Average Rating: 6.4/10
Reviews Counted: 110
Fresh: 76 | Rotten: 34
Well-acted in the execution of its provocative "what-if?" premise.
Average Rating: 6.3/10
Critic Reviews: 27
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 8
Well-acted in the execution of its provocative "what-if?" premise.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 6,224
In the wake of his rise to power, Adolf Hitler became known as perhaps the most villainous and destructive political leader of the 20th century. But what was he like before he formed the Nazi party? Screenwriter and director Menno Meyjes explores that question in this drama, a work of fiction keyed to the fact that Hitler unsuccessfully pursued a career as an artist following World War I. In 1918, Max Rothman (John Cusack) is a former artist who lost an arm during the war. While Max can no
Dec 27, 2002 Wide
May 20, 2003
$0.2M
Lions Gate Films
All Critics (119) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (76) | Rotten (34) | DVD (8)
The film is torn between playing [Taylor's] character for real and as a dangerous joke.
Offers a persuasive look at a defeated but defiant nation in flux.
If it's not a completely successful film, it is at the very least an intriguing effort to humanize the demon.
Fascinating story from screenwriter- turned-director Menno Meyjes.
Mad Max just sails off into nonsense.
One of the most intriguing and odd 'what if' movies ever conceived.
Any film as provocative and nervy as this one is bound to generate controversy...
Meyjes divides our attentions between the two major players, failing to take us far enough into either character's heart.
Max is also an intimate portrait of modern art; of the birth of the expressionist movement and great artists. . .
a brave film, showing Hitler as a pathetic cog in a larger machine hurtling inevitably towards the Holocaust.
I'd have thought it was impossible to overdo the role of Hitler, but Noah Taylor does just that in Max.
Meyjes focuses too much on Max when he should be filling the screen with this tortured, dull artist and monster-in-the- making.
An art critic attempts to encourage a disturbing young man's art and dissuade him from pursuing political aspirations ... oh, and the young man is Hitler.A colleague recommended I see this film because, in his words, "People criticized it for humanizing Hitler, but I thought that was one of its strengths."
July 21, 2011
Super Reviewer
Interesting but not great story about how Adolf Hitler's failed art career may have intercected with, and possibly actually inspired, his political career. This film is in the style of Gods and Monsters, whereby a actual historiical figure's life is placed into a fictional setting as a means of trying to discover
September 23, 2009Super Reviewer
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