Son of Hitler
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Son of Hitler Hitler’s Son |
| Country of production | USA , Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1978 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Rod Amateau |
| script |
Burkhard Driest , Lukas Heller |
| production |
Gerd Goering , Burkhard Driest |
| music | Denis King |
| camera | Michael Marszalek |
| cut |
Tom Priestley , Murray Jordan , George Akers |
| occupation | |
| |
Son of Hitler (also known as Hitler's Son ) is an American-German film satire from 1978 with Bud Cort ( Harold and Maude ) in the title role based on a script by Burkhard Driest , who was also involved in the production and played a supporting role.
action
1978, in the Alps. The Second World War was over for 33 years. The simple-minded Bavarian wood carver Wilhelm, called Willi, grew up in an alpine hut with Fritz Buchmann, his foster uncle. He raised him as a backwoodsman, so that no one can find out Willis' true origins. Born in February 1944 in Berlin, his true parents were none other than Adolf Hitler and his lover Eva Braun at the time . But the old Wehrmacht general Heinrich Haussner already knows the secret. He is the mentor of a right-wing extremist party founded by the smart Mr. Ostermayer, which has the programmatic name "NO!" The abbreviation stands for " N ever E ncourage I ntellecutal N onsense" (never encourage intellectual nonsense) and signals the rejection of all liberal and democratic achievements of the Federal Republic of the past 30 years. The NO! -Sayers plan to establish nothing less than a “Fourth Reich” in Germany. The Bavarian naive with the larger-than-life name comes in handy.
Haussner goes to Buchmann and Willi Hitler, whose protector Fritz has just died of a heart attack after an arduous mountain hike, and plans a major propaganda coup with him as a leading figure. But Willi, who after decades of absolute isolation from civilization still has no idea of the meaning of his surname, has already traveled to Munich and in the beer gardens and in the Hofbräuhaus gets to know the big wide world beyond an Almödhof for the first time. In his ignorance, Willi even slips on a Nazi uniform and wonders why he is now being roughly pushed out of every business. Then he is hit by a pretty, young Porsche driver and temporarily loses consciousness.
Meanwhile, Haussner is very close to him. When Willi lands at the police station and declares that his name is Hitler, the young man promptly ends up in court. The judge then admitted him to a mental hospital. Haussner sensed him there thanks to the help of an old comrade, the prison doctor Dr. Puttkamer, up. Haussner gets Willi out of the institution and wants to build him up as the new "leader" of his movement, which party leader Ostermayer doesn't like at all. But Willi quickly proves to be too awkward to follow in his father's footsteps, and his rhetorical skills are also very limited. Even the raised hand to the “Führer greeting” does not really want to succeed for little Hitler.
But then he meets the buxom blonde again, the Porsche driver who knocked him over, and falls in love with her. How can he suspect that she is the daughter of one of the neo-Nazi greats! It is you and two Tippel brothers that Willi has met in the meantime who are now taking him away from the whole “NO!” Madness. Haussner has now sidelined Ostermayer and wants to take over power in the party in line with a new cult of the leader around Willi Hitler. The Gröfaz-Filius is prepared by him for his first big speech. The boy has even bought an Adolf mustache and is wearing the same hairstyle as his notorious father. But then everything gets out of hand.
Willi by no means says the words that Haussner expects from him; rather, his speech is determined by love for people and friendliness. No nationalistic phrases, no hate speech. Finally, he also plucks off the mustache that was typical of Hitler's mustache that was glued on before. Willi resigns and a tumult breaks out in the ballroom. Ostermayer's adlatus and string puller Sommer pushes a revolver into Haussner's hand so that he can shoot himself with it. But instead he shoots Ostermayer and escapes. On the roof, Haussner points the gun at himself after all. Willi is finally transferred back to the mental hospital. His cell is designed entirely like his alpine hut, and Willi begins to concentrate again on his old work: carving wooden figures.
Production notes
Son of Hitler was filmed from September 1977 to January 1978 in Munich (Bavaria Ateliers) and in the foothills of the Alps. Thought by Burkhard Driest as a bilious satire, the film was rarely shown and was largely disregarded by international critics. Even in German cinemas, this film never ran, despite its considerable German-Anglo-American cast.
Rock singer Udo Lindenberg provided the original story unnamed. The film structures were created by Herbert Strabel , the costumes by Siegbert Kammerer . Atze Glanert was the second unit cameraman, Georg Mondi served as the simple cameraman.
reception
Der Spiegel called Son of Hitler a "macabre film joke" and commented on the application for the film produced by Gerd Göring: "Will the film come to international cinemas with the opening credits 'Göring presents Hitler's Son'?"
Rotten Tomatoes sarcastically said “Believe it or not, this is a comedy”.
Web links
- Son of Hitler in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hitler's Son in: Der Spiegel, edition 21/1978
- ↑ Hitler's Son on rottentomatoes.com