Brutality in Stone (1961) User Reviews

If Anything a Good View of Abandoned Nazi Buildings

[Screen_O_Genic · 7/10 · 11 January 2022]

"Brutality in Stone" (Brutalität in Stein) is a documentary short on abandoned Nazi edifices and how they supposedly reflect the nature of the infamous regime. Filmed in the early-1960s and shot in black and white the visual document highlights designs that vary from the arched elegance of the classical to the stiff and sterile Teutonic. Speeches from the Nazi era by prominent figures like Hitler and Hess are used as accompaniment to the eerie tour including crowd cheers from the notorious Nazi rallies adding to the unsettling effect. While the film purports to show the evil of the era through its architecture the effort is a failure as the silent sentinels of stone are as guilty of its time as a hunchback lacking perfect posture. One merely sees dirty and empty buildings, nothing more. If the filmmakers were expecting more they were certainly dreaming. For what it is, the movie is a brave attempt in facing the country's dark and ugly past at a time when the nation was barely interested nor remorseful. For film enthusiasts and historians.

As a movie not effective enough

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 22 June 2015]

"Brutality in Stone" is a German short film that runs for little over 10 minutes and was made 55 years ago. It was made by the duo Alexander Kluge and Peter Schamoni. Kluge is one of Germany's most impactful filmmakers of the second half of the 21st century while Schamoni also has a good deal of memorable work under his belt, including an Academy Award nomination. When the two made this short movie here, this was still very early in their careers and both were pretty young. Same can be said about the two narrators Clarin and Marschall.

This film was made 15-20 years after the Nazi reign in Germany. It deals with architecture mostly, but also includes speeches by high-profile German politicians from the first half of the 1940s including Hitler and some of his closest cabinet members. I personally was not too impressed with the content. It is all cold facts basically, but there is no emotion in here really and I also don't have the greatest interest in architecture, even if I have always been curious about the details of Nazi Germany. It also could not really attract my attention as it's basically just a collection of photographs. Nonetheless I must say that the audio comments elevated the weak visual material by a lot. Overall, it is worth checking out, but not a must-see by any means. If you are really interested in the topic of architecture, you will maybe enjoy this more than I did. Still, there are many other, in my opinion superior documentaries out there that deal with the darkest era in German history.