Plot
Strange, moving, effective documentary. There's no obvious narrative, just a combination of pop songs and music that were popular in Germany during Hitler's reign, with images from German films, propaganda shorts, and newsreel footage. The combination of the happy, upbeat music, with the images - first positive, happy films and propaganda, later footage of the camps and the horrors of the Holocaust was very powerful. It was amazing how, in the early part, a smiling playful Hitler, and upbeat German nationalism could seem appealing on some gut level even though my brain knew how wrong that reaction was. And this coming from someone who is Jewish. It really demonstrated the amazing power of music and image to manipulate how we perceive. And then, in the second half as the images turned ever darker, the sad ironies and counterpoints of the music to the images got ever more powerful, leaving me stunned and moved by the end, in a different way from other Holocaust related films. My only complaint was that, for me it went on too long. The idea is so simple, and so quickly effective that a shorter running time might have only added to its impact. Of course, I see another reviewer felt it was too short, so obviously it's a personal reaction, not some objective truth.