I definitely wouldn’t put Hitler on any list of tactical or strategic brilliance, of course, but I did think Downfall was an incredible movie and Kershaw’s biography was fascinating to read. (A political genius, yes, but again, that’s not a moral judgment. Stalin would be in that category as well.) Who is putting Putin in any of these categories, though?
Having not seen the movie, I don’t know whether it is a “celebration” of Napoleon or not and don’t have an opinion on that. I don’t think it’s at all impossible to recognize the true cost of “Great” leaders’ ambitions in blood and destruction while telling the story, but I suppose we’ll see if Scott is up to it. I’m a bit partial to this period of history (if the name didn’t give that away) and I think the tension between the brutality and enlightenment as the old world was giving way to something new is endlessly fascinating. To me, at least, ymmv.
