In a small German village, a museum has been erected to honor would-be Hitler assassin and carpenter Georg Elser. But outside the town of Konigsbronn, little is known about this country craftsman who might have changed the course of history. As directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (who made the masterful 2004 film “Downfall”), “13 Minutes” illuminates Elser’s story in a mostly compelling fashion.
In November 1939, Elser was arrested on the Swiss border, his pockets full of schematics and suspicious gear. Moments later, a bomb explodes in the Munich Bürgerbräukeller, immediately behind the Führer’s lectern, killing eight people.
The film intercuts between the harsh questioning and torture Elser endures from top Nazi brass after his failed assassination attempt, and a portrait of the resistance fighter as a young man. Before his imprisonment Elser (Christian Friedel, “The White Ribbon”) had lived in a rural town and fallen in love with Elsa (Katharina Schuttler, “Free Fall”), a married woman.
He had also watched his friend Josef Schurr (David Zimmerschied), a member of the Communist party, sent off to a concentration camp. As he watched the atrocities committed by the Nazi party, even from within his small town, Elser’s outrage swelled. He grew increasingly resolute in his conviction to prevent more bloodshed.
Friedel — who looks a bit like a young, brown-eyed Frank Sinatra — has a thoughtful, sensitive face, which speaks volumes in a role that requires he be in nearly every frame of the movie. He is a relatively sympathetic figure: musician, roguish ladies’ man with a sarcastic sense of humor, and devoted son.
“13 Minutes” is well-acted, with authentic settings and an involving structure, but it’s undercut somewhat by a rather flat love story. Clearly, it needed to be part of the saga, but it should have been a smaller part.
Too often an unnecessary relationship is shoehorned into a film, simply to add romance. In this case, Elser’s relationship with the married Elsa is key to our understanding of his character. It reveals Elser’s nervy chutzpah; he carried on a love affair with Elsa while living as a lodger under the roof of the house she shared with her husband and children. The film posits that a man with this kind of resolute independence is also capable of strong political convictions. True enough. But their many scenes together have only intermittent chemistry.
That Elser acted alone is a point that Nazi officials couldn’t wrap their heads around. He was beaten in an effort to reveal accomplices. Through it all, Elser stands firm: he planned and executed the plot entirely on his own.
One of the key officials interrogating him is Nazi police captain Arthur Nebe (Burghart Klaubner, “Good Bye Lenin!”). Klaubner makes a lasting impression in the role, but the grilling, initially tense and disturbing, is ultimately not very illuminating and grows repetitive. (In reality, it surely must have been, but we don’t necessarily need to see it for as long as we do.)
One of the most intriguing aspects of the film doesn’t involve Elser directly: We get a vivid sense of how fascism takes over a town and changes the residents, in ways both insidious and overt. Near the town sign of Konigsbronn, another placard is erected that announces: “Jews Not Wanted.” Young children, presumably members of Hitler Youth, sing nasty, taunting songs. A woman with a Jewish boyfriend is humiliated in the town square. Village shops slowly begin to incorporate Nazi propaganda. Traditional local festivals morph into Nazi rallies. Restrictions on daily life abound.
Elser is depicted in an honest manner. He was an ordinary man, not at all saintly, even occasionally selfish and womanizing. He was a working man, transformed into a resistance fighter by what he saw around him and his fears about the future. He was not educated, but the fact that he could clearly see what many who more educated could not is a fascinating point of the film.
The screenplay, by father-daughter writing team Fred Breinersdorfer (“Sophie Scholl: The Final Days”) and Leonie-Claire Breinersdorfer, has some sharp dialogue. “Why do they follow this gangster?” Elser says to Schurr about Hitler. “They want war. We’ll all die, and the country with us. We have to do something. We have to attack the leadership….We can’t wait till it’s too late.”
The title refers to Hitler exiting his Nov. 8, 1939, anniversary speech in Munich 13 minutes earlier than expected. Had the German leader stayed for the anticipated time, just those few moments longer, the course of history would have been radically altered.
What becomes of Elser may surprise those unfamiliar with his story. The timing of his eventual fate is particularly resonant, as is his remorse — not for trying to kill Hitler, but for his inability to do so. (“How can one man fail as horribly as I?” he asks rhetorically.)
While not as powerful as the brilliant “Downfall,” which chronicled Hitler’s final days, “13 Minutes” is definitely a story worth telling, intriguingly timed and it’s certainly authentic — the filmmakers employed Peter Steinbach, scientific director of Berlin’s Memorial to German Resistance, as consultant.
One of the Nazi officials ponders how an “ethnic German” could hate Hitler so much when the Fascist leader was “making Germany great.” Again? The film leaves us with much to ponder.
13 Rare WWII Documentaries Now Streaming Thanks to 'Five Came Back'
Netflix’s documentary series “Five Came Back” profiles the wartime experience of five Old Hollywood directors who all served in World War II: John Ford, Frank Capra, John Huston, William Wyler and George Stevens. For years, the films they made about the war were hard to find or completely unavailable to the public. But now Netflix is making them available for streaming. Here’s the story on each:
Courtesy of Netflix
“The Battle of Midway” – directed by John Ford (1942)
“At that moment, reality comes to him, and he moves to meet it.” That’s a quote from Paul Greengrass in “Five Came Back,” describing John Ford’s filmmaking in “The Battle of Midway,” a brief, 18-minute doc that ended up winning an Oscar. It was the first real war footage audiences had ever seen, and Ford gets right in the thick of the carnage.
Courtesy of Netflix
“Prelude to War” – directed by Frank Capra (1942)
Frank Capra was faced with a challenge: How to make a propaganda film as scarily effective as Leni Reifenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will?” He ultimately turned some of that film’s footage against the Nazis as a way to rally Americans. “Let our boys see these guys,” Capra says in “Five Came Back. “We shoot nothing.”
Courtesy of Netflix
“World War II: Report from the Aleutians” – directed by John Huston (1943)
John Huston was frustrated that he was assigned to Alaska, away from the action, for his first film as part of the war. He narrates a clinical documentary about life among U.S. soldiers protecting the Aleutian Islands that could serve as a gateway for a Japanese attack.
Courtesy of Netflix
“Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia" – directed by Frank Capra (1943)
The first of Capra’s seven planned (unfinished) training films designed to boost morale and sell the war to the American people highlighted the “scale and grandeur” of the Soviet Union military, and the need for our alliance with the Soviets against the Nazis.
Courtesy of Netflix
“Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines” – directed by John Ford (1943)
This Ford training film teaches OSS agents how to use aliases, concealment, ambush techniques and more. Ford even acts in the film.
Courtesy of Netflix
“Tunisian Victory” – directed by Frank Capra, John Huston (1944)
The U.S. Army wanted a response to the invigorating “Desert Victory” put out by the British film unit, so Capra and Huston cobbled together this film of mostly staged footage in an African battle.
Courtesy of Netflix
“The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress” – directed by William Wyler (1944)
William Wyler spent countless hours in the air with the crew of B-17 bombers doing raids over Germany. He came to know them so well, he wrote a letter to the parents of a lost pilot. As a Jew, Wyler risked worse than capture if something went wrong. But the finished film was the first movie ever reviewed on the front page of The New York Times.
Courtesy of Netflix
“The Negro Soldier” – directed by Stuart Heisler (1944)
Writer Carlton Moss felt black soldiers serving in World War II were being underserved, so he made an effort to tackle issues of race and sidestep the traditional problems and stereotypes seen in other training and propaganda films.
Courtesy of Netflix
“San Pietro” – directed by John Huston (1945)
Huston was in San Pietro when the Allies invaded Italy and witnessed the battle firsthand. The footage was so realistic, years went by before anyone realized it was staged. However, the wounded and dead American soldiers on film were all real. The government at first felt the film would ruin morale and that Huston had made an anti-war film. “If I ever make a pro-war film, I ought to be shot,” Huston once said.
Courtesy of Netflix
“Nazi Concentration Camps” – directed by George Stevens (1945)
Shortly after being on the front lines at D-Day, George Stevens was witness to the horrors of the concentration camps in Dachau. He captured incredibly graphic footage ultimately used in the Nuremburg trials, saying he planned on “using the camera to gather evidence.”
Courtesy of Netflix
“Know Your Enemy: Japan” – directed by Frank Capra (1945)
Capra made a series of American propaganda films that targeted Axis forces. “Know Your Enemy – Japan” got delayed because it didn’t know whether to blame the emperor or the Japanese people themselves. It ended up being called “brutally jingoistic and horribly racist” in “Five Came Back” and fueled some of the Japanese racism in ‘40s America.
Courtesy of Netflix
“Let There Be Light” – directed by John Huston (1946)
Huston took a sentimental eye to filming combat veterans recovering from psychological trauma before post-traumatic stress was even a term. But the U.S. government buried it, feeling it counterproductive to postwar efforts. It was finally released in 1981 and is now preserved in the Library of Congress.
Courtesy of Netflix
“Thunderbolt” – directed by William Wyler (1947)
Wyler was ahead of his time when he mounted cameras inside small fighter planes, getting creative to get the shots and not hurt the aerodynamics of the plane itself. As a result, he captured striking aerial footage of fighters making attacks over Germany, all of it in color.
Courtesy of Netflix
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Films from John Ford, Frank Capra, William Wyler, John Huston and George Stevens are now available on Netflix
Netflix’s documentary series “Five Came Back” profiles the wartime experience of five Old Hollywood directors who all served in World War II: John Ford, Frank Capra, John Huston, William Wyler and George Stevens. For years, the films they made about the war were hard to find or completely unavailable to the public. But now Netflix is making them available for streaming. Here’s the story on each: