Film
Stolz der Nation
A German propaganda film within a film—Tarantino's *Inglourious Basterds* gives us a Nazi-made war picture starring a Wehrmacht sniper as a mythologized hero. It's gleefully absurd and deliberately hideous, a short film designed to crystallize the film's themes about fascism, cinema, and how stories reshape reality. Hypnotic and deeply uncomfortable.
If you liked this
Inglourious Basterds2009
Tarantino's sprawling, funny, furious revenge fantasy about the Holocaust. Electrifying dialogue, perfect casting, and a moral clarity hidden beneath the trash-cinema aesthetics. Essential watching.
But Some find the graphic violence gratuitous rather than justified. The structure is baggy and the pacing occasionally stalls between set pieces.
Come and See1985
A Soviet film about a boy conscripted into the Red Army that becomes a descent into the moral and physical hell of Nazi occupation. Visually stunning, utterly brutal, and the most honest war film ever made.
But Relentlessly punishing from start to finish. The violence and suffering aren't sanitized or mythologized—they're photographed with documentary realism that can be unwatchable.
The Great Dictator1940
Chaplin's silent-era genius turned on fascism: funny, human, heartbreaking, and politically brave. He plays both a tramp and Hitler, and the final speech is the most moving ever filmed about what it means to be decent.
But The comedy belongs to another era—some of it lands softly now. The sentimentality of the ending will either elevate you or make you roll your eyes.
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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
A German Youth2015
Examines how young people are conscripted into violent mythology by their era—the inverse of Nazism, but sharing the same machinery of ideology turning humans into symbols.
A long, hypnotic German film (in German) about two young people in the Baader-Meinhof group in the 1970s. Unglamorous, interior, sober about revolutionary violence and idealism poisoning each other. Completely unheroic.
But Very slow, very quiet, in a language many won't speak, with no subtitles readily available. The politics are bleak and the characters' choices are often incomprehensible.
More like this (6)
A Serbian Film2010
An underground film about trauma, nationalism, and the body that provokes and horrifies with complete artistic intention. Structurally brilliant and genuinely important, though few will admit to loving it.
But Obscenely graphic in every direction. Not recommended if you value your peace of mind or ability to watch cinema uncynically for a week afterward.
Downfall2004
The fall of Berlin told from inside the bunker, with Hitler as a human (not a cartoon). Haneke's direction is ice-cold and exact. Understanding the person makes the evil clearer, not softer.
But Watching the regime's collapse is depressing rather than cathartic. The realism strips away the fantasy of victory, which some find less satisfying than Tarantino's version.
M1931
Fritz Lang's masterpiece about a child murderer hunted by both police and the underworld. Invents modern cinema language—montage, sound design, moral complexity—to grapple with evil and complicity.
But The pacing feels deliberate rather than gripping to modern eyes. The climax philosophizes when some want justice, which can feel evasive.
Paths of Glory1957
Kubrick's first masterpiece, about WWI soldiers court-martialled for cowardice after an impossible order. Savage indictment of military hierarchy, utterly unsentimental, breathtakingly well-made.
But The futility is unrelenting and the outcome predetermined, which some experience as nihilistic rather than tragic. No one leaves happy.
The Death of Stalin2017
Armando Iannucci's black comedy about Soviet power players fighting for control after Stalin dies. Bitingly funny about how propaganda and politics corrupt everything, shot in gorgeous Soviet-era black and white.
But The satire is very British and very wordy—long scenes of people arguing obscurely. If you don't find bureaucratic backstabbing inherently funny, it won't land.
Army of Crime2009
A French Resistance cell under occupation, told with humanizing warmth rather than jingoism. Risky, tender, and politically thoughtful about what ordinary people did under tyranny.
But The pace is unhurried and the characters' fates are predetermined, which can feel like watching a slow goodbye rather than a thriller.
People
Cast
Daniel BrühlPvt Fredrick Zoller
Bo SvensonBenjamin Palme
Directing
- Eli RothDirector
Production
- Quentin TarantinoProducer
Recommended by
Defiance, The Damned, The Exception, Torpedo: U-235, Beau Geste