"Speer & Hitler" (2005)
Perhaps the most accurate of any film to date covering the life of Albert Speer as Hitler's personal architect and later Minister of Armaments and Munitions who was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. A well-educated man who knew better, yet who couldn't resist being in Hitler's inner circle among much lesser men than himself. The only one of them who Hitler truly respected.
- "A twentieth century Icarus."
A modern understanding of Speer's culpability as a war criminal who would have undoubtedly received the death sentence had the Nuremberg Tribunal known more about him in 1946. With thoughtful, yet devastating commentaries from three of Speer's children.
I just finished watching parts three and four.
Part Three dealt with a subject no film I know of ever did. To chronicle Speer's life as an inmate in Spandau Prison, Berlin. From 1946 to 1966.
Part Four proved to be the most devastating part of this saga. Virtually all documentary in nature, depicting the unravelling of Speer's final years from 1966 to 1981. Unravelling in the sense of historians coming to grips with evidence showing just how much Speer lied about in his knowledge of persecution and extermination of the Jews. Mostly through corroborated evidence and witnesses reflecting Speer's ties to the SS and Heinrich Himmler.
Equally tragic were multiple interviews of three of six of Speer's children. Who sadly but honestly reflected just how dysfunctional their relationship with their father actually was. And how even after being a free man, Speer seemed to turn his back on most everyone who supported him during his imprisonment. Even the foremost historical authority on Hitler (Joachim Fest) felt betrayed by Speer.
Albert Speer was not "the repentant Nazi", but rather just an excellent liar. But then perhaps some may have lamented that "he learned from the best"- Adolf Hitler.