07/23/2002 Entry: ""
Posted by Maynard @ 09:02 PM MST
Movie Review: Fatherland
I rented Fatherland on tape the other day from the local Blockbuster. Short summary: Hitler wins WW2, President Joe Kennedy is about to come to town to make peace when a lone S.S. officer (Rutger Hauer) and an American reporter (Miranda Richardson) discover the Holocaust.
This was originally a book by Robert Harris (ISBN 0061006629) that was turned into a movie by HBO in 1994. The story is the typical World War 2 alternate ending: Hitler wins in Europe, Stalin continues to fight a losing battle in the East, while the U.S. and U.K. accept a truce in the West. With Hitler in charge, the Holocaust is finished, and remains a secret kept close to the top of the dictatorship.
Enter Xavier March (Rutger Hauer), an S.S. detective investigating the death of a party bigshot. He soon uncovers that the placement of the body was observed by a young S.S. cadet on his morning run, and that the cadet observed the SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Odilo "Globus" Globocnik at the scene. Things go downhill rapidly from there for March; he is told to drop the investigation by his supervisor. That becomes more difficult when a visiting American journalist Charlie Maguire (Miranda Richardson) discovers another dead body, another party bigshot.
Maguire and March soon start collaborating instead of acting hostile, which is when the movie starts to get more interesting. I'd say it gets exciting, but it doesn't really. Eventually they find the documents describing the details of the Holocaust, which provides for some good acting opportunities.
I read the book in High School, which as I remember it was quite good. The movie didn't quite measure up to the memory I have of the book, but then, books that get turned into movies rarely live up to expectations. This movie did a fairly good job, but the script could have been better. For instance, take the scene in the book where March learns of the details of the Holocaust (hair made into socks for U-boat captains, like himself): vividly written, coupled with notes from the actual Nazi documents. This was replaced in the movie with an interaction between Maguire and him in a Berlin park, and the acting leaves a bit to be desired.
However, the movie does give a good portrayal of the struggle March has with raising his son as best he can in a Nazi-run world. You do sense there is genuine feeling of concern, and the scenes with the boy are well acted.
This is an adequate movie adaptation. If you plan on reading the book, I recommend watching the movie first, then reading.
