PROJECTING HITLER: REPRESENTATIONS OF ADOLF HITLER IN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM, 1968-1990. DANIEL MACFARLANE 2004 PROJECTING HITLER: REPRESENTATIONS OF ADOLF HITLER IN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM, 1968-1990. A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master’s of Arts in the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Daniel Macfarlane December 2004 ” Copryright Daniel Macfarlane, 2004. All Rights Reserved PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the Master’s of Arts Degree in the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department of History. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Requests for permission to copy or to make other use of material in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 i ABSTRACT In the post-Second World War period, the medium of film has been arguably the leading popular culture protagonist of a demonized Adolf Hitler. Between 1968 and 1990, thirty-five English-language films featuring representations of Hitler were released in cinemas, on television, or on home video. In the 1968 to 1979 period, fifteen films were released, with the remaining twenty coming between 1980 and 1990. This increase reveals not only a growing popular fascination with Hitler, but also a tendency to use the Führer as a sign for demonic evil. These representations are broken into three categories – (1) prominent; (2) satirical; (3) contextualizing – which are then analyzed according to whether a representation is demonizing or humanizing. Out of these thirty-five films, twenty-three can be labeled as demonizing and nine as humanizing, and there are three films that cannot be appropriately located in either category. In the 1968 to 1979 period, four films employed prominent Hitler representations, five films satirized Hitler, with six contextualizing films. The 1980s played host to five prominent representations, six satires, and nine contextualizing films. In total, there are nine prominent representations, eleven satires and fifteen contextualizing films. Arguing that prominent representations are the most influential, this study argues that the 1968 to 1979 period formed and shaped the sign of a demonic Führer, and its acceptance is demonstrated by films released between1980 and 1990. However, the appearance of two prominent films in the 1980s which humanized Hitler is significant, for these two films hint at the beginnings of a breakdown in the hegemony of the Hitler sign. The cinematic demonization of Hitler is accomplished in a variety of ways, all of which portray the National Socialist leader as an abstract figure outside of human behaviour and comprehension. Scholarly history is also shown to have contributed to this mythologizing, as the “survival myth” and myth of “the last ten days” have their origins in historiography. However, since the 1970s film has arguably overtaken historiography in shaping popular conceptions of the National Socialist leader. In addition to pointing out the connections between film and historiography, this study also suggests other political, philosophical, and cultural reasons for the demonization of Adolf Hitler. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people made the completion of this thesis possible. Firstly, my thesis supervisor, Professor Brett Fairbairn, for his guidance and insight kept this thesis from becoming just a mass of random thoughts. The other members of my thesis committee, Professor Tom Deutscher, Professor John McCannon, and Professor Don Kerr, provided valuable contributions that only made my work better. Also, Professor John Courtney who constantly served as a sounding board while improving my research and writing skills. Furthermore, I would like to thank the History Department as a whole. This thesis was made possible by generous assistance from several sources, including a University of Saskatchewan Graduate Teaching Fellowship (2002-03), a Master’s Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2003-04), and the Department of History’s Bocking Award (2003). iii DEDICATION Many people in the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan deserve my gratitude for being there to bounce ideas off of or to provide support, historically or psychologically. In particular, I would like to mention the other four people with whom I started the M.A. program: Bonnie Wagner, Nathan Elliott, Clay Poupart, and Darren Friesen. On both a professional and personal level, I would like to thank Professor John Courtney who has served as both a mentor and a friend, and provided me with work that not only kept money in my pockets (which turned out to be handy for buying all the films for my research) but allowed me to further develop the skills which have made this thesis possible. There are many people who have “suffered” as much as I have from this thesis. I am lucky enough to have many people who have always supported me, especially my parents, Bill and Becky Macfarlane, and my brothers, Tim and Eric. I would also like to acknowledge my grandparents, Art and Erna Reimer, and Gladys Macfarlane. The person who has been the most instrumental in keeping me going has been Heidi Dixon, who somehow managed to put up with me over the course of my thesis work. Many other friends have kept my spirits up and took my mind off research, or gave me another point of view, including Clay Dubyk, Ryan Washenfelder, Brad Randall, Franco Soldo, Paul Clemens, Berkeley Buchko, Corey Wiebe, Rob Paul, and Chad Parenteau. In particular, I would like to thank Shaun Geisel and Tyler McKenzie. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Permission to Use ……………………………………………………….i Abstract …………………………………………………………………ii Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………..iii Dedication ………………………………………………………………iv Table of Contents ……………………………………………………….v CHAPTER 1: FINDING THE FILMIC HITLER ………………………1 CHAPTER 2: HITLER IN FILM, 1968-1979…………………………..15 CHAPTER 3: HITLER IN FILM, 1980-1990 …………………………..40 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION ………………………………………….75 Appendices ………………………………………………………………88 Filmography ……………………………………………………………..99 Bibliography …………………………………………………………….101 v Chapter One: Finding the Filmic Hitler In the introduction to Imagining Hitler, Alvin H. Rosenfeld writes that his book is not about Hitler but, rather, about the “ghost of Hitler.”1 Given the plethora of publications about the former Nazi leader and his regime which seek to explain Hitler the man, one might inquire into the reasons for looking at his “ghost.”2 The amount of scholarly literature on Nazism is perhaps unparalleled by any other area of historical research, and to list the names of the historians, political scientists, sociologists, economists, anthropologists and philosophers who have provided studies of the Third Reich is almost impossible. While the historical picture of Hitler is by no means finalized or homogenized, the reading public has presumably been provided with every available source of information on, and every interpretation of, the former Führer. What need is there for a “ghost” when the actual man can be put at our fingertips? By “ghost” Rosenfeld was referring to what he saw as a Hitler myth in post- Second World War popular imagination, a myth that stemmed from a fascination with the Nazis that seemed to be in some ways even increasing and intensifying.3 This myth was not static, but evolving, as the history of Nazism has “become so plastic to the contemporary imagination as to be almost whatever one would like it to be.”4 The task of charting this pliable and changing conception of the Nazis, articulated in the person of 1 Alvin H. Rosenfeld, Imagining Hitler (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1983), xii. 2 Among the many works directly on Hitler, the most notable include Hugh Trevor-Roper, Alan Bullock, Walter Görlitz and Herbert A. Quint, Hans Bernd Gisevius, Werner Maser, Joachim Fest, Percy E. Schramm, John Toland, Robert Waite, and Ian Kershaw (all fully listed in bibliography). For more comprehensive bibliographic listings: David Nicholls. Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2000) or Louis L. Snyder, ed. The Third Reich, 1933-1945: A Bibliographical Guide to German National Socialism (New York: Garland Publishers, 1987). 3 Rosenfeld, xii. 4 Rosenfeld, xiv. 1 Hitler would, therefore, require delving into the sources of contemporary public imagination. Undoubtedly, popular representations of Hitler – novels, cartoons, television, film, etc. – over the past half-century have gone a long way toward shaping perceptions and memory concerning the Third Reich. At the same time, historical literature has also undoubtedly played a prominent role in shaping conceptions of Adolf Hitler. The purpose of this study is to analyze film as a “new discourse” and demonstrate how Hitler has been portrayed in this discourse. The cinema has contributed significantly to the increased visibility of Hitler in popular culture and created and sustained many of the various images and myths surrounding the Nazi leader. I will identify and examine films featuring a fictional Adolf Hitler character released in America between 1968 and 1990. I divide these portrayals into two periods – 1968-1979 and 1980-1990 – and three categories – prominent, satirizing, and contextualizing. I then ascertain whether each period, category and film is “demonizing” or “humanizing,” paying particular attention to how and why Hitler is demonized, and discuss what is revealed about popular conceptions of Adolf Hitler. The concentration will be on English-language films released in America since the Second World War that employ an actor to portray Hitler, which essentially means that only fictional films that directly portray Hitler will be used, with fictional referring to films which do not use actual footage of Hitler but instead try to recreate him, and films referring to full-length efforts that were released either in theaters, on television, or for purchase/rental. Furthermore, I will concentrate on film between 1968 and 1990. The logic for choosing this period involves the ease in acquiring films from this time period, 2