Third Reich: The Rise & Fall

If you ever thought you had absorbed all there was to learn and see about Germany during Hitler's rule, think again. This ain't no Ken Burns documentary.  If you love film, photography, and history, you must watch Third Reich: The Rise & Fall.

 A 2010 two part miniseries directed by Nicole Rittenmeyer and Seth Skundrick, Third Reich uses propaganda films, historical documentation, and most importantly, home movies and smuggled footage that has never been viewed in America, or that is still banned in Germany. Rittenmeyer and Skundrick also directed my favorite 911 documentary, 102 Minutes That Changed America, a documentary entirely using the personal footage and rare news footage of the Twin Tower attacks, composed in real time, starting moments before the first plane hit, and ending as the last tower fell. Much in the style of revered nuclear bomb documentary, Atomic Cafe, there is no narrative, except the voices behind the cameras. If you are a fan of either Atomic Cafe or 102 Minutes, Third Reich has a similar use of found film, though unlike the other two, there is a narrator and voice-overs of diary entries and letters.

It is also exciting to see so much color footage in this WWII documentary. Color film did exist in the 1930s, though expensive and rare, seeing the people and destruction in living color brings it to a reality that I have yet to become jaded over. Black and white causes a separation; today it is a stylistic choice and an understood limitation of the past, so there is an undertone of stoicism in every image. Color images taken during time periods we most associate with black and white are the most compelling and relatable.

The home movie footage adds a soul to the German people, that is not often seen in WWII documentaries. It is easy to get used to documentaries that rely on interviews and re-use footage and images whenever possible. Third Reich breaks all the expectations. Aside from the expected images of death, scenes like the home movie footage of a soldier's autobiographical puppet show/pyro fantasy are particularly disturbing. Ranging from endearing family moments to shockingly grizzly scenes of death, Third Reich is so intimate and candid, you are constantly left amazed at what you behold.