Christian
Friedel
Katharina Schuttler Burghart Klaussner
Johann von Bülow Felix Eitner David Zimmerschied
This film is a thriller based upon the life of
a heroic German resistance fighter during WWII. The story opens with George Elser (Friedel) painstakingly
planting a bomb in the wall behind the podium where Adolph Hitler, his target,
will be speaking. After he
accomplishes the task, he attempts to flee to Switzerland, but is stopped by
border guards, who find incriminating evidence on him, and he gets arrested.
As a young adult, Elser is a musician in a
small-town pub in southern Germany.
He is clearly a ladies’ man, and has that reputation among the
locals. It’s around 1932-34, and
Nazi officers and party leaders are just beginning to harass people for not
towing the party line and for associating with Jews. Elser is completely repelled by their boorish behavior, and
incensed by their treatment of Jews and people even associating with Jews. By 1939, he is convinced that Hitler is
going to be really destructive to people and to the country, and feels like he
can’t just stand by and watch it happen.
Hence, he meticulously makes his plans to take Hitler out. Elser is very smart and resourceful in
managing to come up with all the materials he needs and how to use them.
The bomb does indeed go off and kills innocent
people nearby, but Hitler had left the building 13 minutes before; hence, the
title of the film. While Elser is
incarcerated, he’s tortured in various ways by the Nazis to get information
about accomplices (and to protect their pride; they don’t want to look foolish
by being outsmarted by one man).
Hitler and his aides cannot believe that Elser could build such a bomb
on his own, and bring in experts to verify his ability, which they do. But the brass is still not satisfied,
and in frustration, Elser offers to draw a diagram and answer specific
questions about how he built it, which he did. The obstinacy of Hitler and his henchmen even in the face of
these facts is shown by their shocking actions toward the end of the story.
The film inserts flashbacks in Elser’s mind to
fill us in on his history. We
learn that he had no respect for his drunken father, and had to return to his hometown
to straighten out some of his father’s bad business deals. While there, he met Elsa (Schuttler),
who is married to a man who abuses her.
Of all the women he’s been with, she is the only one he falls in love
with. To protect her and his
family, he tells them nothing of his plan, and when he leaves to go to Munich
to implement it, he promises her he will return and marry her. He was absolutely right in the secrecy,
because she was brought to the prison during the interrogations. When the interrogators threatened to
harm her, he confessed to the crime and gave them all the information about it,
and they released her.
Some of the more interesting segments of
Elser’s imprisonment has to do with the perspective of one of the
interrogators. Arthur Nebe
(Klaussner) seems to believe him, and sets limits on his torture, angering some
of Nebe’s colleagues and bosses.
He will pay dearly for this later, which validates just how ruthless and
vindictive the Nazis could be.
13
Minutes is very well crafted by Director Oliver Hirschbiegel, editor
Alexander Dittner, cinematographer Judith Kaufmann and musician David
Holmes. The technique of using
Elser’s flashbacks to give us his background story provides relief from the
horrors of his imprisonment. Also,
by seeing all of his experiences, it becomes apparent how truly heroic Elser
was. He was a complicated person
who at first seems rather irresponsible like a playboy, but as events unfold,
we see him taking personal responsibility in trying to help his fellow Germans
and his country. It’s eerie when
he predicts what will ultimately happen to Germany under Hitler, because he was
right. He showed his honor to the
end, when he blames his failure on his not being committed enough to what he
believed was right.
As Elser, Christian Friedel delivers an
award-worthy performance in portraying a very complicated man who is
transformed radically by his choices and life experiences. Burghart Klaussner as Arthur Nebe
likewise projects subtlety and range beneath a stoic façade.
An instructive film portraying heroism
in unexpected circumstances.
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