Director Of The Hitler Downfall Movie Likes The Hundreds Of Parody Clips

from the go-forth-and-parody dept

Fri, Jan 22nd 2010 6:28am — Mike Masnick

Perhaps if you've been living under a pop culture rock for the past few years, you were unaware of the popular hobby of creating subtitled videos of an angry Hitler reacting to something going on in the world today, using a clip from the German movie Downfall. For example, here is Hitler responding to NBC's snafu with late night television programming with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien:

While there have been reports of takedown notices sent on these videos, apparently the director of the original movie quite likes them. davebarnes alerts us to a short interview with Oliver Hirschbiegel, the director of the movie, and he's a fan of the clips:

"Someone sends me the links every time there's a new one," says the director, on the phone from Vienna. "I think I've seen about 145 of them! Of course, I have to put the sound down when I watch. Many times the lines are so funny, I laugh out loud, and I'm laughing about the scene that I staged myself! You couldn't get a better compliment as a director." Some of Hirschbiegel's favorites are the one where Hitler hears of Michael Jackson's death, and one in which the Fuhrer can't get Billy Elliot tickets

Of course, as director, and not producer, he probably does not hold the copyright and has no say in whether or not the clips are allowed -- but it is worth noting that he seems to quite enjoy them.

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Filed Under: copyright, hitler, mashups, videos

24 Comments

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hitler would be proud, 22 Jan 2010 @ 7:04am

an no money was made BUT free advertisng
then people got how can i get this film or see it

amazing isn't it why suddenly you have a director speaking of liking it

HIS ART GETS SEEN not shelved for control freaks in California
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faceless (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 7:24am

Re: an no money was made BUT free advertisng
one of these days i need to watch the movie, i love the reaction clips!
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Mr Big Content, 22 Jan 2010 @ 7:27am

This Is Why ...
... artistic lefty freetards like him should stick to making content, not owning it.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2010 @ 7:33am

The movie is really great. You should see it. I'm happy to see that he understands that this doesn't hurt his movie in any way. No one is going to confuse Downfall with a comedy, and these parodies aren't taking any money away from the real film. I'm sure the real copyright holders are having a cow though.
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mdmadph (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 7:39am

I think these parody videos have been great -- I never would've gone out and actually rented out the real movie (which is actually a great movie) had it not been for these parodies.
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interval, 22 Jan 2010 @ 7:55am

The film is a classic, and so are the parodies. The best one is what I believe is one of the first ones; the classic Windows Vista Snafu. "I reinstalled that printer driver 5 times!" *Slam pencils on map of Germany* Classic.
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 8:04am

My Fav
My favorite is when Hitler's XBox 360 got hit with the banhammer.
Hilarious!
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Jon, 22 Jan 2010 @ 8:17am

Hitler on Microsoft
The one where he rants about windows 7, Bill Gates, and Microsoft is by far the funniest one.
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Coughing Monkey (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 8:25am

we in the USA had a show on TV like this a few years ago it was called Fractured Flickers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw8iiyv3yMI
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Westfork, 22 Jan 2010 @ 9:15am

I only heard of this movie
Because of the parody flix, I ordered it of of Amazon teh next day.
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Tom Landry (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 9:48am

The Billy Elliot one is by far the best of the bunch.
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stephen, 22 Jan 2010 @ 10:48am

he just bought a t.o. jersey
my favorite is the one about hitler going nut because the giants beat his cowboys in the playoffs. but the line in this about about starting the war in order to bomb andrew lloyd weber's house is pretty priceless.

as to downfall being a comedy: nazis going crazy in the bunker as the russians close in? that's pretty funny. very very good movie.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2010 @ 10:50am

Re: This Is Why ...
Oh yes, because those who own the content should not be the ones who make it, right?
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2010 @ 10:58am

Re: Hitler on Microsoft
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggEH4ZZh_Qc
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Paul Renault (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 2:07pm

Re:
Me, I think the Grammar Nazi one has a nice smart self reference. Plus the bits about the finger pointing...
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DK2, 22 Jan 2010 @ 2:20pm

I have been wondering for a while what the people behind this sort of thing thought of it, he seems like a pretty cool guy.
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Chargone (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 2:27pm

Re: Re: This Is Why ...
... can you actually see the name of the person you're responding to there and NOT realise that he's being sarcastic here?

details are your friend. :)
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2010 @ 4:06pm

The fact that he has an appreciation of the pieces shows him to be a true artist.
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nclow, 24 Jan 2010 @ 5:09pm

I had not heard of the Downfall movie until the video meme came onto my radar. I watched NBC/Leno version of the video and laughed my pants off, and went straight onto hunting others. I looked up the movie on imdb so I could read the synopsis, and it sounded like something I would really enjoy so I added it to my watch list, which means I'll be getting it from netflix or some other source within the next week.

The thought process behind the takedown notices is totally alien to me. Both the videos linked from the wired article are gone. Since when did free press for your product stop being a tremendously wonderful thing? That would seem to be a fact you could pick up in business 101. I'm a living example of someone who is now interested in the product by the very process that the copyright holders of that product are fighting to destroy, and I truly can't imagine what goes through their heads when they take action like this. It's more than a generational gap. It's like they're from another planet.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2010 @ 9:27pm

Re:
I hope you enjoy the movie. I thought it was excellent.
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Jack Momma, 25 Jan 2010 @ 8:56am

"No one is going to confuse Downfall with a comedy, and these parodies aren't taking any money away from the real film."

"as to downfall being a comedy: nazis going crazy in the bunker as the russians close in? that's pretty funny."

I'm really quite impressed that you inferred that plot solely from the parody clips. Or maybe you know German. Many others, however, could not and do not (respectively).
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Ben Scott, 25 Jan 2010 @ 11:45am

I've always been a fan of these Hitler subtitle parodies (Hilary Clinton realizes she's going to lose the Democratic nomination is my favorite), but somehow when I watched the actual movie a few months ago I didn't realize until moments before the famous scene that I was watching the source movie for all these parodies. Watching that scene in context in the middle of the movie is pretty surreal after you've seen all these parody videos.

Good movie though, highly recommended.
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mcluhan, 6 Jul 2011 @ 12:11am

truth version
youtube.com/watch?v=h0hNAKAlg-g
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