› Articles
I was a teenage NaziPure Unadulterated Inhumanity, Take One!
|
||||||
|
Dead men don’t have halitosis and non-descended testicles. Dead men aren’t hypochondriacs. Dead men don’t wear uniforms. Yet here he is. And not just any dead man. Here is Adolf Hitler. You might know him, the TV voice-over intones through the living-room speakers of North America, from such spectaculars as the Second World War and the mass slaughter of some 11 million people. But you’ve never seen him like this ... His unmistakable voice, soon to soar over tens of thousands with promises of eternal Aryan tomorrows, is pitched higher and sometimes squeaks embarrassingly. He’s shorter than the 1.7 meters he grew up to. (Later, the image-savvy Hitler wore platform shoes to appear taller than his National Socialist supporting actors.) His upper lip is only starting to sprout thin, straight, hard hairs, a moustache in an almost laughable early stage, like two fast finger swipes of greasepaint or feces. It’s lunchtime, and dead men apparently get hungry. “I’m not accustomed to such excellent pastry,” reads a supposedly ravenous young Adolf, in Prague, in February 2003, as his script flutters in the late-winter wind. Sixty-four years to the month after the last Nazi invasion of the Czech lands, he’s back. Not to once again spread the good news of totalitarianism like raspberry preserves on a Linzertorte. He’s here for a television movie, a Portrait of the Despot as a Young Man. Hitler: The Origins of Evil, directed by Christian Duguay (the current release Extreme Ops, 1999’s Prague-filmed Joan of Arc), is – or will be – a four-hour miniseries about the Fuhrer-to-be’s troubled teen- and young-adulthood, slated to air in the United States and Canada in May 2003. Prague is standing in for the less-picturesque Linz, Vienna, Munich, and Berlin – cities that no longer look much like they did in the protagonist’s day, having been so damaged during the protagonist’s war. Lights, camera, cue the Wagner. The origin of The Origin of Evil came in a corporate boardroom in the upper echelons of the North American Entertainment Monolith. American CBS and Canadian Atlantis Alliance are producing this large question mark of a movie. According to The Los Angeles Times – which obtained an early draft of the well-guarded script – the film opens with a 12-year-old Hitler, “imperious and moody,” playing cowboys and Indians with friends home on the range in Linz. It ends with Hitler’s ascension to the German chancellorship following the 1933 Enabling Act, which invested him with the powers of dictatorship. Unfilmed and unmentioned are World War II, the Final Solution, the increasing insanity and paranoia, the Last Ten Days (themselves the subject of a few movies of varying quality). Far from the chilly set on Kampa, the movie – or rather, the idea of the movie, since no one’s seen a final draft of the script, let alone a portion of the production – has triggered a strong response, most of it negative. Jewish activists and organizations worry that the movie will humanize Hitler; will distance him from or make excuses for the terror he wrought; will misinform an already undereducated public about the true nature of Hitler, the pure and unadulterated inhumanity. “Why the need or the desire to make this monster human?” Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, asked in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece “The judgment of history is that he was evil, that he was responsible for millions of deaths. Why trivialize that judgment of history by focusing on his childhood and adolescence? Why do we need to know when he dated, how he dated? We’ll find out he’s a bed-wetter. We know who he is. We know what he did. What are we going to learn?” |
| Page 1, 2, 3 next » |
Article added on Tue 11th Mar, 2003 [last updated Thu 6th Oct, 2005]Share this page 
|
| COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE | ||
| READ ALL ART AND CULTURE ARTICLES MORE ART AND CULTURE ARTICLES |
|
Interview: Al Di Meola by Frank Kuznik American Jazz Guitarist Added on Fri 11th May, 2012 (Last updated Fri 11th May, 2012) |
|
Cycle to Work Campaign by www.dopracenakole.net Alernative Commuting Added on Mon 16th Apr, 2012 (Last updated Mon 16th Apr, 2012) |
|
Prague Youth Theatre Summer Courses by Prague Youth Theatre Press Release Added on Thu 12th Apr, 2012 |
|
Review: The Eden Game by Sam Beckwith Staged Reading of Havel Play Added on Sun 1st Apr, 2012 (Last updated Mon 23rd Apr, 2012) |
|
Ladies Only by Lucie Kavanová Women-Only Train Compartments Added on Thu 16th Feb, 2012 (Last updated Thu 16th Feb, 2012) |
|
Interview: Jean-Paul Bourelly of the Black Stone Raiders by Frank Kuznik Jazz/Blues Guitarist Added on Tue 7th Feb, 2012 (Last updated Tue 7th Feb, 2012) |
|
In the Name of Havel by Ivana Svobodová Renaming Czech Streets Added on Fri 13th Jan, 2012 (Last updated Fri 13th Jan, 2012) |
|
Steamin' on the Piazzeta by Mary Matz Národní Divadlo Piazzeta Sauna Added on Tue 27th Dec, 2011 (Last updated Tue 27th Dec, 2011) |
|
Commentary: Art and Democracy Sent to Prison by Erik Tabery Roman Týc & Ztohoven Added on Tue 20th Dec, 2011 (Last updated Tue 20th Dec, 2011) |
|
Pacey: Doing It My Way by PTV Staff Paul Pacey Interview Added on Fri 16th Dec, 2011 (Last updated Tue 20th Dec, 2011) |
|
The Nightlife of a Great Yogi by Petr Třešňak Swami Maheshvarananda Sex Scandal Added on Mon 12th Dec, 2011 (Last updated Mon 12th Dec, 2011) |
|
Follow-Up: Who's Afraid of Alexei Zakharov? by Hana Čápová Dolní Olešnice Update Added on Tue 6th Dec, 2011 (Last updated Tue 6th Dec, 2011) |
|
Quiet Revolution by Mary Matz How Ballet is Changing Added on Thu 24th Nov, 2011 (Last updated Thu 24th Nov, 2011) |
|
The Best Prague Blogs in the English Language by Isabella Woods Expat Blogosphere Added on Thu 17th Nov, 2011 (Last updated Thu 17th Nov, 2011) |
|
The Beauty of Dumplings by Lucie Kavanová Knedlíky Láznička Added on Thu 17th Nov, 2011 (Last updated Thu 17th Nov, 2011) |
| READ ALL ART AND CULTURE ARTICLES |
Visit the Art and Culture main page
Find listings, help forums, tips and more
Galeria Harfa
The biggest shopping & administration mall in Prague
Ristorante Soave
La cucina italiana
Century 21
World Leader in Real Estate
MORE ARTICLES
Prague TV Home | Contact | About | FAQ | Site Map | Search | Advertise | Privacy | Terms of Service
Prague TV is a Real Time Production. ©2012 All rights reserved.
