Look Who's Back - Brutal, brave, brilliant

A comedy.  Starring Hitler.  Yes, it’s a difficult premise to grasp, but bear with me.  If you’ve watched any of the promotional material, you may be forgiven for thinking that it’s akin to something Sacha Baron Cohen might do, i.e. a spoof character mingling with the general public and us observing/laughing at their reactions.  That is technically true, but ‘Look Who’s Back’ is so much more.  And so much scarier.

It is a comedy.  For our most unlikely of ‘heroes’ Adolf Hitler simply disappears from his last moments of the Second World War and wakes up in modern day Germany (yeah, I know – it’s a stretch, but it’s necessary for the plot).  Then, the first half of the movie is basically Oliver Masucci staying in character as Hitler at all times as he wanders the streets of Germany (being filmed secretly in some cases) and then we observe the reactions of the public.  If anyone doesn’t laugh at the scenes with Hitler meeting a little dog or discovering the joys of the Internet for the first time then there’s something wrong.  It is true comedy gold.

However, the film isn’t just one long collection of set pieces.  It’s actually got some story to it, too.  The scripted portions of the film show how Hitler is treated like a crank and given his own spots on TV.  This leads to him actually becoming loved as people just think that he’s a comedian playing the dictator (which, of course, he is – but for the purposes of the film we have to believe that he is actually the REAL Hitler).  

Both the fly-on-the-wall parts and scripted parts are equally uncomfortable.  Not only do some people – basically – openly agree with what Hitler says, but the scripted parts portray an eerie sense of what could happen if the real Hitler (or someone just like him) was around today and allowed to rise through the modern day media.

I won’t go into the ending as it’s possibly the most pivotal part of the film.  I will just say that ‘Look Who’s Back’ is enjoyable, if very uncomfortable and in many cases horrific.  I know that ‘funny’ and ‘horrific’ don’t always go hand in hand, but this film manages it quite well.  The scene when an old Jewish woman who actually lived through Hitler’s Germany in the forties finally ‘outs’ the dictator for who he really is still gives me goosebumps.

You have to be in the mood for something this dark, but it is certainly an achievement of film-making and also Oliver Masucci deserves credit for daring to go out in public not only dressed as possibly the most hated man of all time, but to act like him, too.

10/10 The Monty Python Knights of Camelot are currently looking for this