After seeing an interesting video from the Feral Historian on the book of the same name. His use of clips from the movie adaption from 1994 led me to look for that, and easily found the Made-for-TV movie right on the tubes, and figured I’d share it here.
Rutger gives a great performance, but the film isn’t regarded super highly. The author of the book has said that he doesn’t care for it either, so bear that in mind if you decide to give it a watch.
The setting, per the intro:
After a failed Normandy invasion, the US pulled out of the war, and Germany was allowed to conquer all of Europe, including Britain, and the atrocities of the Holocaust never become public knowledge.
Germany is still embroiled in its perpetual war against the Soviet Union, which is still led by the 85-year-old Joseph Stalin. The 1960 US presidential election is won by Joseph Kennedy,
Hitler is trying to rebrand Nazi Germany with a softer image in the hopes of officially ending the war with the US and forming an alliance, now that a newly elected President Joseph Kennedy is in power (whose anti-Semitic views have been well-publicized).
In 1964, as Adolf Hitler’s 75th birthday approaches, Kennedy heads to a summit meeting in Germany, whose borders are being opened to media from the United States and Latin America.
However, when a body is found floating in a lake near Berlin, an SS Major. Berlin Police detective, Xavier March, is assigned the case, and threatens to derail everything.
Watched this last night. Didn’t realize it was based on a novel by Robert Harris, I’m a big fan of his Ancient Rome novels.
A couple related movies on youtube:
- Inside the Third Reich: Rutger Hauer as a nazi again, this time as the architect Speer, based on Speer’s autobiography (which was arguably pretty self-serving) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWMzzzoBtzs
- Speer and Hitler: the German version of Inside the Third Reich, I think, haven’t seen it yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cReqkNG-r0U
- Die Wanseekonferenz: a re-enactment of the “final solution” conference mentioned in this movie. Horrifying, though they’re just sitting around a table most the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URSNN5mnI2g
I don’t really like posting Nazi movies but apparently it’s something we need to start thinking about again.
Watched this today and thought it was good