The only problem I have with this version is that it is way too abbreviated, and Richard Basehart is not the narrator! I saw a longer abbreviated version on TNT in the early 1990s, but have never been able to find it. The Wolper office at UC will not release the original 6 hour version for some very unexplainable reason. What a shame for such a great documentary. The person I spoke with on the phone did not give a reason for this. This is a great film version of Shirer's book with the same title. It is a great summary of life in Germany from 1918-1945, a period of unbelievable importance to today's world, a period which indeed did change the world.
9 Reviews
An amazing true story well told
StoryCharts19 July 2013
Warning: Spoilers
"Tried before an international tribunal at Nuremberg, twenty-one Nazi leaders are indicted for Crimes Against Humanity. To a man they plead Not Guilty. If they are Not Guilty, who is? And if they are, who is Not? The German people who gave the Nazis power? The civilized world which permitted that monstrous regime to grow unchallenged? Hitler's Reich reaffirms that in every man still exists the evils with which he can destroy himself."
This definitive account of Hitler's rise and fall is not just an account of the facts of history. It tells a story with a powerful Controlling Idea: that appeasement of evil implicates us all. This story goes on to prove this idea through the consequences of Hitler's unimaginable actions and the world's perplexing inaction.
This is a story well told. Unfortunately it also happens to be a true story.
Let's see how long the world remembers...
My Story Chart of the movie is at storycharts.ca
This definitive account of Hitler's rise and fall is not just an account of the facts of history. It tells a story with a powerful Controlling Idea: that appeasement of evil implicates us all. This story goes on to prove this idea through the consequences of Hitler's unimaginable actions and the world's perplexing inaction.
This is a story well told. Unfortunately it also happens to be a true story.
Let's see how long the world remembers...
My Story Chart of the movie is at storycharts.ca
From a Democracy to a Totalitarian State
Uriah4311 October 2015
Based on the best-selling book by the same name, this film documents the events that led to Germany transitioning from a democracy to a totalitarian state and from there to complete ruin. True to much of the book this documentary focuses mainly on the methods used by Adolf Hitler to achieve complete domination upon his subjects and the pure evil which resulted. Perhaps the most powerful point of this film was the way the Nazis treated the Jews and it was brought home very poignantly by the drawings of Jewish children on a wall prior to being led to their execution. Although quite sad it also serves as a very powerful indictment as well. Now, while I would have certainly preferred more details on the Russian Front as well as that by the Allies, this documentary provides more than enough historical information to keep the attention of most viewers from beginning to end. I have rated the film accordingly. Above average.
The best single documentry on the third reich ever made!
psguzzo24 July 2002
William Shire really out did himself by putting together all the footage he acquired to make this film. It gives you the feeling of actually being shot at and the awful feeling of being stared at and being spied on by the Gestapo. To this day it gives me the chills and makes me look around the block and who is behind me. This would be almost funny if it had not really happened. And anyone that tries to tell you it didn't happen well this will change their minds if they have any. I find the historical value of this movie right up there with the best.
Peter Salvatore Guzzo
Peter Salvatore Guzzo
Jazzy score backs typical stock footage fest
wwwhpcom19 September 2001
For some reason my local PBS station ran this flick in the mid-1990s, and I caught all three (two-hour-long) episodes. Like most documentaries without re-enactments, the film is just footage from the period and interviews with survivors. What made it interesting was the brassy opening music, which sounded more like the score for a docu on gangland Chicago then one on Nazis.
Following (loosely) the structure of the book on which it is based, each episode chronologically followed the origins of Adolf Hitler, the milieu he grew up in, WWI, his discovery of the German Worker's Party, how he made this group of right-wing cranks into the Nazi Party, the Depression, his rise to power, the Nazification of Germany, WWII, the defeat of Germany, the Allied discovery of the Holocaust. The last hour of the show, I think, was taken up discussing the "Final Solution," with an interview of a survivor who was a child when he was sent to one of the death camps.
Despite the amount of material, I think the book is a better chronicler of what went on those twelve years. A good companion film is Alain Resnais' French short "Night & Fog."
Following (loosely) the structure of the book on which it is based, each episode chronologically followed the origins of Adolf Hitler, the milieu he grew up in, WWI, his discovery of the German Worker's Party, how he made this group of right-wing cranks into the Nazi Party, the Depression, his rise to power, the Nazification of Germany, WWII, the defeat of Germany, the Allied discovery of the Holocaust. The last hour of the show, I think, was taken up discussing the "Final Solution," with an interview of a survivor who was a child when he was sent to one of the death camps.
Despite the amount of material, I think the book is a better chronicler of what went on those twelve years. A good companion film is Alain Resnais' French short "Night & Fog."
Not that there are parallels to be drawn with any politician today...
mountaingoat10025 May 2017
A leader of low intellect who specialises in insulting people and inventing racial lies, with the help of big business, finds himself leader of the country, despite polling a minority of the votes. Blaming all of the nation's trouble on foreigners and minorities, and vows to create an employment surge while make the country great again. Not that there are any parallels in the world today (2017). This ought to be required viewing for every schoolchild and, in fact, everybody , as it is a comprehensive, detailed look at the reasons why one limited individual with only a twisted philosophy of hate rose to become a murderous monster, wreaking terror across Europe. Aided by sparing use of witness interviews and Shirer's own comments, this is a towering account of a horrific era.
Satisfactory, not satisfying
Goingbegging23 August 2021
This is too-severely cut down from the original 6-hour adaptation of William L. Shirer's classic history of the war in Europe, and it doesn't really work. The subject is simply too broad for this kind of hop-skip-&-jump treatment, though at this range, we might say (a little patronisingly) "Not bad for 1968".
We're essentially looking at newsreel that would have been almost as familiar then as it is now, and the film is little more than a chronological sequence of clips, overlaid with a few philosophical reflections, but no opportunity for creative theming. Of course, much new research has come out since, but I think it was already known that the Führer lost his temper with Ribbentrop for allowing Chamberlain to keep the peace in '38, because he'd been planning for war all along, and was in a hurry to get started, before his (uncertain) health declined any further. Also Albert Speer was out of jail by then, and had revealed that Hitler's first appetising taste of appeasement came in March '36, during the brief reign of Edward VIII, when that unwise monarch secretly reassured him that Britain would not oppose his occupation of the Rhineland.
Among the few interviewees, we meet a most impressive young Jewish survivor of the camps, recounting the genocidal acts that cost him the whole of his family. And Shirer himself pops up a couple of times, with insights that might have carried more conviction if he didn't keep nearly putting his pipe in his mouth the whole time.
We're essentially looking at newsreel that would have been almost as familiar then as it is now, and the film is little more than a chronological sequence of clips, overlaid with a few philosophical reflections, but no opportunity for creative theming. Of course, much new research has come out since, but I think it was already known that the Führer lost his temper with Ribbentrop for allowing Chamberlain to keep the peace in '38, because he'd been planning for war all along, and was in a hurry to get started, before his (uncertain) health declined any further. Also Albert Speer was out of jail by then, and had revealed that Hitler's first appetising taste of appeasement came in March '36, during the brief reign of Edward VIII, when that unwise monarch secretly reassured him that Britain would not oppose his occupation of the Rhineland.
Among the few interviewees, we meet a most impressive young Jewish survivor of the camps, recounting the genocidal acts that cost him the whole of his family. And Shirer himself pops up a couple of times, with insights that might have carried more conviction if he didn't keep nearly putting his pipe in his mouth the whole time.
Interesting . . .
Gatorman911 September 2013
This documentary showcases the Hitlerian strategy for conquering hearts and minds by exploiting people's capacity to hate, something as relevant in our time as it seems to have been in his. This is a lesson which is especially worth remembering at this point in history.
I might also add that the IMDb has goofed here, and that the narrator is not Richard Basehart, but in fact whoever it is is never identified in the titles. Also, while the music is darkly effective, it turns out that for some odd reason Lalo Schifrin reprises a prominent piece of his MISSION IMPOSSIBLE score (a march) even though that show was still running in prime time when this came out in 1968.
This also leads me to another point -- one of the other reviewers here made the bizarre comment that the Cold War was over in connection with this documentary; to the contrary, in 1968 it was still going strong, heated as it was by the escalating war in Vietnam. That reviewer also gets his dates wrong with regard to the United States; it entered the war against Hitler in December, 1941, not 1944. Before Christmas, 1942, the US not only had a significant presence at sea fighting German U-boats (it had actually begun that months before hostilities between the two were formally declared in 1941), but it had been an equal partner (at least) of the British in carrying out the invasion of North Africa. By the end of 1943 it had been the leading actor in conquering Sicily and invading Italy, and had began striking Germany in the European war's only daylight strategic bombing campaign.
I might also add that the IMDb has goofed here, and that the narrator is not Richard Basehart, but in fact whoever it is is never identified in the titles. Also, while the music is darkly effective, it turns out that for some odd reason Lalo Schifrin reprises a prominent piece of his MISSION IMPOSSIBLE score (a march) even though that show was still running in prime time when this came out in 1968.
This also leads me to another point -- one of the other reviewers here made the bizarre comment that the Cold War was over in connection with this documentary; to the contrary, in 1968 it was still going strong, heated as it was by the escalating war in Vietnam. That reviewer also gets his dates wrong with regard to the United States; it entered the war against Hitler in December, 1941, not 1944. Before Christmas, 1942, the US not only had a significant presence at sea fighting German U-boats (it had actually begun that months before hostilities between the two were formally declared in 1941), but it had been an equal partner (at least) of the British in carrying out the invasion of North Africa. By the end of 1943 it had been the leading actor in conquering Sicily and invading Italy, and had began striking Germany in the European war's only daylight strategic bombing campaign.
The Cold War is Over! But stereotypes sell!
ooo-112-61884321 July 2011
Unfortunately the aftertaste is very bitter. Yes because of the unthinkable mass killings done by Nazis but even more so because of a subjective way of introducing facts when it was time to recognize the leading role of Russia in defeating Hitler! First, I thought to myself - finally! Americans are showing the history in an unbiased and truthful way. Well, not exactly. It was going well until Germans aimed at Russia. Stereotypes and propaganda prevailed. Of course, Why give up stereotypes - they work! Russians just had to be shown as evil, despite the fact that Nazi took 20 million lives in the former SU. Not just Jews as it is more popular to feature. This number is incomparable to the rest of the world losses in that war. Sure, the American audience must hear about all the minuscule loses in Europe, but skip a big paragraph about without e enormous damages Nazi brought to Russia. Yes, it is convenient for the authors of this film to mention rapes done by Russians in Berlin, and call it the Russian occupation and completely forgetting about equal actions done by Americans. The cold war was over years ago, why keeping the old thinking? Portraying the glorious American army that won the war but completely eliminating the fact that US would not enter the war until 1944 when the war outcome was obvious and suffering minimal losses in comparison to any other looses in that war. Yes, at that time two dictators met on the battle field. Russia, however, never had any plans to conquer the world. Russians had to fight for their lives to defend their country. This film could have been better, if the authors did not purposefully skip the most important part of that terrible war. They did not even have enough strength to recognize that the Fall of the Third Reich did not come simply from the EAST - IT CAME FROM Russia!
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