About this episode

The episode discusses the film 'Max' (2002), exploring its portrayal of a young Hitler and its comedic elements.

Inside of you are two Hitlers. At least, that's the basic premise of Max (2002), a movie about a young Hitler just trying to find his voice as an artist, before all the... well, you know. We watched it for the Frotcast this week, because last week, Matt made a joke about "why don't they make a movie about Hitler, without all the Holocaust stuff?" We had been talking about Michael , a movie that depicts the life of Michael Jackson but ends before Bad . A few of our listeners (shout out to Zach Johnston) pointed out that, actually, Matt's Hitler-but-without-the-Holocaust-stuff-movie had already been made -- in 2002, starring Noah Taylor as young Adolf and John Cusack as his (fictional) friend, Max Rothman. And at least in this case, it was genuinely an artistic choice, not a concession that the filmmakers had to make in order to get the rights to Hitler's paintings from the Hitler estate. Naturally, we had to watch it. It turned out to be endlessly funny, hearing one character constantly refer to another as "Hitler" in casual conversation. Such as in the iconic lines "Hitler, come on, I'll buy you a glass of lemonade," and "ever consider the future, Hitler?" Anyway, if you ever…

People in this episode

Host: Matt

Topics covered

• film analysis
• historical fiction
• comedy
• artistic choices
• California politics

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Max (2002), Jojo Rabbit

More episodes of Pod Yourself A Gun - A Rewatch Podcast

• [MAD MEN] 413: Tomorrowland, with Ashley Ray · May 15, 2026 · 1h 53m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Pod Yourself A Gun - A Rewatch Podcast podcast page.