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Very well executed

Great Film overall

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The acting in this movie is really good.

In order to be really monstrous, evil people need good qualities. Being psychopathic will only get you so far. But,combine a psychopathic personality with a twisted moral compass, a functional but shallow intelligence, and the ability to work at a given task ceaselessly, and you have a Heinrich Himmler.Himmler was a socially awkward young man. These days we would probably call him a nerd. Through his self studies, he converted to that hotch-potch of false science and false history, which later crystalised into Hitlerian Fascism. He saw Germany as a once great country, which had become degenerate. He wanted to return to this mythic past, and, like Hitler, thought that progress required an increasing population, destroying populations to the East, and taking over their territory. He and Hitler made a diabolical double act. The Nazis held themselves to be racially superior, and held that inferior races, while appearing human, were lower than animals because they had the capacity to corrupt higher races, both culturally and genetically. The lower races were like a disease which had to be eradicated. For a while, if they were useful, these peoples could be enslaved, but they would not be allowed to reproduce. Himmler was an idealist, who wanted a better world for himself, his family, and his countrymen to live in. He was also a mass murderer with an evil ideology. That conflict is the subject of this excellent documentary.

In 1945, shortly after Heinrich Himmler committed suicide, the US Army found a huge cache of his letters, papers and diaries at his house. Instead of handing them in to the appropriate authorities, they kept them; many of the papers subsequently found their way on to the international auction market.Vanessa Lapa's documentary tells the story of Himmler's life through these letters and other documents exchanged between Himmler, his parents, his wife Marga and daughter Gudrun. Contrary to what other reviewers have observed about the title's so-called banality, the term THE DECENT ONE refers to a moment late on in the film, when Himmler discovers that the Nazi cause is about to collapse. He insists that he and many of his fellow-officers were decent in their behavior, as they were committed to the patriotic ideal of a greater Germany. We might interpret the term ironically, especially in light of our knowledge about Nazi atrocities, but in Himmler's view the Party always acted according to the noblest motives - for the greater good of the German (i.e. Aryan) people.The documentary derives much of its power from the contrast between the sentiments exchanged in the letters - where Himmler expresses his love for his daughter and his concern for his family's welfare - and the images projected on screen, such as the burning of so-called "seditious" literature in Berlin in 1933, the regular parades of the SS in front of Hitler and Himmler, and the callous shooting of Nazi enemies in cold blood. We understand just how ruthless Himmler and his acolytes actually were, while at the same time realizing just how much their patriotism had corrupted them.Despite the sentiments expressed in family letters, Himmler was in truth not really concerned about anyone except himself. He embarked on a well-publicized affair with one of his former staffers, by whim he had another child. But this did not stop him proclaiming his commitment to noble ideals such as the propagation of the Aryan race. He forced his family to take on an adopted child, Gerhard, who seldom got on with Gudrun and eventually joined the Nazi army at the earliest possible opportunity. Himmler did not really care; so long as he and his family could be seen to support the noble cause of Nazism, that was all that mattered.In the end we are left with the sense that Nazism was actually an ideology that so blinded its supporters that they had no real sense of morality; they no longer understood the difference between right and wrong. They could claim quite innocently that they were kind and understanding towards their people, while at the same time embarking on a campaign to systematically exterminate Germany's Jewish population. Himmler's letters, as well as those written by his family, embody this (lack of) morality; to proclaim (as Marga did) that she "did not know" about the so-called "Final Solution" is no excuse.This is the true horror of Lapa's documentary; it provides a lesson in the ways in which dictatorships erode human values, not only corrupting those at the apex of power, but the people willingly allowing themselves to be ruled in favor of a cause.

This is a debut from director and writer Vanessa Lapa; and she has taken for her subject one of the architects of the horrors of WWII – Heinrich Himmler. Using diary entries that were found when the Allies reached his house in 1945 as well as letters from those concerned she builds up a disturbing picture of the man who is often put down as a 'chicken farmer' . *The Following has a couple of plot reveals if that is the right phrase.* He helped Hitler achieve his nightmare and facilitated 'the Final Solution'. We also get to see how his children loved him and the devotion he inspired in his personal life – to prove his German efficiency he actually numbered his love letters. His views are far right from the very start and he relished what he managed to do with the Schutzstaffel (the SS) and the killing machine it became.There is use of archive footage throughout and some of this is quite disturbing – including scenes of execution. The film often juxtaposes the 'we love you daddy' letters with on screen displays of atrocities that he ordered to be carried out and has much more of an impact because of it. This is smiles- heils and lies and is a compelling and disturbing watch; for those that are interested in our history – even a dark episode like this – then there is a lot here to recommend viewing.

Throughout the documentary, I did not feel that it's purpose was to show a humanized image, as the only face of Himmler. It is clear from it's course that Himmler was multifaceted, and as well a previous review said, if man were only good or only bad, our world would be too simple.While Himmler was a caring father, he was anti-Semitic and had prejudiced ideas, as most of the Nazi generals of the time. This is shown as clearly as water.The documentary is very interesting and presents us with incredible scenes of the time, some of the very trajectory of Himmler, other scenes of everyday life in Nazi Germany.Watch the film without preconceptions and I'm sure that it will be at least one good source of information about this historical character. For lovers of the history of World War II, this is a must see.