I watched this movie again, today. I want to really like this movie and I do like it to a point. I feel like it's a near-miss. If it just had something that it might be a great movie. Maybe it's the storyline IDK
What in your opinion would make this movie much better?
I love movies about WWII and would like to see more made these days - I feel as though the World needs to see the courage, conviction and response to dire circumstances of those days.
I would have liked to have seen more previous attempts against hitler's life. The July 20 plotters had already tried to kill Hitler several times before July 20, 1944. It would also give us time to see how Stauffenberg rose in the ranks of the plotters, personally became acquainted with and recruited Lt. von Haeften. Maybe also some more character building scenes with Stauffenberg to see what kind of a guy he was. Everyone said he was very funny, cheerful, and charismatic most of the time.
As far as historical accuracy vs. artistic license:
The second scene we see shows Tresckow planting a bomb in a bottle of brandy and putting it on Hitler's plane. The man with him was Fabian von Schlabrendorff. In reality, Tresckow was not the one who went to retrieve the bomb. Schladbrendorff went and got it himself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_von_Schlabrendorff. Schlabrendorff was later tried by the same judge Witzleben was tried by and sentenced to death but not executed (this judge later died in an American air raid on Berlin by the way - unfortunately, he wasn't dragged alive through the dirt in the streets first).
In the movie, we see the aborted July 15 attempt. In reality, Himmler was actually at the briefing. The reason it failed was because Hitler walked out of the briefing early (like we see in the film).
After the blast on July 20, General Felgiebel called and actually said, "Something terrible has happened. The fuhrer is... alive." In the movie the connection gets fuzzy so they can't hear it. In reality, the plotters at the bendlerstrasse were convinced Hitler was alive and didn't initiate Valkyrie for that reason. It wasn't as ambiguous as it was in the movie. Once Stauffenberg got back to Berlin, he ordered them to initiate Valkyrie, insisting Hitler was dead.
Also, as the coup was in the stages of failure, Witzleben came to the reich war ministry and got into a heated argument with Stauffenberg over whether the coup could still proceed. Stauffenberg was absolutely adamant about moving forward while Witzleben left angrily. After Witzleben left is when the gunfight ensued where Stauffenberg was shot in the arm, and the 5 plotters we see at that point in the film were arrested. 4 were sentenced to death by Fromm, and Beck unsuccessfuly tried to kill himself. Someone else had to finish him off.
Another thing: Stauffenberg was one crafty individual. In the movie we see him bluff his way through 1 checkpoint on the way out of the Wolf's Lair. In reality, he had to bluff his way through 2 or 3 checkpoints to get to the airfield. Like we see in the movie, Stauffenberg and Haeften damn near run for the plane to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible.
There are things in this movie that look like they were added for dramatic effect, but actually did happen:
- Stauffenberg and Haeften were actually interrupted in Keitel's office when arming the Plastit W charges, which is why they were only able to arm one charge.
- Haeften actually did walk in front of Stauffenberg, blocking him from the firing squad, as if to say to the firing squad: "If you want to shoot this man, you have to get through me first." This is why I wanted more scenes where Stauffenberg met Haeften. Olbricht never introduced them. Stauffenberg met Haeften on his own and recruited him.
All in all, for a Hollywood film and not a documentary, it was a very realistic and factual film. Sure they used a bit of artistic licence and created some fiction but all in all it was a pretty accurate film. They even filmed the firing squad scene in the actual location (which took a lot of doing).
shareI don't like the spectrum of light and colors in this movie. The picture looks too clean, the sets are too sterile and empty for me, almost like in a TV production. (remember The Langoliers?)
Maybe that is the reason why this is one of those movies I can always put on while doing other things like cleaning the house.
German actors. The american actors although very good and professional, aren't making it feel authentic. If they would have at least a german accent like in Schindler's List it could have been much better. Otherwise the movie is pretty solid, it's not bad but it could definetaly be better.
shareI loooove this movie and like you want to see more stories of courage and sacrifice being told. You might have seen these films already but if not, I suggest checking out
Flame and Citron
In Darkness
Defiance
Sophie Scholl