Swastika
Swastika
NR | 01 September 1974 (USA)
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Comprised of video shot during the Nazi regime, including propaganda, newsreels, broadcasts and even some of Eva Braun's colorized personal home movies, we explore the way in which the Third Reich infiltrated the lives of the German population, from 1933 to 1945.

Reviews
ada

the leading man is my tpye

ChanBot

i must have seen a different film!!

Roy Hart

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

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Nicolas

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

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sempervirentz

That's the starkest documentary about the Third Reich, I have seen so far. At the age of 19 Franco-Australian film student Philippe Mora made the archive discovery of his life. With the help of a historian he found the Obersalzberg film roles that Eva Braun once stored in her bedroom at the Berghof and that were later seized by US military personnel. Mora mixed these private recordings with Nazi propaganda material and created a documentary. Only in the second part of the movie he used footage from "the other side". The movie misses any comment. Mora let the pictures speak for themselves. The documentary caused a scandal back then and was first shown in German cinemas 37 years later. The contrast between cosy mountain idyll, martial parades and evil propaganda is hard to overcome. The film conveys a sense of how powerful and thrilling the atmosphere was at that time. The Overture to Wagner's Tannhäuser combined with pictures of a country on the move, politics as religion, the Olympic Games, the eerily beautiful Riefenstahl scenes, Adolf and Eva at the Berghof playing cheerfully with dogs, next to hate speech, first acts of violence against Jews and military armament. We all know what came and had to come. The German population did not know every detail, or did not want to know. Repression as a survival strategy. "Better go with the flow" was the motto. Go with a movement unseen in history. Even in the faraway US there were tens of thousands who got infected by the Hitler mania. (This is also shown in the documentary.) And then the second part of the movie. The great destruction. A crescendo of violence. Bombs, flashes of light, dead bodies, total war; sicker and more intense as any Hollywood production can ever be. Then camera flights over a completely devastated country, images from the concentration camps. So terrible that you don't want to look at them. Time for the end credits? No. The movie ends with a scene at the Berghof in which Hitler is hosting a few guests. Coffee and cake is served. I repeat. Coffee and cake. I can hardly imagine a more bitter contrast. I recommend this movie to anyone who is not only interested in theories about mass psychology and the phenomenon of "ideology as a substitute for religion", but who wants to sense an undertone, a mood, an inkling of what was going on back then. Yes, the first part of the film is dangerous. It depicts Hitler as a human being and shows a country that is completely inebriated. But if one really wants to understand the events of that time, one has to expose itself to this.

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Sammy Young

I tripped over this movie late at night on Amazon on-demand video. I gotta tell you, it's definitely interesting. It shows the "human" side of Hitler, joking around with staff, making wise cracks here and there, complaining about cigarette smoke, etc. I think the intent of the story (which is basically newsreel and personal movie camera footage in order from 1935 to 1945) is to chronicle the rise and fall of Hitler, as seen in his eyes. You can see how the war wears on him- he gets grayer, starts shaking at times, and even see how he can't stand being in direct sunlight because of the drugs he was on. So, knowing his personal and physical history from what I've read before about the sick Bastard, this movie confirms those conclusions (i.e.- he was mentally ill and took large doses of drugs that blurred his speech, the way he walked, the way he interacted with others, etc. So, it's a good documentary from that end. Suggest watching with the volume down most of the time because hearing all the "Hiel Hitler!"s are enough to make you want to drink...

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Randall Berger

This feature length documentary will knock your socks off ... if you're ever lucky enough to see it. If you have ever wondered how Hitler and his thugs wooed the Germans? Philippe Mora has assembled an incredible body of film footage here and let the material tell the story ... there is no narration, something Philippe does particularly well (see his next doco, BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME). He was even able to find Eva Braun's home movies of Hitler, mostly taken at Obersalzburg, and with the help of German lipreaders, bring them to life. Students of history will find it particularly enlightening. It is also horrifying. Most people didn't think Hitler was at all bad. Famous reporter Dick Brinkly singing the praises of Hitler in the mid 30s must be embarrassing. See it if you can. Pray it comes out on DVD one day.

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Joel Nelson

Philippe Mora was the person who as a 19 year old film student discovered the now well known personal films of Eva Braun (that would make a fine film in itself). This fascinating color film footage is incorporated into this un narrated documentary along with a wide assortment of original Nazi newsreels and propaganda films to present life in Nazi Germany from 1933-45 as seen through the propaganda filmmakers (and Eva's) camera lens. A wonderful classical music score accompanies. This film is quite rare and is generally unavailable. I believe it was nominated for an award (or won an award). Nevertheless,if you get a chance to see it, buy it, etc, do it. It is the best documentary film on Nazi Germany of it's kind with much never before seen original footage.

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