Advantages: Focuses on Hitlers rise to power. Good acting +easy to follow storyline
Disadvantages: No special features

...I seem to recall that this was shown on ITV prior to its DVD release but I skipped it as I thought I wouldn't be interested. So along came the January sales and as this was at a reasonable price of £5.49 delivered from www.play.com I decided to take the plunge and purchase it; and what a good investment it was. I have seen a fair few documentaries discussing Hitler/WWII/the Nazis etc but never anything detailing how it all started. That's what made this so appealing; finally I would have an insight into Adolf's childhood, his part played in WW1 and his inspiring speech's which resulted in him coming to power. Robert Carlyle plays Adolf Hitler and gives a terrific performance. The story is broken down in to two 90 mins (approx) episodes each focusing on different stages of his life. Both are discussed below. Episode 1: The story begins... Read review

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Advantages: I actually got a B for this piece of coursework
Disadvantages: Could drag a bit

...I wrote this piece of coursework when I was 14 and got a B for it. The essay goes into detail about Hitler's early years and how he was treated as a child. Enjoy!!! Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in the Austrian town of Braunau - am Inn, on the border between Austria and Bavaria. Hitler was German speaking, as did all Austrians by order of the Austro - Hungary Empire. He was born at a time where Austro - Hungary was in trouble. Street - fighting was on the increase and so were racial tension and distrust. Adolf Hitler was the birthchild of Alois (Father) and a much younger mother Klara Hitler. His father worked as a customs officer, while his mother stayed at home. Hitler was claimed to have come from a poor background, but his family was much better off than other families in his part of Austria. He had a poor relationship with his... Read review

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Advantages: In English, Very Interesting
Disadvantages: A lot of hard work to read!

...Mein Kampf - My Struggle, written by Adolf Hitler. I am lucky enough to own a first edition (in German obviously) and the english translation version by Jaico Publishing. Mein Kampf was first published in two volumes in 1925-1926 and sold between 8 and 9 million copies during Hitlers lifetime, as well as being widely translated. The contents are most evil, and being quite a chunky read, it takes some time to work through it, least of all because of the emotional strain it brings to the reader. In Mein Kampf, Hitler uses the main thesis of "The Jewish peril", which speaks of an alleged Jewish conspiracy to gain world leadership. The narrative describes the process by which he became increasingly anti-Semitic and militaristic, especially during his years in Vienna, Austria. Yet the deeper origins of his anti-semitism remain... Read review

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Advantages: The authoritative work on Hitler.
Disadvantages: A huge book which takes time to read - and this is only the first half.

...Ian Kershaw, the historian behind the BBC’s excellent series, ‘The Nazis: A Warning From History’, is also the author of what I feel is the definitive biography of Adolf Hitler. It is fascinating not just in terms of the details it unearths, but also from the point of view that Kershaw has taken a style of writing typically alien to him and made it his own. Modern ‘revisionist’ historical perspectives view history through a wider angle than historians of old have taken. Where previous historians tended to focus on individual people at the centre of importance (e.g. Hitler, Stalin or Napoleon) more modern writings examine the influences around them that shaped history. As the latter is the style adopted by Kershaw, it is surprising that he has chosen to write a biography of Hitler. As Kershaw mentions... Read review

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Advantages: Funny and real.
Disadvantages: Ends before the shooting starts.

...Tome. "We look a lot," said [Sergeant] Dawson, "a lot of ****s." Finally, in January 1943 their embarkation order came. "It was a time of terrible excitement" he says. They set sail from Liverpool with no idea of their destination (which turns out to be Algiers). Seasickness is rife. "Isn't there ANY bloody cure for seasickness?" someone asked him. "Yes," Spike replies, "sit under a tree." This is where this first volume ends. It's not a total barrel of laughs - there was a war on after all. Although, ironically, the only time he was in danger up to this point was while playing in a jazz band in a pub in Eastbourne. A Scots Tank Gunner, having been thrown out, aimlessly fired his pistol through the door, narrowly missing Spike. There have been four sequels to Adolf Hitler - My Part In His Downfall:- Rommel: Gunner Who... Read review

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Advantages: It is a piece of history
Disadvantages: It is a very upsetting place

...This review is about the memorial site at the former concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, which is situated in Loheide in the Lower Saxony region of Germany. Loheide is approximately a 5-10 minute drive from the centre of Bergen, which itself is in Luneburg Heath, and is about 60 Km north east of Hannover. Before I can actually give a fair review of the camp itself, I feel honour bound to give you a little of the history of this camp as not everyone knows about its existence. History ~~~~~ The history books tell us much about Adolf Hitler's rise to power and his maniacal system of ensuring that the Aryan race were superior to the rest of the world, but less is known about the places where these "Untermensch" (lesser people) were housed. Films such as Schindlers List and The Pianist tell some of the story, but really... Read review

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Advantages: I admire the bravery of the Germans who made and acted in this film
Disadvantages: Without an understanding about National Socialism this film can be misunderstood

.... To me they are the most intriguing feature because the actors and actresses talk about their feelings about playing such a part and how the tried to make it as authentic as possible. Concluding there is a feature about the shooting of Downfall in which you see many interesting and revealing clips from the shooting. Actually this feature is something like another Making Of showing other aspects the shooting. Language & Subtitles ------------------------------ The Premium Edition only the German version, once in dts 5.1 and once in Dolby Digital 5.1. As even the American version of Downfall was only subtitled it doesn't come as a surprise. There are two subtitles on this DVD, English and German ones. -------------------------------------------------- Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel Cast: Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz... Read review

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Advantages: wide variety of related courses, can learn Russian from scratch
Disadvantages: none

...I studied BA Russian and Soviet Studies at Portsmouth University from 1988 to 1990. Unfortunately, I did not complete the four year course, due to getting married and then having a baby a year later. The course was the reason I chose to go to Portsmouth, moving 210 miles from my home in Lincoln. I have been interested in the USSR and the Russian language since following the successes of the Soviet team (especially the gymnasts) at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. I became fascinated with the Cyrillic alphabet and wanted to learn the language. I had an opportunity to do this with a short night school course as a teenager, which whetted my appetite to study it further. One of the advantages of the course at Portsmouth was that you could learn the language ab initio. The other parts of the course sounded fascinating too, as it included... Read review

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Advantages: Impressive, stimulating, useful
Disadvantages: Hard at times

...do it), then perhaps you should try a non-Germanic, non-Romance language like Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Greek or Finnish? Remember that the more 'difficult' languages tend to be so because there is a completely new alphabet to learn. Whilst Russian/Cyrillic isn't that dissimilar to the English alphabet, Japanese has three different scripts. Thirdly, the 'usefulness' of the language. Now whilst there is nothing wrong with wanting to learn Icelandic (est. 300,000 speakers worldwide), do you want to be able to use your language fairly often? Whilst Mandarin has the most speakers worldwide, French is spoken in 29 countries so could be arguably more 'useful'. If you learn Latin, whilst a 'dead' language, it will become extremely useful if you choose to learn another Romance language like French, Spanish or Italian. --OK... Read review

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Advantages: Happy punk-pop, Witty lyrics, A few fantastic songs
Disadvantages: A few songs too long, A little repetitive

..., if only for the pure genius that comes through in both the lyrics and the way that it occasionally sounds almost classical/jazzy. Hard to explain but brilliant to listen to! 12, 'An Idea For A Movie' is exactly about that. Unfortunately this is far too ordinary and boring after a few listens to really be on this album at all in my opinion. Space filler, as far as I can see. I wish I could have been with the band as they came up with the idea for the next song. 'OK' is about being exactly that and (sort-of) leaving all your troubles behind. Strange...very strange, but certainly catchy. The final song 'So Long. Fairwell' is one that you will definately only listen to once and once only. It is so obsure that I can't be bothered to put it into words other than to say it is saying 'goodbye' in different languages. Hmmm..... Soooo... Read review

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