nickenchuggets Review of Fatherland

Fatherland (1994 TV Movie)

"Nobody in the new Berlin dares to ask awkward questions"

[7/10 · 1 September 2021]

If there is one event in history that people like to discuss more than any other, it's probably world war 2. The conflict was huge (the biggest in human history) and is recent enough to be politically relevant in the world even today. Many things going on now are a direct result of it. One of the most commonly discussed aspects of ww2 is how it could have played out differently. Due to the sheer size of the conflict, there are many variables that could have affected its outcome. Some of these include "what if Japan had not attacked Pearl Harbor" or "what if Stalin had invaded europe before the nazi invasion of the USSR", but the most overused by far has to be "what if Hitler had won?" Many would shudder at the thought. Fatherland attempts to answer this question by giving a glimpse into what a victorious post-war germany might have looked like. The movie begins with a black and white montage of news reel clips explaining how it has been 20 years since 1944 and the end of world war 2, which was ended after the germans had successfully held back the allied advance on Normandy beachheads during d-day. Hitler declares victory over europe and america, and most of the allied war leaders, such as Eisenhower, are forced into embarrassing retirements. Over the next 2 decades, every country in europe except switzerland is absorbed into the huge nazi empire of Germania. Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, builds an enormous structure in Berlin to commemorate germany's victory: the Volkshalle. At 1000 feet in height, its prominent dome structure commands Berlin's skyline. The SS, who ran the death camps during the war, is transformed into a (mostly) peaceful police organization. Despite germany defeating america years earlier, Hitler, still very much alive and the leader of nazi germany, has to reach out to the americans in order to strike a bargain with them. The 1960s begin with the bloodbath of a war against the USSR still slogging on, and germany needs america in an alliance against them, still led by an 85 year old Josef Stalin. With the election of Joseph P Kennedy, Hitler feels that america will finally join his side. As Adolf's 75th birthday approaches, he is certain a covenant with america will ensure germany's immortality. The intro of the film closes by saying there are terrible rumors in germany stating how "race enemies" were not actually killed by the germans during the war, and instead were only loaded on cattle cars and resettled far away. The actual story of the film then begins, and follows Sturmbannfuhrer (Major) Xavier March, played by Rutger Hauer. He is called upon by the SS in order to investigate a dead body discovered near a lake. March later finds out the corpse is that of Josef Buhler, a former nazi officer responsible for "resettling" holocaust victims during the second world war. Shortly after, the Gestapo takes over the investigation and warns March bad things will happen if he continues to search for clues. Later, an american woman named Charlotte (Miranda Richardson) has arrived in germany and receives a picture of nazi officers standing in front of a mansion of some kind. Again, the Gestapo says not to research this matter any further or she'll be sorry. Eventually, she discovers that everyone in the picture was killed because they were aware of important information relating to something called the Wansee Conference; a meeting held early in 1942 between senior nazis who discussed how to best dispose of people Hitler considered racially inferior. The germans are now killing everyone who knows about what went on during the conference in order to cover up the fact that persecuted individuals were actually murdered, and not just resettled like everyone was told. If america were to discover this, they would definitely not form an alliance with germany. Charlotte is encouraged to leave the country and get the images to president Kennedy by any means necessary, and March also agrees to leave with his son Pili. Before he can leave, March's house is surrounded by the Gestapo and he is shot trying to flee. Minutes before Kennedy's scheduled meeting with Hitler, Charlotte manages to hand over the pictures of the death camps to him, and he is so disgusted he calls off the meeting and leaves germany. The narrator (who is revealed to be an adult Pili) says how germany's failure to ally with america caused the country to collapse later. I thought Fatherland was a good enough movie with an interesting (if overused) premise. Imagining what the world might be like if germany won the war is not anything new, but the movie's primary plot is about how the nazis have been trying to hide genocide from everyone. It is odd to see how the country might have looked if the war went differently, and we also learn how Reinhard Heydrich, considered ruthless even by Hitler, was designated his successor if he died in the near future. In real life, Heydrich was assassinated in Prague in 1942, but in the movie, the attempt fails. The author of the book this movie is based on said he didn't like it, which I find strange. It's just a tv movie, so it was not made in a major studio, but I'm willing to watch just about anything related to ww2. It's still an interesting alternate history scenario.