Lickter Kleen Wow. This is one of the movies that deserves less than one star. As a history buff, I was hoping this would at least make an attempt to be somewhat accurate. Where to start? Strike 1; Listening to the Versailles treaty signing on a radio that did not exist on 1919, let alone they didn't start to broadcast "news" until around 1920. I'm surprised they didn't precede it with broadcast of Titanic sinking. Went downhill from there. Strike 2; John Cusack, strike 3; John Cusack.

erikpsmith Why on Earth was this film made? I mean, really? Didn't anyone stop to think about what they were doing? In this fantasy tale in we get to see Adolf Hitler as a tortured artist. But here's the problem. This story didn't happen. And why in heaven's name do we need to see a fantasy about, for God's sake, Adolf Hitler? Don't get me wrong. I'm not offended per se by never-coulda-happened movies about Adolf Hitler. I loved "Hitler Dead or Alive." "Inglorious Basterds" was a wonderful thrill ride. But when you film an earnest character study about the formative years of the fellow who becomes the greatest evil ever known, you owe it to your audience to ground the story in reality.Things LIKE this story happened. But not this particular story. So we wind up with something so incredibly false that when I sat in my living room watching it on cable TV last night my jaw about fell open. And running through my head was the title song from "Springtime for Hitler," that brilliant musical-within-a-movie from "The Producers." At least we knew that was supposed to be a joke.I read a book years ago about Hitler's starving-artist period, and as the movie began I thought this might be an interesting story about a little-known chapter of Hitler's life. But any illusion I might have had about the movie's reality was dispelled when I saw John Cusack listening to an early-'30s tombstone radio (in 1919!), to a radio report about the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Umm, radio broadcasting started in 1920; newscasts came later. It's sort of like seeing a movie in which Lewis and Clark settle in for the winter and spend it playing Super Mario Brothers.That was when the truth began to dawn on me, and I put the movie on pause to check the Internet and confirm my suspicion. Yes, they were making the whole thing up.From that point I watched with a growing sense of horror. Like when Hitler explains that his political speeches are actually a new form of art. Or when I watched John Cusack deliver the line, deadpan, "You're a hard man to like, Hitler." We see Hitler in 1920 or so sketching his plans for the Nuremberg rally of 1936 and for the shimmering imperial city we know from the never-built blueprints of Albert Speer. His buddy Cusack, an art dealer, delightedly pronounces them "future kitsch!" So Hitler readies them for an art exhibition that never comes off -- and because it doesn't happen he takes a different path and becomes Fuhrer instead. And the Astoundingly Manipulative Coincidence that ends the movie is really, really just too much to bear.This movie is so wretched in its conception, so appalling in its construction, and so serious about it all, that it deserves a place of honor among the worst films of all time. Heartily recommended for fans of "Plan Nine From Outer Space," but now that I've seen it I'll skip a repeat showing and go watch Hogan's Heroes instead.

museumofdave I found this attempt to recreate how the monster Hitler evolved during the period after WWI highly admirable: it has a great sense of period, contrasting the comfortable civilized life led by German Jews with those of other German citizens who after the humiliation of WWI were not so comfortable; John Cusack is perfectly cast in a witty, mature role, a man who should be bitter and cynical, but is saved by his education.The problem for me is Adolph--how can anyone play Hitler? Lots of great actors have attempted the task--Guinness, Richard Basehart, Anthony Hopkins, and for comedy Chaplin and Ionesco's favorite, Bobby Watson--but only one has captured the fiendish maniacal madness that the man must have had to induce mass hypnotism on a nation, to persuade civilized folks to exterminate another race, and that is Bruno Ganz in the splendid end-of-days drama Downfall, and we only meet him in the last doomed days of the Third Reich.Noah Taylor does his level best to meet the challenge of the developing messianic leader, and, in the course of the film, many excellent arguments about the nature of art are poised; but ultimately the film did not work for me because I'm not sure one can effectively portray Hitler--or Garbo--or Einstein--I'm sure you could make up your own list. The film is never dull, and except for a predictable last five minutes, thoughtful and provocative.

samkan MAX should be seen as a film about the many roads we face at turning points in our lives and the arbitrary, chaotic circumstances that influence what path we ultimately take. A corollary theme is the random selection -the unfairness- of birth, station in life, class, etc. In this respect the maker of MAX would be hard pressed to come up with a better setting that post WWI Germany! I disagree with those faulting historical inaccuracies. They appear to miss the point entirely. The only legitimate "fact" we must be concerned with is that Hitler indeed had a burning desire to be an artist (though I think his setting was Vienna, not Munich) and had he been successful and/or accepted as such there's a strong likelihood he'd never encountered politics (or at least on the scale he did). MAX' pure invention of Hitler's racist influences and his start to power merely indoctrinate and I didn't find them at all offensive. The invention of Cuzack's Max is a clever -and direct- counterpoint to Hitler's social circumstances. The "bonding" of Hitler and Max shreds, trashes, etc., the pseudo-logic of National Socialism in particular and racism and prejudice in general. Applause is warranted.Noah Taylor is nothing less than spectacular. John Cuzack is again a gem. The rest of the cast is reserved yet hardly a character or piece of dialog is throwaway. Just a tremendous achievement.