FATHERLAND (1994) A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 1999
Almost half a century after World War Two, there are still many voices, especially in some countries of Eastern Europe, who lament the outcome of that global conflict. For them, the wrong side has lost and the world would have been much better place if it happened otherwise. For others, Hitler's victory in WW2 is a matter of pure speculation, and Sci-Fi novels from the alternative history sub-genre used that concept very often (most notably in 1962 novel THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE by Philip K. Dick). However, first such novel to reach the mainstream audience was Robert Harris' FATHERLAND, bestseller who later served as basis for 1994 HBO movie, directed by Christopher Menaul.
The plot of this film is set in the alternative 1964, in a world where Hitler managed to successfully finish conquest of Europe, while USA was too busy making war with Japan. The result is Germania, grand Nazi empire that controls the entire Old Continent, with 75-year old Adolf Hitler still at its helm. After the decades of cold war and still frustrated with the inability to finish the bitter guerrilla war with the remnants of Soviet Union, Hitler's regime wants to improve relations with the other superpower, USA, led by anti-Semitic and pro-German President Joseph Kennedy. The summit in Berlin is set, and among many invited journalists is Charlie Maguire (played by Miranda Richardson). She would stumble on Xavier March (Rutger Hauer), SS officer who is investigating the mysterious death of former Nazi official. The murder is somewhat connected with the "Jewish question" conference that took place during the war, and almost all participants are dying. While trying to find the motive for the killings, March and Maguire become targets of Gestapo.
The entire concept of alternative history is really fascinating. On one hand, the created worlds are so different from the world we live in, and on the other hand, they are in the same time closer and more recognisable than fantastic worlds of distant galaxies or distant futures. The world of FATHERLAND, although some may question its plausibility (most of the today's historians are almost unanimous in their opinion that Hitler could never win WW2, at least not in the way indicated in the film), is very realistic one. The most intriguing idea is to show the most evil and universally despised political system in the world - German Nazism - slowly evolving into its "gentler and kinder" form, in a manner very similar to the path Soviet Union took from Stalin to Gorbachev era.
Unfortunately, like many good novels, FATHERLAND suffered a terrible fate in its version as feature film. Instead of putting an effort to show the fascinating and intriguing details of Robert Harris' world, screenplay by Ron Hutchinson and Stanley Weiser concentrated almost exclusively on the lame, predictable and boring crime investigation. Such subplots, as the example of much better GORKY PARK shows us, simply don't work in totalitarian settings, as long as the all-powerful government is one of culprits. And with Nazi Germany, even in its "reformed" version, that is definitely the case. Things are even made worse with the poorly drawn characters, and actors who don't put much effort in playing, which is especially the case with Rutger Hauer. Terrible scripting culminates with hardly believable, unoriginal finale and corny epilogue that would have to establish the parallels between the fall of alternative Nazism and our world's Communism.
It would be unfair to say that FATHERLAND doesn't have its good sides. Director Menaul put some real effort in portraying some interesting details while portraying Robert Harris' world (like the posters of "Die Beatles" band). The locations and some of the artifacts from Communist era Czehoslovakia provided good hints how would latter dazy Third Reich would look like. Unfortunately, all those details are catching our attention only in the first part of the film. The rest is one great disappointment - one of the most tragic examples of great movies ideas being wasted in mediocre screen effort.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
Review written on May 24th 1999
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax Fido: 2:381/100 E-mail: dragan.antulov@st.tel.hr E-mail: drax@purger.com E-mail: dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr
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