Review – Hitler’s SS: A Portrait in Evil

Portrait of boredom is a little closer to the truth. If the real SS had been this petty and banal they couldn’t have organized a book discussion group, let alone war and genocide. This made-for-TV effort from the mid-80s is more soap opera than historical narrative, dwelling on the thoroughly trite and uninteresting tale of two brothers – in love with the same woman, naturally – who end up on different sides of the Nazi party in prewar Germany. A few interesting elements can be found here and there, particularly toward the end when the movie starts to focus less on the characters’ individual woes and more on the collective misery of the German people. Overall, however, it’s a cheap history lesson spread out over a couple of hours’ worth of melodrama. See if desperate