Günther Meisner and Steven Berfkoff (actors who play Hitler)
Anyone else here thinks that both of the actors portraying Hitler were rather miscast or poorly directed? Having watched both Winds of War and War and Remembrance, I cannot help but feel the character of Hitler was deliberately made so one dimensional.
Günther Meisner, who plays Hitler in the Winds of war, was not only a bit too old; he also seemed stiff all the time. And yet, despite that, there seemed to be good with his dialogues and at times managed to find the right measure in his outbursts, so in the end he was passable.
With Steven Berkoff, in the second part (War and Remembrance) things got really out of hand. His portrayal of Hitler seemed to me as a mixture of a buffoon or a stooge and a mad dog that just keeps yelling and yelling. All he did was being over the top in this all the time and it's hard to believe Hitler would be like that with his inner circle. Not to mention he was not so much physically alike to Hitler. The reason why Dan Curtis, the director, decided for such a one dimensional and shallow portrayal of this character escapes me.
These things became even more obvious to me after seeing the new German movie THE DOWNFALL (DER UNTERGANG) in which Hitler is portrayed by the Swiss actor Bruno Ganz. He gave the best portrayal of Hitler I have seen so far. Evil without a doubt, yet believable and human, since Hitler was after all, a man.
If this series ever gets remade, I hope they made better casting choices of Hitler.