disrespect

kols

I would have said obscene but I'm close to overusing that word.

There's nothing wrong with questioning history's orthodoxies and, when I was a kid, I questioned whether Hitler had died or escaped. For various reasons I decided that the prevailing story made the most sense. Won't go into all the little bits that convinced me of Hitler's suicide because all of those bits led to a personal opinion, not a definitive conclusion.

So, seeing the trailers for Hunting Hitler, I sat down to watch all four episodes before making any judgments.

Didn't take all four, just one.

Hunting Hitler is another example of Discovery's Division of Lunatic Fringe attempting to exploit its audience.

Specifically, the episode I did watch claimed that the ruins of a stone building in the Bolivian(?) jungle along with some shards of glass bottles proved that Hitler had escaped and been secreted in said location. The bottles, especially, were cited as having held the 'medicine' Hitler depended on. They never mentioned the Mermaid who would have been Hitler's lover if he could have gotten it up or the Alien space warp located in the Bermuda Triangle that transported him to South America. Maybe those were covered in the other episodes.

This is where the words disrespect and obscene come in: this mini-series does not even come close to being a serious investigation of Hitler's fate; just the usual Discovery use of extremely slim 'Evidence' to titillate those in the audience predisposed to a specific conclusion. Those audience members deserve a serious examination of both sides of the issue, not a bunch of idiots running around yelling "Look, Hitler scat!" and expecting that particular segment of the audience to clap.

What's also obscene is the complete absence of any attempt to portray a realistic sense of Berlin as the Russians closed in or the mood in the bunker. Just the usual Discovery warping of both history and evidence. Lucky for the producers that any WWII vets still alive are too old to do much harm but I would advise them to watch out for their kids and grand-kids.

As for me and my bits: two of them did it for me. First the extremely complicated logistics of any attempt to get him out of Berlin and, more importantly, the lack of will to escape. Sick, worn-out, drug addicted and witnessing his fantasies crumble with no chance of redemption, why would he want to?

Correction: It was Argentina, not Bolivia. Bolivia pops up later, when H decides to perfect the V-3. Busy man.

score 1/10

kols 14 January 2016

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3394996/