him to death? By portraying him as such a loser they make their own film totally unbelievable. This film is a mixture of old WW2 propaganda and MTV urban myths about one of the most important persons of the last century. Imagine a film about Churchill where the director only shows him as a drunkard for 90 mins.

This film is a disgrace and I wonder how they could talk an actor like Carlyle into this dreck.