MAX    
Directed by Menno Meyjes
And Writing credits Menno Meyjes

Tagline: Art + Politics = Power 

Howard Stern is fond of calling this film YOUNG HITLER and says that
it is almost as good as Smallville [the television series that depicts
the teenage years of Superman]

Tongue and cheek aside, this is a dark film which depicts the
relationship between a young Hitler and a Jewish art empressario, Max
Hoffman.

I must say that I was very impressed by the acting job done by John
Cusack. We are used to seeing him perform in light comedies. Here he
shows that he is maturing into an actor whose range is broadening. His
portrayal of the young, somewhat decadent, art dealer is very
believable.

Newcomer Noah Taylor gives a very credible performance as the young
corporal Hitler, a struggling, and not very talented, young artist who
finds more acceptance in the world of fringe hysterical lost cause
politics than he does in the world of serious art.

Yet Hoffman sees a potential in Hitler's manic art. Hoffman urges Hitler
to put all his ideological energy into his art work and give up
associations with anti-Communist fringe groups. After various
unsuccessful attempts at getting Hoffman to display his work, Hitler
shows him prototype drawings of a new highly technical super society,
replete with symbols of power such as the swastika. Hoffman is taken
with these drawings and sees them as the expression of a Germany
frustrated both by it's failure to be a strong force in the world and
it's shame at losing the Great War.

But ultimately Hitler falls in with a group of disaffected antisocial
radicals whose major theme is "Jews are the misfortune of Germany." He
is led to this group by his superior officers in the army. He has, after
all, not left the army because, as he says, he has no where else to go.
He finds his active expression more in speech making than in art. He
finds that he has the power to move crowds, and this power gives him his
sense of belonging.

I will not reveal the denoument of the film except to say that a chain of
events that Hitler himself sets in motion leads to his movement from being
an artist to his becoming an artistic politician and ultimately a fanatical
politician. The rest is history as we sadly know.

Writer/Director Menno Meyjes has not made the young Hitler a sensitive
or sympathetic person that we can feel sorry for. On the contrary, he
has tried to present the political evolution of the future Fuehrer as an
agitator and fascist who lets the opportunity of being a successful
artist pass him by because of his jealousy of the "rich Jews".

The Between the Wars atmosphere of Germany is very well depicted as is the
political blindness of Germany's Jews.

The film loses some of it's impact by making the audience strain to hear
much of the dialog.

More can be said but I would recommend that you see the film and judge
for yourself. This is already a controversial movie and it is doubtfull
that Jewish Hollywood will give it much credibility.


Cast:
-----
John Cusack ....  Max Rothman 
Noah Taylor ....  Adolf Hitler 
Leelee Sobieski ....  Liselore Von Peltz 
Molly Parker (I) ....  Nina Rothman 
Ulrich Thomsen ....  Captain Mayr 
David Horovitch ....  Max's Father 
Janet Suzman ....  Max's Mother 
András Stohl ....  NCO 
John Grillo (I) ....  Nina's Father 
Anna Nygh ....  Nina's Mother 
Krisztián Kolovratnik ....  Nina's Brother 
Peter Capaldi ....  David Cohn 
Yuliya Vysotskaya ....  Hildegard 
János Kulka ....  Mr. Epp 
Katalin Pálfy ....  Mrs. Epp 

Also Known As: Hoffman (2002) (USA: working title)
MPAA: Rated R for language.
Runtime: 106 min