Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Black Fox: The True Story of Adolf Hitler (1962)


Director: Louis Clyde Stoumen

Starring: Adolf & pals, Marlene Dietrich (narrator)

More info: IMDb

Plot: Chronicles the rise of Hitler and Nazism by comparing Hitler to the trickster in the classic story, "Reynard the Fox."



My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

#4 on the Black History Month Project 2012

This documentary does a pretty good job of presenting its subject in a scant 90 minutes. You're not going to get anything out of it that you don't already know if you're keen on the subject but you shouldn't go into something like this thinking you would. After all, it was made in 1961. I'm sure for its time it held more impact but by 50 years later it's one of many in a sea of documentary films on the subject. I wasn't wild about the parallel they were going for with the story of the fox. I get it but the film could have done without it and it wouldn't have made much difference if at all. Ezra Laderman's very modern classical score (performed by the New York Chamber Orchestra and the Juilliard String Quartet) has a 20th century dissonance to it that doesn't work for me. I'm more of a Romantic period when it comes to classical music. I'm glad I saw it but it's length dictates that it only stick to the broad bullet points of the rise and fall of Hitler's Germany.

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