Max (2002)

The dark connections between art, desire, and evil fuel Max, an alternate-history fantasy that imagines what might have happened if a Jewish art dealer named Max Rothman (John Cusack, High Fidelity) had befriended Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor, Shine) when he was a frustrated artist, before he turned to politics to vent his hatred. Some critics have expressed fear that even to attempt to make Hitler understandable is to diffuse or dismiss his malignancy; but watching Hitler vacillate between Rothman's attempts at mentorship and the encouragement of an ambitious military officer demonstrates the pettiness, desperation, and craven need that can bring horror into the world. Cusack portrays a generous man with simple decency and not a trace of grandstanding, but Taylor--with glittering eyes and lips twisted with bile--is both fascinating and repellent in an impressive performance. An intelligent and complex film, Max deserves to find an audience. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

Great movie

Art plus politics equals power. Right on. John Cusack was incredible in this movie. That was a really great movie. I love it. I watch it all the time. October 7, 2008

Quite extraordinary

You don't see movies like this every day. A daring Hitler fantasy. Kudos for the intelligent script, though I don't know how long this one survived in theaters. It's not for everyone. I couldn't help chuckling a bit at first every time John Cusack addressed his co-star as "Hitler," as if no one had ever heard the name before, which is what this movie is all about. See it if you like off-beat films that go places where Hollywood usually won't. August 7, 2008

An Interesting What If Scenario

I first caught a glimpse of this film when I was flipping through the premium channels and I came across a film that appeared to have a relatively interesting premise. Needless to say I found it intriguing enough to attempt to track down. Well I finally found it and I've watched it in it's full. The movie starts off very strongly, but unfortunately it takes a fairly weak turn towards the end. I'll go over this in some detail.

Now I will say that what really caught my attention was the fact that this is a movie about Adolf Hitler, for the most part, and post World War I Germany. Basically the premise is between the end of World War I and Hitler's rise to power, what if Hitler had returned to realistically pursue his art career rather than go immediately into politics. I have to admit, it's a very interesting and ambitious supposition. To further make this of interest to us the primary encouragement Hitler has to pursue art is an art dealer named Rothman, who also happens to be Jewish. Surely this throws a kink into the character of the anti-Semitic ruler history knows. Again, another ambitious supposition. Unfortunately the movie has some striking weak points and a lot of that had to do with Hitler's character.

First I'll talk about Cusak's character Rothman. It's pretty clear the viewer is supposed to really like this character and also dislike him. Both Rothman and Hitler have this duality in the film. He's an enjoyable and cynical fellow, but his infidelity puts a black mark on his character, so he's not flawless. There's certainly no taking the high road here. I thought this was wonderfully played by Cusak and I think Rothman was the better developed character in the end. This is probably also due to the fact that I didn't have any preconceived notions of who he was prior to going into the film.

As far as Hitler is concerned I think they got his character wrong on many fronts. It was as if Noah Taylor never actually studied anything about the historical Hitler except for a few snippets of what pop-culture has to show us, but there was no depth! I feel I should point out here that I have read "Mein Kampf," I've read "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," and I've read a few speeches given by Hitler. Unfortunately the Hitler that these writings portray is not the one we have in this film. Taylor's Hitler is a very meek man, one who is uncertain of his abilities on every front. However, it is alluded to that he understands a great deal about the political situation of the times and is very well read (this is close to the historical Hitler). In this film you are intended to pity Hitler and I can't help but think that you are supposed to believe that Hitler didn't want to be anti-Semitic. Sure he harbored the beliefs in the film, but due to his friendship with Rothman you are led to believe that he may not have really believed any of it.

However, when one sits down and reads Mein Kampf he truly believed everything. In fact he believed it passionately through and through. In this movie it is the military that urges him to begin speaking in public. However, Taylor doesn't exude the strength the true Hitler had for public speaking. Most of the speeches presented in the movie are far from eloquent or even remotely rational. Having read a couple of speeches that Hitler had given, even early on in 1921, I am confronted with a Hitler that really thought out his position. He was very rational in connecting the dots to his conclusions. Granted they were entirely wrong on many fronts, but it doesn't change the fact that they were very methodical. The speeches Taylor gives in this film are not eloquent in the least, they're not rationally presented and they did nothing to make me feel like I was watching the confident leader of the Third Reich. Most of the speeches consist of saying "We were stabbed in the back" numerous times and in one speech that supposedly swayed the crowd on a major scale concluded with him yelling "Bloodjew" numerous times. I'm sorry, these lines just lacked passion and they were the majority of the "speech". Only in the final speech does he deliver a single sentence that even remotely goes down the path the real Hitler would have, but the movie does not keep that up. Just because Taylor is physically yelling the line does not mean he gives off a feel of passion.

I fully understand what "Max" was trying to do in their portrayal of Hitler. It has the added "what if" scenario in terms of Hitler being primarily influenced by the army to go into public speaking when he really wants to commit to an art career. I realize that art was a major influence in Hitler's life growing up and as he got older. In fact he goes on quite a bit about the importance of art in "Mein Kampf", so you can tell he still had a passion for that subject. The movie ends in a manner that shows no matter what happens history cannot be changed. It's also a film that focuses quite a bit on art concepts, so it is helpful if you're fairly open minded as a viewer. I do consider myself to be fairly open minded, but I just wasn't buying into their portrayal of Hitler. I think Taylor did a good job acting this out, but I don't think he was distinctly trying to be the historical Hitler; this may not have been his decision. He may have been doing what the writers and directors asked. If they asked him to play Hitler in this fashion, then he did it perfectly. Nevertheless, for the historian in me, I couldn't buy into it and it really put an end to the film for me.

I have no doubt that many would consider this kind of movie somewhat controversial and provocative. It does make you think about the different possibilities that exist within any kind of timeline (don't worry; I will avoid the drawn out concepts of parallel universe theory in light of quantum physics). I honestly can't fully recommend the film as a good drama, because it just didn't pan out in a sensible way. It was almost like there were too many "what if" scenarios for me to really get behind the plausibility factor. Maybe if you're a much more forgiving person you can find some real merit in this. I mean, I thought the premise and acting was pretty good, just the overall execution didn't pan out for me in the end. April 17, 2008

Really dumb

Some time ago British TV made the sitcom "Heil Honey I'm Home", an over-the-top Honeymooners/All in the Family send-off featuring lovebirds Hitler and Eva Braun living in a Lebensraum-challenged flat in suburban England, next door to their wacky neighbors the Goldensteins. Now imagine that someone took that show, deleted the laugh track and marketed it with some serious sounding tag line like "a disturbing look into the heart of Evil." That is basically what "Max" is. I mean, for crying out loud, is it even possible to think up a more ridiculous premise than a 30 year old Adolf Hitler becoming best buddies with a decadent, left-wing, upper-class Jewish performance artist? What's the next project for dramatic revisionism? Josef Stalin's early career in a lesbian ballet troupe?

Even if one could accept such a far-fetched conceit, the historical and stylistic blunders are too large to overlook. For some reason Hitler has a funny, foreign accent; Cusack does not. The movie leads us to believe that Hitler was converted to anti-Semitism by a puppet show produced by right-wing army officers, when in reality his pre-war experiences in Vienna had already turned him against the Jews. Most jarring of all is that this movie's Hitler is a diminutive, charmless, greasy nerd rather than a man who, as we know from history, was a charismatic, magnetic leader from earliest childhood.

The movie isn't totally laughable; the sets and costumes and general atmosphere achieve an admirable effect. However, the storyline is a bad joke and the characterization consists of the same stock caricature that Hollywood has been using since the war. It's a bore and a failure. Avoid. March 28, 2008

A Portrait of Young Hitler

What makes a movie like this fascinating is that it provides a fictional, yet accurate portrait of a well known persoanlity. This story concerns itself with a little known part of Hitler's life. His post WW1 years when he struggled to identify himself as either artist or political demogogue. The movie tantalizes us with the notion that at this critical moment had Hitler's life taken a different turn the whole 20th century might have been changed. This is quite compelling stuff.

The actors are brilliant in this film. I am not normally a John Cusack fan, but his in-your-face contemporary style of acting works well here. The actor playing young Hitler does a supurb job. He manages to provide a human portrait of this infamous person, while making him appear pathetic and loathsome at the same time. Many might think it is dangerous to put a human face on this horrible person, but how else can we understand what he became without trying to do this. To see the evolution of his character which is done brilliantly here is to provide a greater understanding of Hitler and people like him. How could this pathetic person shown here become the future dictator of Nazi Germany? One wonders indeed. History is full of such ironies, and this is certainly one of the greatest examples. Ronald Reagan was considered a joke 20 years before he became the icon of the Republican Party!

The point to consider here is how many examples of this exist today. How many marginalized, and frustrated persons exist in our society today who might one day become such persons or commit such crimes. In seeing this portrait of a frustrated, loathsome person one is reminded of the many moslems who live in the West and feel repulsed by it. What might any one of these individuals do one day with their repressed hatred of all that is Occidental. In looking at this film I find many chilling examples today of what might be. While this is fiction based on fact, this film does a brilliant job of showing us the evolution of character to become one of the greatest tyrants of the last century. While imperfect perhaps, this is certainly worth watching and will provide some chilling moments for reflection. Highly recommended.

One fault I found with the DVD production was one of the worst jobs I've ever seen with English subtitles. Someone was used who did not have an innate knowledge of Engish, resulting in some pretty funny, but alarming translations! This film would also benefit with having some extra features to provide context for the time and characters shown. January 29, 2008

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