Horst in Translation ([email protected]) Do not be mislead by this 105-minute film's title "Mein Kampf". This film is not based on Adolf Hitler's autobiography, but on a theater play by Budapest-born, BAFTA-winning writer George Tabori, who died briefly before this film was released. This is also why you should not watch this expecting a historically accurate depiction of Hitler's early years, but instead go for a political thriller. If David Wnendt can lead Hitler as a stand-up comedian into the 21st century, then "lack of authenticity" is not a valid point in evaluating this film here. This was written and directed by Swiss filmmaker Urs Odermatt. The film had its world premiere in Canada back in 2009, but it still took a while until most other people got to see it, especially Germans, namely 1.5 years later. It is basically a 2-man show. Tom Schilling and Götz George show why they are considered among the finest German actors of their respective age groups. Of course their roles are baity as hell too and it's almost impossible for them to go over the top here.What I found most interesting was the character of Gretchen, not only because of the Faust reference, but also because she somewhat displays the German people during the years of the real Hitler's rise to power. And as I managed not to expect any great realism in here, I was also impressed by the script. There are many interesting details in the characters' interactions from start to finish, especially of course in how Hitler perceives Jewery (in terms of Herzl) and how influences, such as other, older, more experienced Germans shape his perception of Jews in general, almost exclusively to the negative. The references to Hitler's aspiring career as a painter/artist were nicely included as well and they did well in not constructing the entire film around it. There were certainly a couple scenes that could have been cut, so the film would not have crossed the 95-minute mark and still stayed essential, but it's also fine at over 100 minutes. I enjoyed the watch. Thumbs up.

OJT After being very keen about watching a dramatization of young Adolf Hitler, and what lead him to join politics in stead of art, the writing of his "Mein Kampf" and the rise of his evil soul, I must admit I was quite disappointed with this film in more than one way.First of all it doesn't tell the story in a vary accurate way, it's also in a way more focused on other persons than Hitler himself. This makes the story confusing and difficult to follow. You simply doesn't get what it's all about. It's in a way illogical to me. What's the worst sin here, though, is that the film tells what should be an exciting story, too boring.The film is well played, though the acting is quite theatrical, suited for the theater scene more than the big screen. No wonder, since this is based upon a play by George Tabori. in many ways, this hasen't been tranfered to a feature like it should have been. I can imagine it was strong in a theater.But Hitler is well depicted, by Tom Schilling, as the strange bird he obviously was, with the insane racial ideas he obviously was indoctrinated with, and at least we get to know why he got involved with politics, and how his trademark mustache origin end. We see the poor conditions in Austria (or in fact much of Europe) a good hundred years ago. We a So see the racial hate towards the Jews, something which Hitler was inbred with. This is the best part of the movie. It seems to be very historically accurate in depiction of the living conditions.We get to know young Hitler as an almost insane, ungrateful, untalented young brat, with disgusting attitude, insulting language, and still with a terrible strong intensity, which we all have seen in film clips. Hitler wasn't a great speaker, but his intensity still was able to make him "Der Fuhrer" for a German/Austrian population.This could have been so strong and interesting, but has one up as quite disappointing. At least I had much bigger expectations after seeing great Austrian films by Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl.

hwyhobo At first I thought the author was just being fanciful with facts, but as the movie deteriorated and sank deeper and deeper into absurd, I am left puzzling - what was the point of this? The movie has nothing to do with historical facts, it isn't really funny, it portrays Hitler as an insane petulant teenager cared for by a loving wise old Jew (however unkempt) who apparently also wrote Mein Kampf, but of course with a different message, and who is sexually pestered by a young blond maiden with long braids... should I continue?The movie meanders from ridiculous to insulting. In the end you can't believe you just watched it.

darkobabic I find most movies generally at least okay to watch. I forced myself to finish this movie. I found it very boring and monotonous. Other than to depict the young Hitler as a nasty character, I didn't see the point of this movie. I'm quite fine with subtitles but perhaps that didn't help in the case of a boring movie. It was much longer than it needed to be for starters. I'm guessing this is all fiction but I don't know for sure. On a positive note I did like the acting and the set. They were very believable. My favourite scene was the one where Hitler starts singing during the opera. You could see how embarrassed his date was. I hadn't realized that it was adapted from a play. Oh, well at least it only cost me $5.