The Great King
Overview
 
The Great King is a 1942 German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 directed by Veit Harlan
Veit Harlan
Veit Harlan was a German film director and actor.-Life and career:Harlan was born in Berlin. After studying under Max Reinhardt, he first appeared on the stage in 1915 and, after World War I, worked in the Berlin stage. In 1922 he married Jewish actress and cabaret singer Dora Gerson; the couple...

 and starring Otto Gebühr
Otto Gebühr
Otto Gebühr was a German theatre and film actor, who appeared in 102 movies released between 1917 and 1962. He is noted for his performance as the Prussian king Frederick the Great in numerous films.-Life:...

. It depicts the life of Frederick the Great, who ruled Prussia
King of Prussia
King of Prussia may refer to:* A ruler of the former German state of Prussia**List of rulers of Prussia* Place names** King of Prussia, Pennsylvania* Shopping Centers** King of Prussia Mall...

 from 1740 to 1786. It received the rare "Film of the Nation" distinction.

The film is a depiction of the Führerprinzip
Führerprinzip
The Führerprinzip , German for "leader principle", prescribes the fundamental basis of political authority in the governmental structures of the Third Reich...

, with the analogy to Hitler being so clear that Hitler sent a print to Mussolini, and Goebbels warning against the drawing of the comparison in print, in particular because the pessimistic mood that opens the film.
Quotations

But what first motivated me wasn’t anything I read. I just got mad seeing the machines ripping up the woods and so forth...

Interview with the Earth First! Journal, Administrative Maximum Facility Prison, Florence, Colorado, USA, June 1999.

The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

"Introduction", item 1

The industrial-technological system may survive or it may break down. If it survives, it MAY eventually achieve a low level of physical and psychological suffering, but only after passing through a long and very painful period of adjustment and only at the cost of permanently reducing human beings and many other living organisms to engineered products and mere cogs in the social machine.

"Introduction", item 2

If the system breaks down the consequences will still be very painful. But the bigger the system grows the more disastrous the results of its breakdown will be, so if it is to break down it had best break down sooner rather than later.

"Introduction", item 3

Those who are most sensitive about "politically incorrect" terminology are not the average black ghetto-dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any "oppressed" group but come from privileged strata of society.

"Feelings of Inferiority", item 12

[W]e are not supposed to hate anyone, yet almost everyone hates somebody at some time or other, whether he admits it to himself or not.

"Oversocialization", item 25

 
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