Max Movie Review 2002

Historical fantasy has an interesting premise: what would have happened if Adolf Hitler had been successful as an artist? In 1919, Hitler (Taylor) is a starving, embittered (but ambitious) war veteran in Munich who is befriended by Max Rothman (Cusack), a Jewish art dealer and fellow veteran who has just opened his own avant-garde gallery. Hitler's art is kitsch but Max encourages him anyway and shrugs off his rantings, which draw more attention from fellow Army officer Mayr (Thomsen). Mayr thinks Adolf would make a good political spokesman. Guess who was proved right? Rothman is a fictional character, Mayr is not, and the film drew a lot of protest for "humanizing" Hitler. The movie is flawed but not for that reason.

Distribution

CinemaNow, 4553 Glencoe Ave., Ste. 200, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292, URL: http://www.cinemanow.com, Remarks: Formerly known as Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 106 minutes.
Originally from Hungarian, Canadian, British.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Period Piece: 1910s, Politics, Art & Artists, Germany, Judaism, Postwar

Screenplay

Menno Meyjes

Cast

John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski, Molly Parker, David Horovitch, Janet Suzman, Peter Capaldi, Kevin McKidd, John Grillo, Ulrich Thomsen

Cinematography

Lajos Koltai

Director

Menno Meyjes

Music

Daniel Jones

Other

Istvan Sipos, Fred Brennan, Chris Wyatt, Tibor Lazar, Dien van Straalen, Ben van Os

Producer

Andras Hamori, Pathe, Aconit Pictures, H2O Motion Pictures, Lions Gate Films