I recently hired a DVD called Conspiracy starring Ken Branagh and Stan Tucci portraying two of the Third Reich’s most notoriously efficient high ranking mass murderers – Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann.
It was a film I’d been hanging out to see for ages to re-visit and feed my ever dormant and lurking Nazi/Holocaust obsession. Truth be told, out of all the Nazi henchmen celebs I’d have to say that these two hideous creatures have occupied my obsessive thoughts the most. Eichmann for his banal office like efficiency and bureacratic obedience in his pursuit to do the best job he could (in sending as many Jews to their deaths in the most expedient way possible) and Heydrich - well that obsessive strand started when I was about 14 and caught a movie on TV called Operation Daybreak about the assassination of Heydrich by British trained Czech nationals.
Tucci as Eichmann is reasonably compelling. He portrays him as an eager and nervous subordinate trying his best to host a meeting now notoriously known as the Wannsee Conference (to be hosted by Heydrich) of 15 top Nazis to discuss the best methods in carrying out Hitler’s ultimate goal – the physical elimination of European Jewry (actually I really hate the word Jewry – it sounds way too much like jewellery and only adds to the over exaggerated myth that all Jews are wealthy and that we control the world).
Branagh as Heydrich is something else entirely. The film (like the Wannsee Conference itself was for Heydrich) is a total vehicle for Branagh and he truly is beyond compelling for every single moment of his performance. The trouble with the portrayal of Heydrich through the decades (he has been portrayed in a number of feature films and mini series) is that the real guy was a genuinely frightening looking Aryan freak. This monster’s face was an exaggerated distorted re-working of the ideal tall blonde Germanic Teutonic Knight that Hitler claimed as the ultimate (super)human. Cheek bones high but actually that little bit TOO HIGH. Classic Hitler Youth blonde hair-do so wonderfully imitated and revived by many an 80s new wave or new romantic band. Beady slanty eyes. If cruelty and coldness can be embodied in a face, RH is your man. And so no actor has ever been able to genuinely resemble this uniquely scary poonim (look it up – it’s Yiddish). So here’s the problem. Branagh portrays the coldness and the ruthlessness accutely well, but because he is a relatively good looking man, the ‘charming’ moments (where Heydrich mixes his coldness with some diplomatic interactions requiring a polite and/or witty exchange) are just too charming. This murderous freak is just too damn likeable in several moments thanks to that cheeky Branagh smirk. Now I’m not saying that that the film would be better or worse had the budget allowed for a bit of serious makeup on Ken’s head and I’m not even one of those bio-pic purists where I think the actor MUST resemble their subject – but it was hard and a bit of a guilty twisted pleasure watching this film and partly getting satisfaction and a buzz from Branagh’s compelling charming portrayal.
Of course after the DVD there was good old faithful Google IMAGE SEARCH to remind me how utterly unlikely it was that this murderous c_nt was charming or likeable on any level.
Branagh as Heydrich is something else entirely. The film (like the Wannsee Conference itself was for Heydrich) is a total vehicle for Branagh and he truly is beyond compelling for every single moment of his performance. The trouble with the portrayal of Heydrich through the decades (he has been portrayed in a number of feature films and mini series) is that the real guy was a genuinely frightening looking Aryan freak. This monster’s face was an exaggerated distorted re-working of the ideal tall blonde Germanic Teutonic Knight that Hitler claimed as the ultimate (super)human. Cheek bones high but actually that little bit TOO HIGH. Classic Hitler Youth blonde hair-do so wonderfully imitated and revived by many an 80s new wave or new romantic band. Beady slanty eyes. If cruelty and coldness can be embodied in a face, RH is your man. And so no actor has ever been able to genuinely resemble this uniquely scary poonim (look it up – it’s Yiddish). So here’s the problem. Branagh portrays the coldness and the ruthlessness accutely well, but because he is a relatively good looking man, the ‘charming’ moments (where Heydrich mixes his coldness with some diplomatic interactions requiring a polite and/or witty exchange) are just too charming. This murderous freak is just too damn likeable in several moments thanks to that cheeky Branagh smirk. Now I’m not saying that that the film would be better or worse had the budget allowed for a bit of serious makeup on Ken’s head and I’m not even one of those bio-pic purists where I think the actor MUST resemble their subject – but it was hard and a bit of a guilty twisted pleasure watching this film and partly getting satisfaction and a buzz from Branagh’s compelling charming portrayal.
Of course after the DVD there was good old faithful Google IMAGE SEARCH to remind me how utterly unlikely it was that this murderous c_nt was charming or likeable on any level.
Then again he did have a wife and kids. Apparently the wife wrote a book called Life with a War Criminal and often defended her husband’s reputation in the German press long after the fucker had been dead and buried. Hmmm – a new obsession brewing perhaps…
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