I’m not buying it. Despite some genuinely intriguing content, Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary fails to push our interest any further because of its bare bones production level.

Secretary is about a woman who really was Hitler’s secretary, telling her story to the world before she dies. Traudl Junge became a personal secretary of Adolph Hitler right before the onset of the World War II and remained in the position up through Hitler’s suicide. She includes some interesting anecdotes about Hitler’s personality – his sensitivity, his warm, cordial manners and his relationship with Eva Braun. The most amazing aspect is that Traudl had no idea the holocaust was going on the entire time. Hence the “blind spot”.

The whole documentary consists of a single camera on her, while she tells her story plainly. Subtitles translate her words into English. No flashbacks, no war footage. Just the woman telling her story. The editing even includes black spots between cuts, as if this were the most amateur production possible. There’s really nothing here that anyone with a camera and a trial version of Final Cut couldn’t do.

Of course, the pure simplicity of it all is intentional, emphasizing the significance of her story. It would have been tempting to sprinkle the story with pictures and film. In that light, I do appreciate the “raw” element to it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been anything different from what you regularly get on The History Channel – and this story is worth more than that.

On the other hand, some diversity on the screen would have made it a heck of a lot more interesting. As would some narration or discussion beyond the mere story itself. There’s not a whole lot of insight into the psychological condition of Traudl at the time, nor are there significant insights about the human condition, or anything else for that matter. Why this woman was so easily taken in by Hitler is indeed an interesting question. But it’s a question that’s never really answered.

The subject matter, though certainly intriguing, doesn’t make up for the simplistically bland filmmaking that wouldn’t even receive a passing grade in an introductory college course on documentaries.

Documentary