Author: Udo Samel

Format: Black&White

Release Date: 05-23-2006

Details: Amazon.ca The rise and fall of the Third Reich is chronicled on an intimately personal scale in The Goebbels Experiment, an essential addition to the vast legacy of Nazi-related documentaries. Like no other film before it, this remarkable experiment in archival biography combines two fascinating elements: rare and extensive archival footage and dramatic readings (by renowned British actor Kenneth Branagh) from the personal diaries that Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels kept from 1924 until his suicide in 1945. The net effect is unexpectedly striking: As Hitler's Nazi Party gained social and political momentum in the late 1920s and early '30s, Goebbels' daily life was so thoroughly covered by newsreel cameras, home movies, and Third Reich historians that there is enough existing footage of him to match (or at least approximate) nearly every event mentioned in his diaries. From Goebbels' growing influence as an influential orator to his surprisingly affectionate family life, the meticulously edited footage serves as both point and counterpoint to Goebbels' diaries, revealing a paranoid intellectual capable of breathtaking, if not outright schizoid, shifts from one train of thought to another. A perceptive observer of culture (especially the art of motion pictures), he both loved Hitler and felt repeatedly betrayed by the Fuhrer's perceived offenses against him. Prone to chronic bouts of depression, Goebbels found purpose in his unprecedented orchestration of epic-scale propaganda, but his inner demons haunted him until the very end, when it became obvious that the Nazis had completely lost their power. The final images of Goebbels' partially burned body (along with those of his wife and six children) serve as a chilling reminder that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Having never found a satisfying balance between his personal and professional lives as a top-ranking Nazi, Goebbels' fate seems almost predetermined. As a masterful assembly of archival materials, The Goebbels Experiment is not to be missed. --Jeff Shannon

UPC: 720229912112

EAN: 0720229912112

Languages: English

Binding: DVD

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood