User reviews

I was lucky enough to see this film on the big screen during the brief period that it played locally. I didn't know any more about it than the basic subject, and I'm glad about that, because the film got some strangely negative reviews in the U.S. Some critics seemed to complain that it wasn't a Jason-Bourne-style thriller. Instead, it's a careful portrait of one man, and shows how both he and his village were changed by political events in their country.

I was surprised to find out the movie was originally released in Germany in 2015, because it included so many events that are happening in 2017 America: left-vs-right street violence, religious intolerance, disagreements about which party represents workers, and government officials who think torture is the best way to get the truth.

The photography is beautiful and the storytelling clear but unusual. For example, an explosion is shown from a far-off POV, as a small part of a beautiful landscape shot, instead of up close to the blast. The production design is thoroughly convincing (though I may not be a perfect judge of the authenticity of period films set in Germany), and the settings are lifelike. When a character swims in a lake, it reminds you of just what that feels like. The violence works that way, too. Though it's not gruesomely detailed and exposed in a Tarantino kind of way, you'll probably feel it more.

The acting is excellent overall. The leading actor comes across as more babyfaced and less worldly than the real Georg Elser, just judging by their respective looks, but he creates a memorable character that is never a stereotype, yet is not merely a movie eccentric. Though the brutality of the Nazis' actions is never toned down, there are still moments when some of them display a believably human sense of doubt. A minor character has his own complete arc, from downtrodden village man to local Nazi leader to someone unsure if the party has gone too far. I completely disagree with one reviewer who thought the movie was too sentimental. It doesn't lionize even its main protagonist, and shows the problematic aspects of his violent political act.

Afterward, I read about the real Georg Elser, and I was disappointed at a few of the fictional changes. I was sorry they cut out the character of Georg's sister Maria, who seems to have been important in real life, and since everything is seen through Georg's eyes, and he has limited knowledge, and we don't hear about some of the other people the Nazis persecuted and even murdered after the bombing. But you can read about this. I never would have known the story was worth investigating further if I hadn't seen this compelling film.

Unlike so many subsidised movies about the Nazi era, this one isn't superficial and moralistic. Instead it tries to, and succeeds in, painting an authentic portrait of the prewar Nazi era in a village in rural Germany. Most of all, the movie is captivating. We get under the skin of this idiosyncratic carpenter who missed changing world history, and possibly saving tens of millions of lives, by a margin of just 13 minutes.

The movie stands of as one of the few who manage to depict what it could have been like to live under the Nazi dictatorship. What would you do if one of your friends was sent off to do forced labour, or another one was pilloried for her supposedly immoral behaviour. As the benefactors of a free society, we would like to think that we would stand up against such injustice. This movie conveys how difficult, how impossible it was to be decent under the Nazi yoke. It goes much to Georg Elser's credit that he tried to do the impossible nevertheless.

Some assassins (and would-be assasins) are highly politcally motivated. Others are just crazy. Oliver Hirschbiegel's film about Georg Elser, who single-handedly attempted to Kill Adolf Hitler in 1939, suggests he was neither; or at least, that his political antipathy to the Fuehrer was driven by a more generalised disgust at the sheer ugliness and banal brutality of life under the Nazis. Hisrschbiegl previously made the brilliant 'Downfall' about Hitler's final days; this film is somewhat less awesome, in part because it focuses on Elser's arrest and interrogation, and tells the story of his earlier life in flashback, removing some of its sense of immediacy. It's still an interesting story, not about a hero in the classical sense, but about a good man, and a brave one.

Movie about assassination-attempts has a natural point to use as its climax: the attempt itself. It would not be easy to keep the ending surprising if the target is Adolf Hitler, and the year 1939. This movie thankfully does not attempt to build to the grand assassination attempt, but opens with it, and spends the rest of the runtime pondering: Who is this Elser guy? What did he do? How did he do it? Why did he do it? It does this by using the interrogations as a sort of frame, and then delving into episodes from Elser's life. It does not attempt to tell his entire life story, but rather pick scenes helpfully to understand the state of mind he was in during that pivotal moment in 1939.

This is an interesting story that is very much worth telling. Elser seems to be an extraordinary character, and it's one of those moments in history where everything could have been completely different. The movie has taken some shortcuts though, as is to be expected. Elser is shown as both a clever, talented man (as he was), but at also with some faults. He is shown as almost apolitical, which makes for an interesting character, but the movie would have been better if they had explored what is known about Elser's actual relationship with Nazism.

Over all it is a movie worth seeing, even though it is easy to be bored by all of the movie about the brave men who fought Nazism, as they often spend very little time on how Nazis also were people. Good vs evil is a misrepresentation. That said, this movie handles much better than many other movies with similar subjects.

Interesting movie about a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1939. The lead character Elser, well played by Christian Friedel, is a young carpenter who see's trouble coming in the form of Hitler and decides to do something about it. We start with the assassination, which fails by 13 minutes, hence the title, because Hitler leaves early. The rest of the story is told using flashbacks while Elser is being interrogated. Some of the interrogation methods used are quite brutal and show what it must have been like if you crossed the Nazi party back in the thirties and forties.

This true story is well told and makes interesting viewing.

Oliver Hirschbiegel directed the celebrated war drama Downfall (2004) about the last week in the life of Adolf Hitler. With his new movie 13 Minutes, he returns to the subject of life in Nazi Germany but this time events are set mainly in the years leading up to the war. More specifically it focuses on a man who tried unsuccessfully to kill Hitler in the early months of a conflict that would go on to claim 55 million lives. The man is Georg Elser, who was a carpenter who was unaffiliated with any political party. He worked alone and set up a bomb that was set to go off in a beer hall where Hitler had a scheduled meeting. The film's title comes from the fact that the assassination attempt was ultimately unsuccessful, given that the Fuhrer left the target location thirteen minutes ahead of schedule. Oddly, Elser is a man who is little known. This is especially strange when you consider how well known the later assassination attempt on Hitler by Claus von Stauffenberg is. Elser by contrast seems to have been marginalised by history, which is why this film is so welcome as this is a man who deserves to have his story celebrated. Aside from a few intimate conversations and moments, the details contained in this film are based on historical accounts.

The structure of the story is told from the point that Elser is caught just after the bombing. From here he is interrogated by the Nazis and the story flashes back in sections so that we see how this musician/carpenter came to ultimately undertake his dangerous act. In taking this approach, the film is able to not only tell a historical drama but to also look at Nazi Germany in the years leading up to the war, specifically life in the countryside. Life in German rural villages always seems somewhat idyllic as was exploited by the Heimat films of the time and so it is especially jarring to see life continue in such a place but with an ever increasing Nazi presence, initially shown by the presence of small groups of brown shirts through to large swastika flags draped all over town leading ultimately to active persecution of citizens. People undesirable to the Nazis are taken away or pilloried by the authorities and the people of the village feel powerless to do anything about it. The film considers just how hard it was to actually go counter to the Nazi system at the time, seeing that all aspects of life were geared against disobedience to the Nazi state.

13 Minutes is a very good film because it combines a little know but important story with a setting in Nazi Germany rarely focused on. The performances are universally excellent and the overall authenticity is impressive. This extends to some disturbing torture scenes which feature actual Nazi interrogation methods. It's, therefore, a fairly intense film but one that surprisingly finds new things to tell us about a period in history which has had so many cinematic treatments and documentaries. It should go some way to elevate Elser himself more into the public consciousness and ensure his actions are never forgotten.

I liked how this movie was told. It's a great experience seeing this retrospective. The actor who played Georg Elser delivered a very respectable job. The message he tried to transmit to the Nazis wasn't understood unfortunately. He was a very clever and courageous man. We should never forget him even if his plan failed. Just imagine what happened to all the humanity if Adolf Hitler lost his life in the bomb attack. The locations were well developed and I felt really to be in the scene. Watch it, you won't regret. 7/10.

This is a German film based on a real person called Georg Elser who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in the 1939. From the director of 'Diana' fame and it was one of the contenders from the Germany to represent the nation at the 88th American Academy Awards, but in the end it lost the bet to another WWII drama. So if you are interested in the WWII, then you should try it. But remember this is not a war film like guns and bombs, it just takes place around the same time.

The film reveals something we never knew before. Georg Elser is a carpenter by profession and a part time musician. Hails from the rural Germany who falls in love with a married woman. But the real story begins after he failed his mission, later he caught by police and tortured to confess his crime. Then it takes us a few years back and reveals part by part his life and the event related to the opening scene.

Basically, this film ends before beginning to take off. Precisely to say, when the Elser's plan flopped/ended, the film almost lost its strength. Just like the title says, that 13 minutes of the film was something like a short film. But what comes later were different than all the information I read about the film. So the rest of the film was an interrogation that tells both his personal life, as well as how he prepared to kill the Hitler and the reason behind it.

Little slow and mostly boring, nonetheless inspired by a real person makes this watchable. Because what he attempted was not some silly thing. If, if he had succeeded that, the history would have been rewritten. Maybe the aftermath of that, who knows what the world would have looked like right now without the WWII. The tension might have still persisted, but kind of impossible to predict anything particular about that theory.

"If humanity is not free, everything dies with it."

Anyway, Georg Elser's personal life was not that interesting, but I am disappointed about this film that failed to disclose his intellectual undertaking to show us on the screen very inspiring way or maybe you can say thrill way. Because those parts comes and goes like a shooting star, I mean that fast. The remaining film drags mostly with drama. Since the storytelling was split into frequent of the present timeline (1939) and flashbacks, some of the important events kept for the final revelation, but did not strike.

Some of the scenes were raw, but not as much as a few the WWII films I had seen. The problem for me was it is not sentimental as it should have been. Because many events how they have turned out should have had left the strong feeling on the viewers. It's not the bad performances, I actually liked everybody, but the screenplay was not designed for its full potential. I don't know what is the original source material, but it was like they hurried to make it without more research.

When a film is a biography, I don't care about the entertainment. But I always look for the reason why it deserved to be a film. In that perspective, this film interested me for just one reason and that's I already mentioned somewhere in the above. I did not like as much as the critics and some of the film fanatics did. All I wanted was it to be a little clever, maybe a fine editing to place the scenes at the right spots would have saved it. I think I can suggest it, just to know about this person, but other than the its nothing very impressive. Mostly anybody would predict the story, especially the conclusion.

6.5/10

Actually, it's a really good movie, but the "5" is for totally repugnant graphic violence. It's not necessary to smear the viewer with torture depiction in order to make your point and tell a story.

The more I think about it, the story could have been told heroically from a completely different perspective. I read the "true" story after watching the movie. Rather than make most of the story about the torture and confession, the story could have been told from the point of view of the ingenious months of planning, building, and particularly the installation of the bomb.

The movie makes it look like the bomb was installed in one night, but instead, it really took weeks, with repeatedly difficult trips (over 30) to the location, a remarkable feat that the movie only hints at. The fact that after months of planning, design, assembly, and installation, Elser missed Hitler by only 13 minutes is astounding.

Maybe the fault is in the limited information conveyed by the subtitles. There are confusing moments in the movie that are easily cleared up by just reading the Wikipedia bio of Elser.

Obviously this being based on an actual event (or events for that matter), this had to be made with great care. And you can feel the weight that lies upon this movie. But it never falters under it. It does stand its ground, which is a tough thing to do. Even tougher when you realize how many movies about Hitler have been made and what they all try to accomplish.

While it is based on something that happened, as with almost every other movie, it takes a couple of liberties. One of them being the time-line jumps. You may be in the "present" (that's late 40s for you), but the movie always skips back and looks on things that are being discussed or generally a look on the character and what he's been through. Not as much as some others obviously, having friends and what not, but still a more than engaging story that is worth telling indeed

So I did not quite get the title. Maybe I missed it. At first, I assumed that the main character had a 13 minute window to kill Hitler and he missed it. I gonna go with that theory, cause the other one is that this plot in the movie was likely 13 minutes of the 114 minute film.

Most of the film is a profile on the main character based on a true story. How he lived his life as a musician in Germany during the Nazi reign and about a love affair he was having with a married women. It's fascinating how many films about World War two are coming out lately. I'm seeing one in the theaters every mouth. It's seems like the world wants to reminisce about that time (And I say the world cause none of these films are American). In some case I feel like it's a those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it situation. In other cases, I think it's an issue of just a new story about World War 2 just pops up. In the case of this guy, the movie indicates that it was very recent that they uncovered his status as a resistance fighter and his plans to create a very crafty device that can blow up The Führer

So I would say this, that I liked the movie. It's more about the man who tried to blow up Hitler vs. about his plan to blow up Hitler but it is an engaging story.

Great acting for a story worth knowing. Elser is a true hero that understood early the extreme danger the Nazi was for Germany itself. Effectively, the germans had lost their minds to think they would not have eventually to pay for their murderous rampages. However, historically, if his murder had succeeded, germany could have done better during the war and maybe even won it, since a few bad decisions were later attributed to Hitler himself, like the attack on Russia instead of England.

This film is really perfect. It shows the essence of intellectuality. We are often between society's choices and personal choices. Elser chooses the latter. Therefore, it has a universal value.Everybody needs to watch this movie since it criticizes the system. One should not expect action. It also gives some clues about love. I hope that when you watch it, you will agree because it is about independence, freedom, and intellectuality. It is Kantian in this sense. There are also flashbacks in the movie. This movie can affect the audience's personal choices. Therefore, those who want to pursue freedom can easily adapt to this movie. I strongly recommend everybody that aims to reinforce personal choices and conflicts.

"If humanity isn't free, everything dies with it." Georg Elser (Christian Friedel)

I love Nazi-related films: those uniforms, certainty of their mission, and their embodiment of evil. The docudrama 13 Minutes is more a love story than a carefully-historical account of Georg Elser's failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in 1939. Successfully paralleling the complexity of Elser's love for a married woman, Elsa (Katharina Schuttier), director Oliver Hirschbiegel shows the eccentric character of Elser's motives for the attempt and the Nazis' uncertainty about his ideals.

The bulk of the docudrama is Elser's interrogation, especially by the ambivalent Arthur Nebe (Burghart Klaußner), whose sympathies emerge only later in the story. Other Nazis are central casting: handsome, spiffy, focused, and scary. Throughout, the filmmakers emphasize Elser's dogged honesty and willingness to be even more honest in the face of threats against Elsa.

Although the love affair with her occupies the major part of the film, including the oafish drunken husband, Erich (Rudiger Klink), the emphasis on interrogation remains at times repetitive and inconsequential, even in the face of Hitler's demand to know who supported Elser's attempt. The film loses power as it becomes clear he devised the plot on his own even with the Nazi's brutal attempts to extract his accomplices' names.

As one interrogator asks, how could "an ethnic German hate the Fuhrer so much?"--an echo of today's anti-Trump mantra.

Speaking of which, a sequence after drug inducement seems completely extraneous give the re-hashed and jumbled images. In essence, 13 Minutes is uncertain which way to go: torture or love story. In the end it has a weak rendition of both.

"Hitler is war — and if he goes, there will be peace." Interrogator

Wow, well those were definitely the unluckiest 13 minutes of all time. 55 million deaths could have been averted.

A really well made and acted movie about a story that I didn't know but certainly is worth knowing.

Well paced and edited. Usually historical jump cuts don't work but they really worked well here.

I thoroughly recommend this movie showing that it's in all of us to change destiny if we truly follow our convictions.

"13 Minutes" (2015 release from Germany; 114 min.; original title: Elser: Er hätte die Welt verändert--Elser: He Would've Changed the World") brings the story of Georg Elser. As the movie opens, we see him installing the bombing device to attempt to assassinate Hilter in Munich on November 8, 1939. Alas, the attempt fails as Hitler unexpectedly leaves earlier than planned. It's not long before Elser is picked up by the Nazis, and the interrogation starts. We then go back in time to 1932 to learn more about what drove Elser. At this point we're 15 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: first, while I was aware of the fact that Hilter was almost assassinated at one point, this is the first time that I learn of the details of it. In theory this should make for a riveting drama. Alas, as brought by director Oliver Hirschbiegel (who previously gave us the excellent "Diana" bio-pic starring Naomi Watts), this is anything but riveting. The primary reason for this is that the acting is just all too staged, you can practically hear Hirschbiegel yell "and... ACTION!". It bothered me quite a bit, and it's a shame as this is an important "detail" of WWII that more people should understand better. Beware as well that some of the torture scenes are very intense and not easy to watch. Bottom line: this movie feels like a missed opportunity...

This movie premiered in Germany in early 2015. I have no idea what now, two and a half years later, this shows up out of the blue at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The early Saturday screening where I saw this at was attended so-so (5 people in total). I can't see this playing in the theater very long. If you are interested in the movie, you'll have to most likely check it out on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.