Purely Joyful Movie!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Judging from the theme, the sensational title ("Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil"), and the time of its appearance (seven years after the award-winning "Holocaust"), I didn't expect much. And it IS a made-for-television movie after all. Instead, I found it was surprisingly well written, directed, and in some cases nicely acted.The story of a German family before and during World War II takes us from the rise of Hitler in the early 30s to the end of the war. Some of the material is familiar. We see the persecution of Jewish friends, the heaps of naked, pale corpses, the gloom of Stalingrad, the growing disillusion with Hitler, and some interpolated combat footage. But there are extraordinary glimpses of incidents we seldom see on screen. The assassination of Heydrich, for instance, and the rich detail surrounding Hitler's justification for an invasion of Poland.I said it was "informative" and that's the sort of thing that makes it so: Hitler's elimination of Roehm's rival Brown Shirts, the set up for Poland, the suppression of unions, the incredibly young age of some of the Volkssturm. And, oh, how we need that information.In more than one anonymous on-line chat, I read a post claiming that the current administration in Washington was the same as Hitler's because they were both "socialists." I made a polite query in each case, along the lines of, "Are you insane?" The replies were filled with an incandescent anger, accusing me of being stupid, because I didn't know that Hitler led "the National SOCIALIST party," capitals included. Most Americans have a general idea of what Hitler thought and did, but some of us are appallingly ignorant of what used to be a shared data base.Even if this two-and-a-half hour film weren't as nicely executed as it is, it would still be worth watching for some of us. And, probably for MOST of us, we'd still learn something we didn't know. Most documentaries, for example, show Hitler invading Poland in the course of a few seconds of rolling tanks and of troops pushing aside a road barrier. That's fine, as far as it goes.But Hitler went to astonishing lengths to justify that invasion. It had to be convincing, and it was. The official story was that Poland had been persecuting its German-speaking population and had raided a German radio station near the border, leaving some German corpses behind. The fresh cadavers were supplied by the Germans simply killing some prisoners in one of their camps and strewing the bodies about, near the radio station. No one ever starts a war. It must always be the other guy's fault if you want the war to have popular support. That's taken for granted. It's why the US Secretary of War became the Secretary of Defense in 1949.I don't want to get too far off track, so let me mention that, in addition to the professional direction of Lukas Heller, there is a fine performance by David Warner as Heydrich. Tony Randall, barely recognizable under his Joel Grey make up, is a convincing and pitiful figure as the harmless homosexual nightclub comedian beaten to death by the SS. John Normington as Himmler doesn't have much screen time but makes the most of it in a subdued and nuanced performance. The most difficult role is that of Helmut Hoffman, the "mean" son, as opposed to Michael Shea's "idealistic" son. Hoffman does "neurosis" really well, and he looks the part, resembling both in appearance and demeanor Peter O'Toole's Lawrence of Arabia.It ought to be shown in every high school or college class in political science or history.

Hitler's SS attempts to show what life was like in Germany in the 30's and during the war, shown through the lives of one family. Two older brothers are just choosing their paths when the Nazi party starts to take hold. One brother, Karl, joins up right away and finds himself in the SA. He also doesn't like what he finds in the SA. The older one, Helmut, has no intention of following the crowd but ends up a favored officer in the SS, convinced that he can change things from the inside.This movie shows the progression of Germany turning into a Nazi state by 'snapshots' of each year, from 1931 to 1945. In 1931 the brown shirts just hang out in bars and push people around. They're simply thugs. The Nazi party loses the election and almost everybody is happy about it. Then they win and elections are suspended making the Nazis the official state party forever. Now the Nazis have a firm grip and use force to hold onto power. Speak out against Hitler and Nazism and you are branded a traitor and you disappear to Dachau.Then they orchestrate an incident to use as an excuse to invade Poland and it's war. And Helmut finds that he can't change anything while he is drawn further and further into the party and it's atrocities. Karl on the other hand ends up out of favor when the SA is disbanded but still ends up an officer on the eastern front. He is definitely not part of the madness and still does not like what he sees done by the Nazis. He resists being consumed by Nazism. Even little brother Hans, who is born in 1931, ends up being consumed and used up by the Nazi state.The whole story is covered in this underrated movie. Not to be missed by any WWII movie buff, though there isn't really much combat.7/10

Somewhat like a watered-down version of Tae Guk Gi. Good for a TV movie, but you can tell it was a TV movie. Bill Nighy puts in a good performance here and seems almost a perfect example of the stereotypical Nazi officer. Jose Ferrer has a minimal but important role as one of the reflections of morality and decisions made around or in spite of it. Dignified as usual. John Sheas Karl seems almost Jewish in this and I don't know if that done purposefully to reflect against Helmut's uber-aryanism. Shea just reminds me of a young Ben Cross in this. The story line and pace can be a little choppy or uneven, and it could have used a bit more character development, but it wasn't hard to sit through. Except the Tony Randall scenes. Putzi made me a little queasy, and his humor was..umm.. well let's just say his timing was different. Decent Product overall.

What I particularly liked about this movie was the fact that it showed a view of the Nazi regime from a different perspective, that of two young German brothers.In the beginning when the Nazi party is first coming to power we see the life of two young German men. Like everyone else in Germany at that time they too are caught up in Hitler's fanaticism. One brother joins the S.A. and is chided by the other for going along with that "rubbish". But he ends up getting caught up in the S.S. when he is confronted by Heydrich at his university who then persuades him to join not for his beliefs in politics but for his intelligence. Neither knew what they were getting themselves into.What's most interesting about this story is the emotional aspects. Seeing how the brothers reacted to things that were starting to happen in the Third Reich. It was all minuscule all first. Seeing S.A. officers push an old man down some stairs. The noble but innocent younger brother tries throughout the war to change the evil that was happening all around him but finds that he is blatantly overwhelmed by opposition from his fellow Germans. While the older brother accepts what he cannot change and tries to help his younger brother into being smarter about his actions. Both are forced along a path that is becoming increasingly harder to follow. It definitely shows how some Germans were forced to go along with what was happening or be killed themselves.The acting in this movie was really well done. My only gripe was that the actors had British accents all throughout the movie which made you wake up from the story and detract from the realism. Some parts I busted up laughing seeing these guys in Nazi uniforms talking in thick British accents. But the acting by the two brothers was very good and believable. It was very emotional to see what they were going through and felt as they watched people die and the world change around them.