A ‘globetrotting excavation’
Why are we still so obsessed with Hitler? The Meaning of Hitler is an unconventional new documentary that leaves the answer just out of reach. Andrew Lapin reviews the film.
“Is it possible to make a film like this without contributing to the Nazi Cinematic Universe?”
This line of narration comes early in The Meaning of Hitler, a fiery new documentary about the persistent hold Nazism has on our culture, directed by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker.
It’s a cheeky reference to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a world shared by the comic book giant’s many onscreen superhero characters. Like Marvel fandom, Hitler and Nazi obsession encourages cult-like devotion to a sprawling, interconnected alternate reality – except the Nazi Cinematic Universe’s shared fantasy is that Hitler had the right idea about the Jews.
Based on the classic book-length essay by the German journalist Raimund Pretzel (published under his pseudonym of Sebastian Haffner), The Meaning of Hitler is a globetrotting excavation into the heart of society’s fascination with Nazis, antisemitism and fascist ideology.
Why does he remain so visible today?
Why have we anointed him as a figure of unique evil, rather than an evil that could be replicated in the modern day? And why do so many people still seem to admire or – worse – unconsciously emulate him?
Using Pretzel’s original text as a jumping-off point, Epperlein and Tucker throw side-eyes at the entertainment and political apparatuses that have propped up the Hitler myth in the decades since his bunker suicide. Their efforts, like the “Nazi Cinematic Universe” line, simultaneously hope to be sarcastic, self-deprecating and genuinely insightful.
All of this is accomplished in an unusual style that mostly rejects the patient, structural framework of a standard documentary in favour of a free-associative approach more befitting an internet skim.
Large text flashes on screen as we move through space and time at breakneck pace.
The viewer sees archival footage, which collides with present-day memorials, YouTube videos and clips from Western art (from The Producers to Star Wars).
We are in Hitler’s bunker; now we’re at the site of his birth; wait, now we’re at a World Cup celebration in France; now we’re driving down the empty COVID-afflicted streets of New York; now we’re at the site of the Sobibor death camp, which the Nazis took care to destroy any trace of, and which therefore makes a handy metaphor for the dangers of forgetting or denying the lessons of the past.
We get some traditional biographical material on Hitler, too, and much discussion of present-day political moments that the filmmakers offer as parallels to fascist thinking.
Everywhere we go, we also see the boom mics and clapperboards that remind us we are watching a movie.
The deliberate presence of Epperlein and Tucker has the feeling of a YouTube confessional, as they continually ask themselves what good their movie will do.
Why take 90 minutes to warn everyone yet again about Hitler, they wonder, when every mention of him only seems to do more harm than good?
Why, indeed.
JTA
The Meaning of Hitler is now available to stream on Docplay. Visit docplay.com for more.
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