An internet search reveals over 40 documented assassination plots against Adolph Hitler. This one, a largely true telling of George Elser’s single-handed bombing attempt, exceptionally well-handled by director Oliver Hirschbiegel, straightforward and fascinating. Set in a backwater town in Swaibia, Christian Friedel’s award-winning Elser making this rather enigmatic man understandable, both common and exemplary. Opening on the pivotal 1939 bombing that missed Hitler by minutes, we move in two directions to cover Elser’s youthful, idealistic past, before his quick arrest and torturous interrogation adds more past episodes in a failed sadistic exercise from Nazi authorities unwilling to accept that one man could have done this alone. A chain of disbelief that reaches all the way up to Hitler. Recent past revelations show his leftist political leanings, but not the Communist Membership the authorities are hoping to find. In fact, Elser more pacifist than communist, and more musician & woodworking craftsman than pacifist. Stoic under horrific ‘truth’ techniques, he’s not wily, but honest. Only talking at all when the married woman he’d been involved with is threatened by the officers in charge of his brutal interrogation. Particularly strong period detail add verisimilitude to the late ‘30s/early ‘40s atmosphere, color, style, physicality, even posture truly caught for a change. No modern gym bodies, either, you’d swear they were wearing period undergarments. Hopefully Friedel's recent breakthru in ZONE OF INTEREST/’23 will send viewers back to see him in this quietly heroic role.
DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned, ZONE OF INTEREST, not seen here yet, but on our list.
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