Philippe Mora - Swastika (1974) pre-WWII Nazi documentary

This film has come out of decades of near obscurity. Originally director Philippe Mora (Communion, The Return of Captain Invincible, Mad Dog Morgan, to paint a varied picture) planned to make a film of the just published memoirs of Albert Speer "Inside the Third Reich". While researching that he and his colleagues met Speer, and bit by bit the existence of a trove of "home movies" and other documentation were uncovered, their existence at that point mainly just rumor. This film arose once the reality of making "Inside the Third Reich" went up in smoke. It was eventually made for TV later, in 1982, with a star-studded cast. This film covers the years from 1933 to 1938, so it really covers a time period that hadn't really been saturated with history books and films. Interestingly, and perhaps for some, annoyingly, if they watch it unaware, the filmmakers imported (this is a UK film) lip readers from Germany, and then dubbed the voices in many of the scenes. Without knowing this you may get frustrated with the sound dropping out - it is really "dropping in"! The subtitles (hard-coded) are all you have as a narrative, and they are a bit sparse. There is no narrator piecing the story together for you. A lot of the criticism of this film came from people who thought it portrayed Hitler as too human. The filmmakers themselves were a bit puzzled with this perception, as they figured that, from the get-go, Hitler was known to be an evil man, and that this presentation was simply to broaden that perspective to allow the general public to break down the wall that was allowing Hitler to remain mythic. Sort of like accepting the fact that "Just because George W. Bush said it, doesn't mean it is wrong". Some notably controversial episodes: Jesse Owens praising his reception in Germany - quite worth exploring his treatment by Hitler, the German people, Roosevelt, and his homecoming parade. Author James Baldwin was upset by this part of the film. A person who may just be mythical in his entirety, Dirk Brinkley, a supposed American radio personality, is shown singing the praises of Nazi Germany as "the best central government in the world". I can't find anything conclusive about his existence, just many references to this film - very recursive research! He did bring to mind Howard W. Campbell Jr, a Kurt Vonnegut character from Mother Night. There is even a tiny glimpse into that era's erotica. A fair amount of this footage is in color, which, I presume, for most will be a little jarring. History of that era seems so naturally black and white. There are a ton of extras with so much interesting in the way of details - how it was made, the controversy, the minutiae of the players, etc. There's a five minute audio diatribe called "Puncturing the Myth of Leni Riefenstahl" which pours out the venom on that opportunistic "monster". If watching 95 minutes of "home movies" leaves you hungering for a more direct cerebral massage, definitely do not disregard the extras. Would make a fine double-feature with "Die Wannseekonferenz" (1984) Uncompressed PAL DVD9 VIDEO_TS files

udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80
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udp://exodus.desync.com:6969

Ritzbitts (2011-08-23)

Garbage! The movie is corrupted less than halfway through and the quality is terrible. Don't waste your time.

 oddeven (2011-08-23)

Could you be more specific - or could somebody else chime in? Maybe tell me where the corruption starts, since I skipped around to numerous parts of "the middle" and found nothing strange. I just rechecked the file and I see no corruption, and if you're wondering about not getting high quality video, think about when this was filmed (originally)!

DasKrieg (2011-08-24)

Extras do not work, and the sound is glitchy. Video skips. Downloaded twice and tried playing on 3 computers :-(

 oddeven (2011-08-24)

I have checked my files on both Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre and VLC and I see on corruption anywhere, and the extras all work, no problem. Although I can't guarantee 100% that what you are getting should work, I have never run into such a problem. A corrupted torrent file - still I've never experienced such a thing.
I watched a couple segments of a couple minutes each (specifically the Hindenburg disaster) and saw no errors.
I did manage to get them to play improperly by running the film on both programs at the same time, otherwise they run perfectly.
I have uploaded hundreds of torrents here, and more elsewhere and never had a similar problem.

BrokeBomb (2011-09-03)

Doesn't work, waste of time

 oddeven (2011-09-03)

OK, I have done a hash re-check using the original files (the ones I checked that work fine and the same ones you should have gotten) and it works 100%. That would seem to eliminate any possibility for a corrupted torrent file.
Again more details about your problems (programs used, burned disc or media player, etc.), and I will try to discover (as I have already done) where the problem lies, if there truly is one.
It would be nice to hear from somebody who has a reputation to stand on, as it seems the three commenters here have committed next to nothing to this site - no offence there, but trolls do exist.

 oddeven (2011-09-08)

same set of complaints, same complainers, here:
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/5623735/
even the same dates. Now, who do I believe?
barely a trace of comments elsewhere...

berserkergreenl (2011-10-16)

Downloading... I will post later if it's good, I've downloaded the AI version, very nice material.

yamilak45 (2011-12-06)

Very good compilation, the bad quality of some is not their fault, it's old footage.... But seed it better, PLEASE, it took me A WEEK !!!

 oddeven (2011-12-07)

Seed it better? Who are you directing that at? Part (if not all) of piracy is sharing. You don't really expect the uploader to come to your rescue no matter what. A week, that's nothing! Have you shared anything here lately?

kidgreek (2012-10-08)

excellent upload. Video shows great. Many thanks !