As far as the genre of 'Biopics' go, there have been critical hits in the form of Ed Wood and Walk the Line and then there have been even bigger hits in the form of Raging Bull. Whilst I liked all those films to a certain degree, I am always sceptical on whether or not someone's life story will actually make for good film material. Film's are supposed to suspend reality by transporting us into a fictional world with fictional people and various acts it can be Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle or it can be Pulp Fiction; it doesn't matter truth is none of it's real and the odd obvious continuity error that pops up now and again only convinces us further.
So, for someone to actually have their life put into a world of film must mean that they've gone through some pretty harsh lessons and come out on the other side for the best. It doesn't matter if you're Edward Wood, Jake La Motta, Johnny Cash or even Adolf Hitler if your story isn't interesting or doesn't make for good film material then it isn't going to make a good or great film. You must remember that the film Max is called Max after Max Rothman (Cusak); not 'Adolf' after Adolf Hitler which is an easy thing to do seeing as the film revolves around Hitler, played by Noah Taylor whose previous film to this was Lara Croft: Tomb Raider perhaps on it's own a biopic of a computer game character? What is fascinating in this film is the character study of Hitler; ruler of Germany from 1933 and reason so many people needlessly died during the second world war and the holocaust. What isn't as fascinating is the story of Max Rothman and the character of him: a 1910s German equivalent of perhaps a yuppie as he does his best to live the ultra-good life. Funny then, how the film is indeed called Max as the emphasis is supposedly supposed to be on him.
In terms of authenticity of the era; watching Noah Taylor act Adolf Hitler rather well and the overall theme of the film, you can have few complaints. A minor quibble may be the accents early on regarding Hitler's soldier comrades as they flick between English and Scottish as Hitler remains German and the general feeling Max feels like a TV Movie but showing Hitler in a light such as this one is a very rare and thankful thing to achieve, especially given the fact director Menno Meyjes is Dutch and the fact Holland lost a lot of life as well as scenery due to Hitler and his ideas of a perfect Europe. If the film had been made by a German showing Hitler as a somewhat misunderstood being, you can probably predict the uproar that'd happen it's worth saying here that I haven't seen 2004's Downfall yet.
Max is a film that suggests Hitler didn't necessarily start out 'evil' but of course none of us do. Dictator's such as Hitler; Saddam Hussein; Joseph Stalin and Julius Cesar all have events and incidences in their lives that sway them into that realm of insanity through power and they took it out on their own people. Most of us will know Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany's defeat in the First World War; something that is mentioned at the very beginning of the film when a statistic comes up: most of the Germans dead in WWI were Jewish; thus, they failed to "win the war for us". But this thinking is blurred and Max is a film that shows how Hitler came to this conclusion in a rather messy and inconsistent way. I'm not sure when Hitler discovered this statistic of Jews in WWI but when it comes to anti-Semitic remarks around his person and puppet shows mimicking the Jews and giving of a message that they are polluting Germany, Hitler is unimpressed and labels them all anti-Semitic fools. But here's the flaw: if Hitler like everyone else knew of the statistic given to us at the beginning of the film then why didn't he join in the mocking of the Jews? Consequently, perhaps these events like the puppet show and everything else never happened and this is a poor representation of Hitler in his youth if this is the case.
A film that deals with a descent into madness can often be extremely effective: Taxi Driver, American Psycho and perhaps a further biopic: Raging Bull but Max deals with Hitler's descent in a heavy handed way. The film suggests that things like puppet shows; soldier banter and anti-Semitic lectures from captains got to Hitler and swayed him. I feel this is inaccurate since the real reason Hitler rose and became the enthusiastic dictator he was was due to the Treaty of Versailles: Germany's limitation of national defence which angered Hitler. The film also shows Hitler to be more worried about his lack of artistic skills and his need to dictate rather than focus on what really made Hitler angry: the Treaty; Germany's actual state in terms of defence and finance and Jews "loosing them the war". I don't want this to sound like I'm knocking the film too much or supporting Hitler in any way at all. The film is shot well and given great mise-en-scene; Hitler's dictator scenes are fascinating as are the pieces of art he comes up with nearer the end to do with the Nazi regime but by this point, I was not convinced Hitler as a character had been developed in the final third that well; nor were his reasons for becoming 'evil'. It's because of this that the film perhaps feels like it is leaving a little too much up to our own knowledge of Hitler and WWII to fill in the gaps.
So, for someone to actually have their life put into a world of film must mean that they've gone through some pretty harsh lessons and come out on the other side for the best. It doesn't matter if you're Edward Wood, Jake La Motta, Johnny Cash or even Adolf Hitler if your story isn't interesting or doesn't make for good film material then it isn't going to make a good or great film. You must remember that the film Max is called Max after Max Rothman (Cusak); not 'Adolf' after Adolf Hitler which is an easy thing to do seeing as the film revolves around Hitler, played by Noah Taylor whose previous film to this was Lara Croft: Tomb Raider perhaps on it's own a biopic of a computer game character? What is fascinating in this film is the character study of Hitler; ruler of Germany from 1933 and reason so many people needlessly died during the second world war and the holocaust. What isn't as fascinating is the story of Max Rothman and the character of him: a 1910s German equivalent of perhaps a yuppie as he does his best to live the ultra-good life. Funny then, how the film is indeed called Max as the emphasis is supposedly supposed to be on him.
In terms of authenticity of the era; watching Noah Taylor act Adolf Hitler rather well and the overall theme of the film, you can have few complaints. A minor quibble may be the accents early on regarding Hitler's soldier comrades as they flick between English and Scottish as Hitler remains German and the general feeling Max feels like a TV Movie but showing Hitler in a light such as this one is a very rare and thankful thing to achieve, especially given the fact director Menno Meyjes is Dutch and the fact Holland lost a lot of life as well as scenery due to Hitler and his ideas of a perfect Europe. If the film had been made by a German showing Hitler as a somewhat misunderstood being, you can probably predict the uproar that'd happen it's worth saying here that I haven't seen 2004's Downfall yet.
Max is a film that suggests Hitler didn't necessarily start out 'evil' but of course none of us do. Dictator's such as Hitler; Saddam Hussein; Joseph Stalin and Julius Cesar all have events and incidences in their lives that sway them into that realm of insanity through power and they took it out on their own people. Most of us will know Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany's defeat in the First World War; something that is mentioned at the very beginning of the film when a statistic comes up: most of the Germans dead in WWI were Jewish; thus, they failed to "win the war for us". But this thinking is blurred and Max is a film that shows how Hitler came to this conclusion in a rather messy and inconsistent way. I'm not sure when Hitler discovered this statistic of Jews in WWI but when it comes to anti-Semitic remarks around his person and puppet shows mimicking the Jews and giving of a message that they are polluting Germany, Hitler is unimpressed and labels them all anti-Semitic fools. But here's the flaw: if Hitler like everyone else knew of the statistic given to us at the beginning of the film then why didn't he join in the mocking of the Jews? Consequently, perhaps these events like the puppet show and everything else never happened and this is a poor representation of Hitler in his youth if this is the case.
A film that deals with a descent into madness can often be extremely effective: Taxi Driver, American Psycho and perhaps a further biopic: Raging Bull but Max deals with Hitler's descent in a heavy handed way. The film suggests that things like puppet shows; soldier banter and anti-Semitic lectures from captains got to Hitler and swayed him. I feel this is inaccurate since the real reason Hitler rose and became the enthusiastic dictator he was was due to the Treaty of Versailles: Germany's limitation of national defence which angered Hitler. The film also shows Hitler to be more worried about his lack of artistic skills and his need to dictate rather than focus on what really made Hitler angry: the Treaty; Germany's actual state in terms of defence and finance and Jews "loosing them the war". I don't want this to sound like I'm knocking the film too much or supporting Hitler in any way at all. The film is shot well and given great mise-en-scene; Hitler's dictator scenes are fascinating as are the pieces of art he comes up with nearer the end to do with the Nazi regime but by this point, I was not convinced Hitler as a character had been developed in the final third that well; nor were his reasons for becoming 'evil'. It's because of this that the film perhaps feels like it is leaving a little too much up to our own knowledge of Hitler and WWII to fill in the gaps.