Der Führer is back! Welcome to the 21st century, asshole. And by “Welcome,” I mean, “if this really happened, I’m not sure I could contain my displeasure.” In fact, the depth to which I’d be irked would be profound and come from many directions – not unlike if I were completely bound while a dozen different people poked at me: three with ballpoint pens, four with cerrated butter knives, two with broken beer bottles, two with broadswords, and one wielding a sledge hammer. Of all the possible people given the gift time travel, the recipient is arguably history’s greatest villain – why, there’s proof right there that God either doesn’t exist is or doesn’t contain an ounce of benevolence. But I digress.
Adolf Hitler (Oliver Masucci) wakes up in a pile of leaves wearing a frayed battle uniform outside a Berlin housing complex in 2014. He thinks it is still WWII, but is quickly corrected and brought up to speed after an encounter with a news kiosk. And there you have premise and plot – Adolf Hitler alive and well in 2014. You’d think there would be more to this film, but there really isn’t. Like any inner city homeless man in the 21st Century, he needs a sponsor and finds one in starving filmmaker Fabian Sawatzki (Fabian Busch), who manages to convince his mom to finance a new documentary while he and modern history’s most infamous villain go on some sort of Sound of Music tour.
Now, you’d think (well, I’d think) that the return of Adolf Hitler or even a guy just acting as Adolf Hitler would be regarded with great scorn. I’d be wrong; apparently. He’s a big hit, especially in his manipulation of television audiences – now, now, before you get too scornful, do remember how successful certain assholes have been at feeding the same lies over and over to people who want to hear them. For instance, Rush Limbaugh is still very popular in certain circles. Heck, Fox News remains the #1 source of whatever it is they deliver. And yet, on the other hand, Hitler is a known entity vilified by all for decades now. History made its decision here and it made it generations ago. Gun nuts, Trump supporters, Fox pundits and all of this ilk of whom history has yet to reach a full verdict regard his evil as far superior to their own. And it’s not like the man has a flair for modern entertainment. Even taken with a grain of salt, it’s impossible to see any contemporary audience consisting of something less than neo-Nazi zealots being entertained by a passionate Adolf Hitler, phony or no.
Look Who’s Back isn’t without merit – a gem unearths itself every so often within der Führer deadpan as when the man eschews all political establishments with clout in favor of the Green Party. They’re militant about saving the motherland, so is he. Hitler can work with the Greenies. It is yet to 
be seen if they can work back. There’s also a lovely tongue-in-cheek moment when a television studio head has -in all seriousness- his own unironic reenactment of the ubiquitous “clear the room” scene from Downfall.
There are two huge problems with Look Who’s Back: 1) It’s a one-joke premise. 2) The joke isn’t very funny. The film seems on the fence of how it feels about the man himself – Hitler is consistently treated with both scorn and reverence. I understand the need to go with reverence; this is a German film — how would you feel if your direct progenitors supported, fell in step with, or maybe even voted for a villain of such magnitude? And yet, geez folks, anyone claiming to be Hitler right now would be punished for it, especially in countries that participated in WWII. Imagining otherwise is the most comic moment of all – but that isn’t funny, either.
♪When you see him, say your prayers and kiss your balls goodbye
He’s trouble, better get used to that, “Seig Heil!”
Run faster, the SS will burn you up alive
You’re hiding, Anne Frank style, for perhaps a year or five
Ve have vays … of making you talk. Who’s der Führer?
I said, “Alles verboten!” Who’s der Führer?
Your papers, give them to me. Who’s der Führer?
Juden, headed for Auschwitz. Who’s der Führer? ♫
Not Rated, 116 Minutes
D: David Wnendt (no, not a spelling error)
W: David Wnendt (still not a spelling error), Marco Kreuzpainter, Johannes Boss
Genre: Revisiting history. No, Czech that. This is more like history revisiting.
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: People who find Hitler funny, maybe?
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: “This is the worst idea I’ve ever heard of”
♪ Parody inspired by “Who’s that Girl?”
