Hitler's SS : Portrait In Evil (1985)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

People are voting emotionally.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Directed by Jim Goddard, Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil is a 1985 TV film about two German brothers, Helmut (Bill Nighy) and Karl Hoffmann (John Shea), whom forge their way into power, during the Nazi regime. I think the movie did a great job, in showing how most German felt about the Nazis. Most Germans did not become Nazis, because they were racist or anti-Semitism, but went along with the party because it promised them things that they wanted and needed. It provided for their livelihood. There was a great deal of pressure to join it. It was also very unthinkable to not join the party. The rise of the Nazis was all very logical and it shows here. A lot of people find that idea hard to swallow, but peoples' motives for supporting the Nazi Party, came to the fact, that it held the standard of living. While, the movie didn't do that good of a job, showing the severe economic depression AKA hyperinflation, which caused shortages in everything nor the very hard feelings over the Versailles Treaty. The movie does show how the Nazi program emphasized the protection of German industry and agriculture through tariffs and import quotas. Karl became enthusiastic by the Nazis, through this. I love the character arch of him and how he become disillusioned when things got worst. I have to say, John Shea is a very fine actor. It's too bad, he didn't get much roles, after this film. He's by far, the most realistic person on the film. The only thing, that I didn't like about his character, was the sub-plot romantic with a lounge singer, Mitzi Templer (Lucy Gutteridge). It remind me, too much of 1972's Cabaret. Tony Randall as Putzi, the German comedian who employs Mitzi as a singer seem a little similar to the Master of ceremonies of Cabaret fame. Everything about those scenes make it seem like they felt they were ripping off the Oscar Winner film. While, it's probably one of worst rip-offs, I have even witness, it's by far, one of the more entertaining parts of the film. Bill Nighy as Karl's brother, Helmut was alright for the most part, but he's gives such a robotic performance, even before his character show his coldness, when he join the Schutzstaffel (SS). It felt a bit underwhelming. The supporting cast was pretty good for the most part, but David Warner as Reinhard Heydrich was a bit odd. He looks nothing like him. The movie pacing is another fault. Its moves, way too slow in the beginning, and way too much fast, toward the end. The years preceding World War II were treated hurriedly and a lot of information wasn't explain, well. It got really confusing at times. I hate that historic events such like the Gleiwitz incident & Kristallnacht AKA Night of Broken Glass weren't shown, but mention off-screen. The whole World War 2 phrase was even worst. It move a little much fast, for my taste. It jump from the invasion of Poland in 1939, to the assassination of Heydrich in 1942, to 1944's July 20th Plot on Adolf Hitler's life, and finally the end of the war. I really disappoint that the whole July 20th Plot sub-plot wasn't given much time. It was play off-screen, and mention in one scene. Honestly, the movie could had more material if they work that, in, more. Honestly, the movie would had work better if it was just about the 1934's Night of the Long Knives, than the whole rise and fall of the SS. I love, the parts when brothers was pit against brother. The whole idea of the Sturmabteilung (SA) Vs the Schutzstaffel (SS) was the best part of the film. For the most part, the movie wasn't that entertaining. It didn't have that much action. Knowing that the movie has a low budget. I really didn't think, they could pull off, the whole World War 2 part of the story and I was mostly right. For history accuracies, the movie was alright for the most part. The movie does have some smart scenes that worth watching on its own. I love the whole discussion about author, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and his depiction of the human condition. Specifically, the work of "Elective Affinities", when they debate on, being the hammer or the anvil. The whole movie had this gloomy look to it, and the bitter ending, kinda left a sour feel to it. For the most part, the movie is pretty predictable and depressing. It didn't help that the movie slipped into the public domain due mainly to lapses in copyright registrations. Due to this, it means that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either badly made or in extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation copies of the film. So, the one that I got, was in horrible subservience. It was kinda grainy, dark and full of dirt, at times. It was still watchable, but could had been better. At least, it's not the original DVD version of the film, which cut the entire first half of the film, providing a brief summary in an introduction clip and then began with the invasion of Poland in 1939. That would have suck. The original version of Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil was released in 1985 on network television and ran either as a single four hour program or as two two-hour installments. Both versions were edited for commercials, so it would be hard to find. The next significant broadcast of the film was on the History Channel during its "Movies in Time" series. That film was run for three hours with significant edits and cutting of several major scenes. Not worth it. Overall: I don't recommended watching, unless you're a history buff. Even with that, it might be hard to watch.

Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil tells the story of this para-military force. the personal enforcement arm of Adolph Hitler in the Nazi movement and the Hoffman brothers and their connections.Bill Nighy is the cleverer of the two brothers, recognizing the Nazi Party as the coming force in Germany in 1931 and decides to join this elite group. His brother John Shea likes a good time which includes a brawl every now and then. The SA under Ernest Roehm seems like his place in the Nazi movement.Well we all know what happened to Roehm as his ambitions began to exceed even Hitler's. Shea gets himself tossed into Dachau for a little Nazi style rehabilitation. During the Thirties before the war, places like Dachau were not yet the systematic slaughter camps they later became. Shea eventually is released and is drafted into the army.In the meantime Nighy becomes an upwardly mobile guy in the S.S. and a special favorite of Reinhard Heydrich, very chillingly played by David Warner. Through all this Carroll Baker their mother worries about her boys. She's never been crazy about the Nazi movement, she sees what it's doing to Germany and her family. She's most of all concerned with her youngest son who is played by three different juvenile actors who is an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth.What becomes of the Hoffman family is a tale tragically told many times over in Germany of that period. In this most British cast film, Tony Randall as a German comedian with trenchant observations of the time and Jose Ferrer as a Jewish professor have two excellent cameo roles.No new ground is broken here, but this is a story that deserves retelling thousands of times over.

Handsomely produced TV film is an ambitious project in that it follows the rise of the Third Reich while telling the story of a German family, in particular, two brothers (BILL NIGHY and JOHN SHEA) who are swept into the wartime problems when the oldest joins the SS in 1931 and becomes a good Nazi (until he sees the scope of the horror) and the other eventually joins because he's under the illusion that he can change things from the inside.Although it covers a span of '33 to '45, none of the actors age noticeably, the one weakness in an otherwise carefully detailed production.This is not the first time this sort of subject has been handled. A less epic, more narrowly focused melodrama of two brothers with opposing viewpoints was made in the 1940s (UNDERGROUND - 1941) with JEFFREY LYNN and PHILIP DORN as German brothers taking opposite viewpoints of the wartime philosophy and directed by Vincent Sherman. Although it was a well done melodrama, it did not attempt to get the full flavor of the Third Reich and its various operations as this film does.JOHN SHEA is especially impressive as the brother who speaks his mind against some of the Nazi practices and at one point even ends up for awhile in Dachau, the concentration camp. The other brother manages to get him released but there are still many trials and tribulations for both of them before the film reaches a dramatic climax. CARROL BAKER does a nice job as a worried German mother.David WARNER is impressive as Reinhard Heydrich, the sarcastic and brutal Nazi officer who gets his comeuppance before the war is over. All of the performances are first rate and the story covers a good deal of actual history without ever losing track of its main characters.Absorbing stuff, lengthy, but well worth watching.

Must be one of the most underrated British movies for decades.It charts the rise to power of the SS from 1931 up to its downfall in Berlin in 1945.The only historically wrong scene of any consequence was the assassination of Heydrich.It shows him to be attacked in the country on the way in to Prague,when in fact the killing took place in the centre of Prague,more or less.Other than that it is well documented and absorbing to watch.John Shea, Michael Elphick were both excellent in the roles they played.I recommend anyone with a passing interest in the SS or the last war to certainly watch this movie.It was a pleasure to see a war movie that did not depict the Americans winning it and showed the German side all the way through,with only a fleeting glimpse of two allied soldiers.I would say it was 70% political war and 30% wartime relationships.Super stuff.