• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Elevenses
  • Business
  • Food
  • Travel
  • Property
  • JOBS
  • All
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Sport
    • Tech/Auto
    • Lifestyle
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Set For Life
      • Thunderball
      • EuroMillions
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Film

13 Minutes : Film Review

By Stephen Mayne @finalreel 13 minutes is nothing. It’s a delay on the trains, the length of time it takes to get through adverts in the cinema, a quick walk around the block, a snoozed alarm at dawn. It’s a tiny, insignificant passage of time, the same tiny, insignificant passage of time that Georg Elser […]

Leslie Byron Pitt by Leslie Byron Pitt
2015-07-14 10:55
in Film, Film Reviews, New Movies
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

By Stephen Mayne @finalreel

13 minutes is nothing. It’s a delay on the trains, the length of time it takes to get through adverts in the cinema, a quick walk around the block, a snoozed alarm at dawn. It’s a tiny, insignificant passage of time, the same tiny, insignificant passage of time that Georg Elser missed his target by. Just 13 minutes closer and no more Hitler.

It’s impossible to know what the world might have been like had Elser succeeded in 1939, and director Oliver Hirschbiegel, returning to the era that brought him such acclaim with Downfall, doesn’t try. 13 Minutes isn’t about the bombing. It isn’t really about Elser. Instead, it’s a sombre, distressing account of a nation’s slide, lifted only by the refusal of some to comply.

Elser, played here by Christian Friedel, starts out with a childlike ambivalence to the wider world. He’s a playboy musician kicking back in the summer sun with a collection of women. This is the early 1930’s, a time of hope for a country rebuilding after the travesty of World War I. A brighter future is promised by Hitler and his Nazi party, but Elser doesn’t care. That’s none of his business, until he’s called on to finally pull his weight in the family business. Then Germany’s headlong march to destruction grows gradually clearer.

Turning up in his hometown to set his drunkard of a father on the straight and narrow, Elser initially carries on in the same way. He plays music in the local pub and seduces married Elsa (Katharina Schüttler). There’s a dalliance with the Communist Party inasmuch as his friend is a member, but he only gets involved in midnight vandalism to help out a pal. Innocence cannot last. Political opponents are rounded up in work battalions, a woman married to a Jew is shaved and publicly humiliated. Nazi officials grow arrogantly abusive. The future becomes clear, and this apolitical man, member of no party, takes things into his own hands.

The attempted assassination, using an ingeniously home fashioned bomb, is not held in reserve. Hirschbiegel opens with it, telling the story through flashbacks as Elser is interrogated. It’s a conventional approach, workmanlike and without flair. Some of the dialogue strives too hard to land punches as well. Elser carries out extremely literal conversations with friends and interrogators alike. His position is reinforced verbally too many times. It’s unnecessary because Hirschbiegel has already landed the message.

13 Minutes is anchored by a strong central relationship. Friedel’s journey from fun time guy to committed assassin never feels forced. His boyish features and natural exuberance are quite brilliantly sanded down until his face wears the grim reality of the times. Schüttler is equally impressive, another lost soul caught very personally in the wider problems of the time. They are convincing together, even more so apart.

Nothing is quite as convincing as the changes Hirschbiegel highlights in Germany over the course of the film. The sunny holiday paradise darkens dramatically through the casual cruelty of Nazi officials, the slathering abeyance of a population drunk on the prospect of technological progress and restored pride, and the disintegration of German life. Elser’s story can’t end well. We all know his plan failed. But that’s not really the point. What matters is that he tried. As bad as it gets, there’s still hope when people like Elser exist. Oh what the world might be if there were a few more.

13 Minutes is released this Friday July 17th.

RelatedPosts

Netflix has added one of the best blockbusters of recent years

Best films of the 21st century have been revealed

Netflix is about to remove one of the best thriller movies of recent years

Netflix has added one of the best thriller movies of the decade

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

© The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE thelondoneconomic.com - All Rights Reserved. Privacy

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Lottery Results
    • Lotto
    • Set For Life
    • Thunderball
    • EuroMillions
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE thelondoneconomic.com - All Rights Reserved. Privacy

← The Productivity Puzzle: encouraging a workforce that works ← The Art of Career Suicide: How to quit your job and jump
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Lottery Results
    • Lotto
    • Set For Life
    • Thunderball
    • EuroMillions
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE thelondoneconomic.com - All Rights Reserved. Privacy

-->