This is a splendid drama set on Nazi time with thoughtful plot and slick direction by Jim Goddard . The tale of Helmut (Bill Nighy) and Karl Hoffmann (John Shea) , their turbulent relationships , brotherhood , their loving with same girlfriend , a nightclub Singer called Mitzi Templer (Lucy Gutteridge) and final confrontation . Both come of age at the start of Hitler's power in Germany and experience misfortunes , pains and sufferings . Helmut joins the ¨SS¨ commanded by Heinrich Himmler (John Normington) and eventually becomes a successful flag rank officer thanks to Heydrich . Karl (John Shea) joins the SA commanded by SA Chief Ernst Röhm (Michael Elphick) and suffers the darker side of Nazism after the SA is disbanded and Karl is thrown into prison and later conscripted into the German army. Helmut meets Heydrich (David Warner reprised his role of SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich , whom he previously portrayed in Holocausto ,1978) and appoints him as second-in-command . The story also deals with a family formed by father (Robert Urquhart) , mother (Carrol Baker) and their three sons . Brother is pitted against brother under the shadow of the Third Reich until their relationship finishes at the end . As in 1945 Berlin stands in ruins staying both brothers battling against Russian invasion .
The movie talks about various historic events , such as the confrontation between ¨SA¨ and ¨SS¨ , taking place ¨The Night of the Long Knives¨ , it was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders. Leading figures of the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party, along with its figurehead, Gregor Strasser, were murdered, as were prominent conservative anti-Nazis . Many of those killed were leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary Brownshirts . Adolf Hitler moved against the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm, because he saw the independence of the SA and the penchant of its members for street violence as a direct threat to his newly gained political power . At least 85 people died during the purge, although the final death toll may have been in the hundreds, and more than a thousand perceived opponents were arrested. Most of the killings were carried out by the Schutzstaffel (SS) and the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei), the regime's secret police .Röhm was held briefly at Prison in Munich, while Hitler considered his future. In the end, Hitler decided that Röhm had to die . On July 1, at Hitler's behest, Theodor Eicke, later Commandant of the Dachau concentration camp, and SS Officer Michel Lippert visited Röhm and killed him . Furthermore , ¨The night of the broken glass¨ , as the night of November 9, 1938, when terror attacks were made on Jewish synagogues and stores. Two days earlier, Vom Rath, Third Secretary of the German Embassy in Paris , had been assassinated by Grynszpan, a Polish Jew. In retaliation, Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the SD, ordered the destruction of all Jewish places of worship in Germany and Austria . The assault had been long prepared , the murder provided an opportunity to begin the attack. In fifteen hours 101 synagogues were destroyed by fire and 76 were demolished . The pillage and looting went on through the night , streets were covered with broken glass , hence the name Kristallnacht . Reinhard Heydrich artificer of the meeting of senior officials of Nazi Germany, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The purpose of the conference, called by director of the Reich Main Security Office; RSHA, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, was to ensure the cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments in the implementation of the final solution to the Jewish question, whereby most of the Jews of German-occupied Europe would be deported to Poland and murdered . Later on , Heydrich leaves Berlin to take up a new posting as Nazi Governor of Bohemia and Moravia (Czechoslovakia) and there happens Heydrich's assassination, which being well recreated . Other events being finely narrated are the followings : Destruction radio station incriminating Polish rebels and subsequent Poland encroachment (1939) , siege and defeat Stalingrado (1943) , battle and fall Berlin (1945) .
