While I do think this is an excellent film (DVD please), and Sir Derek a wonderful actor, I am always distracted by how little he looks like Hitler and how much he looks like Tim Conway in a Hitler suit. Carol Burnett as Magda Goebbels and Harvey Korman as Goering? Vickie Lawrence as Eva Braun? Springtime For Hitler? A Mel Brooks production!
shareI wrote about this some time ago, and had to come here to totally change it. I hadn't actually seen the movie for years when I commented. I'm watching it now.
Problems with Jacobi's Hitler. Weird eyebrows. Somewhat of a distracted air. And really, Derek Jacobi as Hitler?
But the man is an excellent yeller. I mean in the explosive, frictionless, bottomless quality of his anger. This Hitler's effortlessly revolving in a universe of rage like an exploding sun-- the rage of an articulate man, who can jab and pummel with the very sound of his voice. Then he starts babbling about killing all the cows.
Bruno Ganz is still king of the Hitlers. But Jacobi does a lot with the few minutes he has on camera, later in the film.
I thought that Jacobi really had a number of Hitler's mannerisms and gestures down. Sure, there wasn't much of a physical resemblance, but the same is true of the other cast members (Rutger Hauer doesn't look much like Speer, and the only thing Ian Holm has in common with Goebbels is a short stature).
shareAgreed. Jacobi's Hitler reminded me of a stage interpretation, so I didn't didn't need an exact replica, and his speech (the first one Speer is in the audience for) captured the slow increase in tone as well as the mannerisms. Jacobi stole the show (or film) and made me better understand Hitler as a hypnotic, albeit evil, icon.
Objection, your Honor. You can't preface your second point with first of all.
I agree that Derek Jacobi has too much of a mousy little befuddled schoolteacher demeanor for Hitler. Ian Holm as Goebbels is 10 times scarier.
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