The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

"Schtonk" is a German movie that was released back in 1992, so it will have its 25th anniversary next year. The director is Helmut Dietl and he is also one of the pretty many writers that worked on the script here. This one was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar and won also many other glories during all kinds of awards ceremonies. If you look at the cast, you will find so many known names if you have an interest in German cinema: George, Ochsenknecht, Ferres, Mühe, Hörbiger, Hoppe, Manzel etc. All you have to do is check the cast list to see who else is in here. No surprise to anybody should be that this film also received major glories at the German Film Awards, such as Best Picture, but also lead actor for George. And as a result, this is possibly the man's most known work today, just because of all the awards recognition. But it is just one great George performance from a stellar body of work. I cannot deny I am a fan of his and his performance here is one reason why. I am not sure if I would call it his best, but it's right up there with his finest.As for the other player, some are solid, some are not. The biggest letdown is once again (not surprisingly at all) Veronica Ferres, who simply isn't a good actress and with somebody else in her role, this could have been an even better film I think. It is still fairly decent though. It is about fake Hitler diaries and greedy ruthless authors and journalists who don't care about the truth as long as they become popular. A whole lot of this film is over the top, but it still works somehow and George going pretty hammy at times is even not a problem at all I think. Overall, I believe the late George and the late Dietl make it work. It is nothing you should watch if you are in for a historically accurate film, but there are some pretty funny moments and this film will make you shake your head on more than just one occasion and with that I don't mean because the film is absurd or unrealistic (it is intended that way for comedic purpose), but exactly from a positive perspective about how good of a satire it is at times. Yet there are weak moments and weak performances (not just Ferres, but she stands out negatively) that keep me from giving this an even higher rating and consider it one of the year's best. George elevates the material a lot and makes up for some of the weaker stuff performance-wise too or for an occasional length (not too many), but it's not enough for greatness.

It was and it is an embarrassing moment for the German magazine "Stern", what happened while dealing with the famous fake "Hitler Diaries" which definitely brought them fame but from a different site. Such a disaster deserves a movie based upon it, describing the creation, the quotes and the medial attention to Hitler's diaries, which later were discovered as a grotesque fake. And here we have it. In a small charming reference to the genius and timeless Charlie Chaplin satire we got a movie that is based on the famous fake of the 80s in which went out into the world. As it is a satire of the actual events the characters are a bit different than in real life. Maybe a few extra situations were included. But this makes it even more funny. This movie is starring some famous German actors e.g. Uwe Ochsenknecht, Götz George, Ulrich Mühe, Armin Rohde, Harald Juhnke, Veronika Ferres etc. And they all do a great performance in portraying their characters, especially Ochsenknecht as the faker Fritz Knobel/Konrad Kujau who looks more like Hitler himself during the process (I write his handwriting better than my own) and George as the journalist Hermann Willié/Gerd Heidemann who becomes more crazy about the diaries and everything about Hitler that he is willing to do everything, just for a good story and is even willing to buy a bunch of burned book pages and underwear which is sold to him as the ash of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. And even hopes to find the real Hitler alive. The story is told with many actual details including the famous FH on the diary's cover, instead of AH (for Adolf Hitler), also including the editors' ideas for the meaning of FH, actual quotes, the press conference with the diaries and many more.Another interesting fact is that this movie not only features a lot of music from the Third Reich (the great Zarah Leander) or related music (Richard Wagner), it also features people who were related to the Third Reich, like Karl Schönböck who was in some Nazi Propaganda movies, like in 1943's "Titanic". Also Götz George's father Heinrich was the biggest actor in the 30s and 40s, starring in the biggest Nazi (propaganda) movies. Later I also saw the British TV-series "Selling Hitler", which is based on the same events, but features the actual names of the real people and companies. It was also a very good one but it plays in a completely different league than "Schtonk", not only is it longer and gives a more detailed description of the events. But in this movie the directors were more concentrated on describing the story from the German site. So you can't compare these two at all. I can definitely recommend this movie. It's an entertaining and funny movie, which can be seen again and again.

I don't understand why this German satire, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, has never been released in NTSC video format. There are numerous lesser foreign films available on video in the US and Canada, but mysteriously not "Schtonk!". I've wanted to see this movie for years and seized the opportunity the other day when I found it at a movie lover's video store (Scarecrow Video, Seattle, WA) in PAL format. This required me to rent a machine that converts the PAL signal, and as I paid the $800 deposit to the store clerk for said machine I joked, "This better be worth the wait" (and the deposit).The success of the comedy in "Schtonk!" is due to the fact that it is based in fact. If it weren't for this being an actual event in German history, the ludicrous story would seem just too stupid to be funny. The idiocy of the characters actions is of course embellished, which is why the movie is so good. The magazine reporter desperate for a scandalous scoop is brilliantly played like a man who wants the big story so bad he will believe anything. And he does. Once he stumbles on to the Hitler "diaries" he and the rest of the press can't get enough. This movie obviously works on several levels, some of which I don't quite appreciate being I am not German, but one universal statement is that of the press having the role of gatekeeper, the ability to decide what is a "story", and the consequences when that ability is misused.I've seen Uwe Ochsenknecht in a couple of Doris Dörrie movies and found him to be a talented comedic actor. His portrayal of the "diaries" forger is one more great performance. The farcical telling of his role in the hoax serves as a vital display of how absurd and fascinating a story this con was. Such details as his reasoning for using the initials F.H. and his taking on the characteristics of Hitler the deeper he got into his work are hilarious subtleties that play an important part in the greater humor of the entire film. The story did seem to drag on in a couple places, perhaps a little more editing could have been implemented, but that won't deter me from recommending this fun satire or seeing it again and again myself. I've been looking forward to seeing "Schtonk!" for the last 12 years, and now that I've seen it I can honestly say I am not disappointed.

Almost 2 hours is a bit two long for its basic story material, hence a film that has wonderful moments and scenes and plenty of satire, but also moments of boredom in which nothing (new) happens. Certainly successful in portraying the circumstances in which a forger could produce the notorious Hitler Diaries (it happened in 1983 and not only German press but the press world wide walked into the trap), the film shows that the yellow press and its sensation-hungry reporters made use of the curious fascination of the public world wide with the Nazi past.; as Harald Juhnke's character says to his chief-editor: "(with Hitler) we never had such a famous writer writing in our magazine ever before!".For Germany the most painful aspect of the film might be the support for the publication from former Nazis represented by a character played by Karl Schönbock (82 years old here!); as a former intimate friend of Hitler he knows that the diaries are forged but gives full support: the end justifies the means. One of the memorable scenes is the arrival of the guests at the rally of former Nazi's and supporters: a memorable image when the guests walk to the house in the rain under their umbrellas illuminated by torches.The cast is very good, with Götz George and Uwe Ochsenknecht outstanding. Both have scenes that are side splitting funny: George when he for the first time reads from the diaries and Ochsenknecht when he begins to think, talk and look like Hitler. But as said, the film is too long for its own good. There are more memorable scenes than the those I have mentioned already, but for instance does the viewer really need to see all 60 diaries made? The use of the old song "La Paloma" in the scene on the boat is a nice idea, but it also takes too long. And what to think of the first scene (before and during the credits); it does not add anything to the things to come and is not funny either.The for this film composed music itself is mediocre, but the use of recordings of Zarah Leander and that of a small yodel-theme are very clever. All in all: unbalanced, at moments very amusing and certainly worth a view.