Pre-1939, sporting a short, stumpy toothbrush mustache, and a grease-clad comb-over with a neat side parting was fine, perhaps even a fashion statement reminiscent of the all-singing, all-dancing Hollywood star, Charlie Chaplin, or the melancholic writer Ernest Hemingway. Sadly, that once classic and stoic look died a slow and painful death, not through the administration of cyanide like its wearer, but by its association with one of the cruelest, evilest, and most despicable men who have ever lived.

The name of Adolf Hitler lives in infamy 75 years after the end of World War II; this is a disgusting a man responsible for mass genocide and some of the most abhorrent wartime acts seen on earth. For such a detestable man, there has been a hell of a lot of screen adaptations about Adolf Hitler, from dramatizations of his final days to satirical period pieces, to even explorations of Hitler's attempted career as an artist in the great John Cusack film Max. There are a variety of movies that depict Hitler, which are historically and morally important; here are some of the best…

5 Hitler: The Rise of Evil

Robert Carlyle gives a speech as the Fuhrer in Hitler The Rise of Evil
Alliance Atlantis

The two-part Canadian miniseries Hitler: The Rise of Evil aired in 2003, starring Robert Carlyle in the titular role of Adolf Hitler. The film documents the rise to power and consequent infamy of the German premier. It carefully examines the early years of his life and the events that ultimately molded him into the villainous totalitarian that left a bloody stain on mankind. While there was a clear divide in the appraisal of the miniseries, with some finding Caryle's approach too much of a caricature and others believing that to be the best way to capture a madman, the miniseries certainly captured the attention of critics, with the season nominated for seven Emmy Awards and winning two. As stated in Variety, “Upon close and fair inspection, this mini has its compelling moments; despite a lead performance from Robert Carlyle that borders on cartoon overplay, there’s still enough that’s inherently watchable due to our fascination with the subject.”.

4 The Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin giving a speech as Hitler in The Great Dictator
United Artists

One of the few films which depicted (much less mock) Hitler during his tenure, The Great Dictator stars Charlie Chaplin as the anti-Semitic dictator Hynkel (an obvious stand-in for Hitler), and also a Jewish barber who looks just like him. Having awoken from a plane crash, ther suffers memory loss and finds himself in the midst of a tyrannical regime. This war comedy satirizes Hitler and the Third Reich before America officially entered World War Two.

Chaplin is masterful here, but infuses his performances in a kind of ridiculous melancholy which was highly unusal, and The Great Dictator sadly foreshadowed what was to come with the Holocaust. As the late, great film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "The film itself is filled with sad, pathetic little jokes; this is Chaplin's most serious, most tragic, most human work. He did not find Hitler at all funny, needless to say, and so although he uses his own comic genius to inspire the movie, the comedy is never neutral. It is jugular, as he creates a Hynkel who is a vain, strutting buffoon, given to egomaniacal rages and ridiculous posturing."

3 Jojo Rabbit

Taika Waititi as Hitler as he and his young buddy stare at the camera in Jojo Rabbit
Fox Searchlight Pictures

It's weird to think that one of the hottest directors in Hollywood and one of the finest comedic brains in the industry made a Nazi comedy, but the Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit proves that Taika Waititi can pretty much turn anything into gold. True to form, he delivers an unconventional, comical take on the disgraced former German leader. A Best Picture nominee, Jojo Rabbit follows the story of a Nazi Youth member, Davis (Roman Griffin), who's infatuated with the ideas of Nazism, yet things soon become complicated when he befriends a Jewish girl, Elsa Korr (Thomasin McKenzie), and gradually learns that his mother (an incredible Scarlett Johansson) is a Jewish sympathizer.

Taunted by a moral conflict and an imaginary Hitler (played by writer/director Taika Waititi), Davis goes on a journey of self-discovery, compassion, and friendship. Waititi’s eccentric, silly, and witless portrayal of Hitler is a departure from the serious, predictable norm in comparison to those who have previously taken on-screen adaptations of the Nazi dictator, and stands in a fine lineage of anti-war movies which present the fascist lunatic as a total buffoon. Jojo Rabbit is as hilarious as it is charming, which seems a little oxymoronic, all things considered, but the movie is one of a kind.

2 Inglorious Basterds

Hitler in the war room in Inglorious Basterds
Universal Pictures

The presence of an on-screen Hitler is fairly sporadic throughout Quentin Tarantino’s punchy wartime flick, yet Inglorious Basterds' fictitious depiction of a group of Jewish militants determined to bring down the despotic Nazi regime is simply too mouthwatering to overlook. Fronted by Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), a crack group of Jews enter Nazi-occupied France as their fate becomes interlinked with Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), who's out to avenge the murder of her family.

Inglorious Basterds is aboust as 'Tarantino' as any Quentin Tarantino movie can get, with quick cuts, almost comic strip-like editing, and witty prolonged dialogue that keeps the film’s narrative ticking. Perhaps the most famous scene is where Lieutenant Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) and Major Hellstrom (August Diehl) verbally joust in a quintessentially French basement tavern, making for a truly captivating, suspense-filled scene, but the finale featuring Adolf Hitler in a movie theater is simultaneously one of the best scenes about movies and about World War 2.

1 Downfall

Nazi soldiers and Hitler walk into a courtyard in Downfall
Newmarket Films / Momentum Pictures

Downfall recounts the final days of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. Following six years of war, the inevitability of Russian capture becomes glaringly apparent to an increasingly deranged Hitler. From director Oliver Hirschbiegel, Downfall draws upon the inspective lens of one of Hitler’s closest confidants, his secretary Traudl Junge, whose book Until the Final Hour formed the basis of the movie’s plot.

Surrounded by family, and some of the most senior ranking Nazi officials, “Mein Führer’s” demise occurs deep under Berlin in his bunker, with the Red Army closing in on the capital. Downfall offers a compelling depiction of Hitler (and, by association, fascism, insanity, evil, desperation, and stupidity) as he carries out his final orders and subsequent suicide. Due to the nature of the writer, Traudl Junge, this film is perhaps the most accurate portrayal of those final few days in April 1945.