Film Review: The Meaning of Hitler

If that title sounds like a yawn, rest assured that this film is anything but boring.

Everybody knows something about Hitler, the fanatical hater who ordered and oversaw the extermination of six million Jews before committing suicide with his wife in order to avoid the consequences of his actions.

But what many don’t know is that Hitler was really just another guy (called here by one expert “the original radical loser” who managed to latch onto the malaise of the time and give people what they wanted: someone and/or something to blame/hate. 

For 30 years, historian Martin Amis says, “Hitler was a flop. He had an Oedipus complex and megalomania and no job. He lacked human relationships. Though it is said that he liked his dog, it is also true that he gave the animal cyanide to test the effect. In addition, he was semiliterate, resisted understanding and saw no downside to lying.” And he was a failed artist.

So how did this nobody rise to power? And how can we avoid giving rise to another such “leader?”

Filmmaker Petra Epperlein and writer Michael Tucker start with the 1978 book “The Meaning of Hitler,” by Sebastian Haffner (pseudonym for journalist Raimund Pretzel, who was a witness to the rise of the Nazis).

Then Epperlein and Tucker take us take us on a road trip through the psychology, geography and events that combined to elevate this nobody to the world stage. Along the way, they talk to experts on Hitler and various other contemporary freethinkers.      

One observer says that if you turn on German TV, there’s a good chance you’ll find a documentary about Hitler. Assuming that’s true, is it evidence that the cult isn’t dead or an attempt to understand him?

We visit Braunau, the “Bethlehem of the Third Reich,” where Hitler was born, observe a rowdy meeting of an anti-Islamist group, then go on to Vienna, where he failed twice to get into art school and we are told he lived in a homeless shelter for a time.

In Mazury, Poland, we meet writer and Holocaust denier David Irving, spouting the usual nonsense that Hitler didn’t order the murder of the Jews.

But somewhere along the way, Hitler started spouting the Führer rhetoric for which he is famous. We see a meeting in Munich, the birthplace of Nazism, in which Hitler speaks to thousands of followers in the orderly groups he became known for. He is aided by new microphones of the time which allowed the speaker to move, gesticulate and alter the volume of the voice and still be heard.

“The Meaning of Hitler” is a warning offered by these filmmakers about those of claim to have “the answer” to any political problem. This film (which, in case you were wondering, includes a few shots of Trump) is a must-see.

"The Meaning of Hitler" opens in theaters and on-demand on Aug. 13.