Hitler The Last Ten Days (1973)
Starring: Alec Guinness, Simon Ward, Adolfo Celi, Diane
Cilento, Gabriele Ferzetti
Plot: Product Description: Leading up to Hitler’s suicide,
the film recounts the final days of strategizing and infighting among the
Fuhrer’s closest advisors, as well as his relationship with Eva Braun.
My Review and Thoughts:
I have often felt this was an underappreciated film. This
British Italian film has a wonderful cast of actors. An exploration of Adolf
Hitler’s last ten days inside the Furhur Bunker in Nazi Germany. The movie is something that captures great acting,
flawless cinematography, and is directed in a wonderful, stand out way. This
film is memorable, and is something to return to often.
Olive Films gave a wonderful outlet for this film. A Blu-ray
fits this film perfectly. A worthy product to enjoy and speak highly of. Olive
Films has allowed this older film to be enjoyed on this new outlet. Another great
example of Olive Films choice of sometimes forgotten, or overlooked cinema.
This is a Blu-ray product that I think should be owned and
enjoyed. Olive Films like always, gives a great Blu-ray product to a film that
should be watched.
This stars an ensemble cast of brilliant actors. First and
foremost is the one and only genius actor, Alec Guinness in the main role of
Adolf Hitler. Guinness is one of those actors that was able to bring an
emotional reality toward the viewer. He was able to create his characters in a
living, breathing reality, and the character of Adolf Hitler is no different.
His performance of Adolf Hitler is one of those memorable performances that create the
human side to one of the most brutal monsters in all of history. Guinness owned
the part and crafted an excellent, emotional performance that stands out.
Next I have to mention Simon Ward. Ward is another brilliant
example of a flawless performer in films. That is something that makes this
film stand out, is the whole cast. The beautiful and extraordinary Doris
Kunstmann as Hitler’s girlfriend Eva Braun. Also starring Adolfo Celi, Joss
Ackland, Philip Stone, Diane Cilento, Sheila Gish, Gabriele Ferzetti, and Eric
Porter. Each performer play off each other with utterly wonderful chemistry.
Doris Kunstmann and Alex Guinness are flawless together as two characters in
history that are displayed in this film with a high quality of believability.
Another example of this film is the music displayed and
performed by Mischa Spoliansky. Spoliansky was an amazing Russian born music
composer that left the world with a great, vast brilliance, and love of music.
Hitler The Last Ten Days was his final film that he composed for. He had
composed and worked on many upon many films and TV projects in his life. He passed away in 1985 but
left an amazing range of music which can be heard throughout Hitler The Last
Ten Days. His music is still used today and most recently for the film
soundtrack of Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight (2014).
This movie is based on the book written by Gerhardt Boldt.
Boldt was a Nazi who was there in the Bunker in the last ten days. The book was
titled Hitler’s Last Days: An Eye-Witness Account. Being stationed in Adolf
Hitler’s Fuhrerbunker, Boldt was able to attend daily briefings with Hitler, and
top Nazi’s. He was able to observe and be placed in a pivotal reality in
history. He saw the workings first hand of top Nazi’s such as Martin Bormann,
Herman Goring, Joseph Goebbels and the monster himself, Adolf Hitler. His book is an extraordinary journey that firsthand
knowledge captured. If you get a chance seek out the book and read it. This
movie captures in great detail the inner workings, destruction, and failure
of Nazi Germany in the last days, and moments of World War 2. Boldt is played by
actor Kenneth Colley in Hitler The Last Ten Days. Colley is probably most
remembered for playing the character Admiral Piett in Star Wars Empire Strikes
Back, and Star Wars Return of the Jedi. Colley is so much more than that, he is
a flawless actor who captured many wonderful examples of characters throughout
his vast career. He was a stable as a character actor in many films and TV.
This is directed by the Academy Award winning screenplay writer,
Ennio de Concini. Concini was a powerhouse in the Italian film world. Interesting
is that he only directed 3 films, and Hitler The Last Ten Days was one of those
films. His main focus was writing screenplays for film and TV. He
had a vast career starting in the 1940’s and went all the way up until the late
90’s. I will always know him from writing the screenplay to one of the great
horror films of all time, 1960’s Black Sunday. He also wrote the screenplay for
one of my favorite directors of all time, Lucio Fulci’s 1975 western, Four of
the Apocalypse. What is also interesting to note about Concini is he had a lot
of misses in his screenplay writing. Yes he was an Academy Award Winning
Screenplay writer, but he also created films of lessor value and quality. A lot
of cheesy, low budget films such as Assignment: Outer Space, and Colossus and
the Amazon Queen, amongst many others. Now as I have mentioned he was a talented
screenplay writer that did win an award for his writing of the screenplay, for
the amazing film 1961’s Divorce Italian Style. This is a great extraordinary
film and deserves all the accolades it gets. Concini directed Hitler The Last
Ten Days as a film to be remembered. He directed a tight structured film with
amazing performers.
Audio/Video:
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
For never being on Blu-ray before, the film looks good. The
product is a worthy outlet for this biographical drama.
Overall:
Olive Films did another great choice of film to bring out. I
am a huge World War 2 buff and being able to see this, and own this is a great
reality. Olive Films always picks great films for Blu-ray, and Hitler The Last
Ten Days is no different.
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