[TOMT] [REDDIT COMMENT] a concept for a movie where it describes Hitler’s early life trying to make you feel bad for him, without revealing who he is. Then at the end of the movie, his identity is revealed and you realize you spent the whole movie rooting for Hitler

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A Christopher Nolan film. On the surface it looks like a period piece set in the 60's -70's. A man in prison (Joesph Gordon Levitt) struggling with depression. In his cell, contemplating suicide, he begins recounting his troubled childhood to his cellmate, Micheal Cane.

In the first act we go quickly through his younger life. A child on a farm with 4 siblings, a strict father and a distant mother. The family moves to the city, where he gets bullied for being a hick. He finds solace reading old military books. Using tactics from his book, he and a group of misfit friends defeat the bullies.

Cut to prison where he is still considering suicide, staring at a homemade noose. Michael Cane urges him to continue.

He then relates dropping out of school, and traveling with some hippies led by Ellen Page, whom he is in love with. She flirts but keeps him at a distance. He has a knack for painting. This act focuses on his pursuit of Page, trying to get close to her through his art.It all comes crashing down when it is revealed she is a lesbian, which he discovers when he walks in on her with another woman. Dejected, and angry with himself he leaves the group.

He tries to get into a prestigious art college to avoid the draft but is rejected. He bites the bullet and enlist. Standard military "War is Hell" montage interspersed with him in prison crying. Cane is not consoling, but tells him some wise Michael Cane words about life being a struggle and it is our choice to live or die.

He gets out and on a chance encounter meets back up with Page. She is now part of a political activist group. Having nowhere to go he joins them. With his strict fathers upbringing, love of history, charisma and military service he becomes the face of the group. They plan to hold a huge rally. At the rally he gets arrested. At trial, Page back stabs him in a plea deal to get her charges dropped, and he gets 5 years.

Back to Cane and Levitt. We find out hes been in jail almost a year. Cane, who we thought all along was talking him down, is actually urging him to hang himself. A back and forth of dialog ensues, culminating in Cane attacking Levitt and putting the nose around his neck. Levitt, now wanting to live,fights him off. Just then the guards appear to break up the fight. They also announce he is getting early release.

Cut to Levitt being released from prison. Making his way down a long hallway. He passes by Cane's cell, where he has a defeated look on his face. The camra lingers on the cell and Cane says to someone offscreen. "I've failed. I tried to stop you but I've failed. Father help us all." Camera pans to reveal Ellen Page, in the shadows smirking in the corner of the jail cell.

As Levitt exits the prison a sepia tone takes over the screen. We see we are not in 1970's America, but 1920's Berlin. As Levitt walks down the street a free man, we see brief shots from his past, redone in a style appropriate for the 20's. All scenes with Ellen Pages have her replaced with Cillian Murphy. He enters a beer hall and is greeted by cheers from his former protesters, now wearing swastika armbands. You realize you just spent 2 and a half hours rooting for Hitler.

Similar to the opening scene of Doctor Who episode "The Magician's Apprentice," where you see a frightened little boy in the middle of a mine field in the middle of an active war zone, and the Doctor tries to help him, and then when he asks the boy's name, it's Davros, one of the Doctor's longest and worst foes.

You should read the Roald Dahl short story Genesis and Catastrophe

I’m no fan of Adolf Hitler, but this film needs to be made.

Not an answer but basically the plot of that one Black Mirror episode

No idea, but it sounds a bit like the Star Wars prequels...

Oh my god. I love this idea! Take it a step further. Have it focus on his personal life throughout his suicide, and have the whole nazi thing just be something he refers to in conversation (as like, "work", or something).

Like, he goes to the bar one day because he needed to relax after a rough day at work. But the movie only has him say "rough day at work today" and then proceeds to talk about other things with the bar patrons.

This can allow the movie to possibly make it all the way up to his death, or even the thick of the atrocities committed, before revealing that the character is actually hitler.

It'd be a movie that requires no less than 2 viewings to glean the full impact.

I saw a student film to this effect several years ago as a short by a BFA student - showed Hitler as a young artist obsessed with wolves, who got the tar beaten out of him with impunity by his parents. Probably not what you're talking about, though.

This movie - Max (2002) is very much like what you're describing. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290210/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_43

I think it was here??

https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/5uilpw/wp_the_year_is_1910_adolf_hitler_a_struggling/ddumpr2