Actor, do you want a thankless role? Then consider playing Adolf Hitler. The challenge of depicting the world’s most visible symbol of evil has defeated almost everyone. Capitalizing on his similar mustache, Charlie Chaplin gave it a good whirl with The Great Dictator (1940), a brave parody in its moment but whose humor hasn’t held up in light of World War II and the Holocaust.
Since then Alec Guiness and Anthony Hopkins have tried and failed as the Fuhrer. Perhaps the one great Hitler performance was by a German, Bruno Ganz, in Downfall (2004). Ganz captured the weary obsession of Hitler in his last days, hemmed in his bunker by the Soviet army and stubbornly willing to immolate himself and his nation.
Poor Robert Carlyle didn’t fill the Fuhrer’s jackboots very well in the Emmy-nominated 2003 mini-series “Hitler: The Rise of Evil” (out on DVD). A capable actor in 28 Weeks Later and Angela’s Ashes, Carlyle obviously studied footage of Hitler’s speeches and nailed those spittle-flying heights of histrionics. But the program’s pace was too breathless, too hurried, to examine any aspect of Hitler’s rise to power with sufficient focus. Carlyle was unable to show that Hitler’s infamous emotional hysterics represented only peak moments in a concerto of mood and dynamics. Hitler started his speeches slowly and worked himself into feverish outbursts, separated by high-strung plateaus of fulminations and promises.
The reason to own “Hitler: The Rise of Evil” is not for the mini-series on disc one of the set but the documentary on disc two. “Hitler: A Career,” written by the acclaimed German historian Joachim Fest, is a fascinating compendium of archival footage from Hitler’s impoverished youth in Vienna through the destruction of his power mad quest to establish a terrifying New Order. Seeing actual footage of Hitler in various settings can only cast most dramatizations in poor relief. Many actors have gotten it wrong by turning Hitler into a bug-eyed lunatic. The real Hitler generally balanced his manic intensity with cool calculation, and although he often exploded into insane rages in private, he could also appear charming, respectful, even calm and collected.
When it comes to Hitler, art should usually fall mute before reality. Unlike such retiring and enigmatic mass murderers as Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot, Hitler was a product of the mass media. His profile was high and as carefully manufactured as a Hollywood star. His image remains so indelible even for generations unborn in his time that actors find themselves in a losing struggle with his malevolent ghost. Sadly, for a man who caused so much death, Hitler remains larger than life.
