History YMMV / Amen

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/UlrichMuhe, the SS Doctor, appeared a few years later as the VillainProtagonist of ''Film/TheLivesOfOthers''. Interestingly, in that movie he and Creator/UlrichTukur basically switch roles, with the former becoming TheAtoner who expresses his RageWithinTheMachine and gets punished for it, and the latter as an unapologetic hardliner of the regime who ends up a KarmaHoudini. And Creator/SebastianKoch, also from the aforementioned ''Lives of the Others'', was there too.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/UlrichMuhe, the SS Doctor, appeared a few years later as the VillainProtagonist of ''Film/TheLivesOfOthers''. Interestingly, in that movie he and Creator/UlrichTukur basically switch roles, with the former becoming TheAtoner who expresses his RageWithinTheMachine and gets punished for it, and the latter as an unapologetic hardliner of the regime who becomes a KarmaHoudini. And Creator/SebastianKoch, also from the aforementioned ''Lives of the Others'', was there too. Quite the reunion in retrospect.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Urich Mühe, the [=SS=] Doctor, appeared a few years later as the VillainProtagonist of ''Film/TheLivesOfOthers''. Interestingly, in that movie he and Creator/UlrichTukur basically switch roles, with the former becoming TheAtoner who expresses his RageWithinTheMachine and gets punished for it, and the latter as an unapologetic hardliner of the regime who becomes a KarmaHoudini. And Creator/SebastianKoch, also from the aforementioned ''Lives of the Others'', was there too. Quite the reunion in retrospect.

* MoralEventHorizon: Thelma feels that her father has crossed this after learning that he blew the $20,000 that her mother left her. She relents after he explains that he did not do so selfishly or carelessly, but after some poor, ill-advised investments that didn't pan out.

* WTHCastingAgency: Thelma's actress, Anna Maria Horsford, playing her own mother in flashbacks initially makes sense...until you see that her on-screen father, Sherman Hemsley, continues to play himself during these flashbacks, except he's now her on-screen ''husband''.

* TheScrappy: Gerstein's [[FalseFriend so-called old friend Karl]] is despised for shortsightedly turning against Gerstein and vehemently refusing to help stop the impeding Holocaust out of petty InterserviceRivalry due to Gerstein being a SS officer.

* AcceptableTargets: Deacon Frye and Reverend Gregory

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The theme song is a feel good gospel-inspired tune that make you feel as lively as Deacon Frye does in his entry into his church.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The theme song is a feel good gospel-inspired tune that make you feel as lively as Reverend does in his entry into his church.

* CriticalResearchFailure: There's been enough historical research since the play ''The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy'' and this film that adapts it to prove that the Vatican was ''not'' inactive against the Holocaust despite UsefulNotes/PopePiusXII's apparent silence. Well researched and well reviewed books on the subject include ''The Myth of Hitler's Pope'' by David Dalin and ''Church of Spies'' by Mark Riebling.

* CriticalResearchFailure: There's been enough historical research since the play ''The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy'' and this film that adapts it to prove that the Vatican was ''not'' inactive against the Holocaust despite the Pope's apparent silence. Well researched and well reviewed books on the subject include ''The Myth of Hitler's Pope'' by David Dalin and ''Church of Spies'' by Mark Riebling.

* CompleteMonster: "[[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate The Doctor]]" is a high-ranking [[ThoseWackyNazis SS officer]], introduced personally selecting [[BuryYourDisabled German patients at mental asylums to be killed]], smiling at his oblivious victims--many of them children--before sending them away to be gassed. The Doctor enthusiastically takes part in the planning and execution of UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust, eventually taking up a position in a death camp. When the Jesuit priest [[GoodSamaritan Riccardo Fontana]] protests the Pope's decision to stay silent about the mass murder of Jews by allowing himself to be taken to the camp, the Doctor notes that he'll be the one to "decide who is a Jew", before forcing Father Fontana to work in the crematoria to break his spirit. Rogue SS officer Kurt Gerstein tries to secure the priest's release by falsifying papers from Heinrich Himmler, but the Doctor instead has Fontana killed and orders Gerstein's arrest.

* CompleteMonster: [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate "The Doctor"]] is a [[FauxAffablyEvil superficially charming man]] who's a high-ranking [[ThoseWackyNazis SS officer]] intimately involved in the extermination policies of the Nazi regime. At first he personally selects [[BuryYourDisabled German patients at mental asylums to be killed]], smiling at his oblivious victims--[[WouldHurtAChild many of them children]]--before sending them away to be gassed. One of those killed is the niece of his later colleague Kurt Gerstein, a conscientious SS officer who [[HeelRealization is horrified by the use of his chemicals to exterminate people instead of pests]]. The Doctor enthusiastically takes part in the planning and execution of UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust, eventually taking up a position in a death camp. When the Jesuit priest [[GoodSamaritan Riccardo Fontana]] protests the Pope's decision to stay silent about the mass murder of Jews by allowing himself to be taken to the camp, the Doctor notes that he'll be the one to "decide who is a Jew", before forcing Father Fontana to [[FateWorseThanDeath work in the crematoria to break his spirit]]. Gerstein tries to secure the priest's release by falsifying papers from Himmler, but the Doctor instead has Father Fontana killed and orders Gerstein's arrest. The Doctor's only regret at the end of the war as [[KarmaHoudini he secures safe passage to Argentina for himself]] through the Vatican is that he couldn't kill more people, after already sending thousands to their deaths.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Urich Mühe, the [=SS=] Doctor, appeared a few years later as the VillainProtagonist of ''Film/TheLivesOfOthers''. Interestingly, in that movie he and Creator/UlrichTukur basically switch roles, with the former becoming TheAtoner who expresses his RageWithinTheMachine and gets punished for it, and the latter as an unapologetic hardliner of the regime who becomes a KarmaHoudini. And Creator/SebastianKoch, also from the aforementioned ''Lives of the Others'', was there too. Quite the reunion in retrospect, to say the least.

** In addition to his work on ''Amen'', creator and executive producer Ed. Weinberger is also best known as co-creator and co-executive producer of ''Series/{{Taxi}}'' and for co-creating ''Series/TheCosbyShow'' and ''Series/TheBillCosbyShow''.