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Showing posts with label Oliver Hirschbiegel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oliver Hirschbiegel. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

13 Minutes (2015) Germany

A man who tried to rewrite the history.






Original title:
Elser: Er hätte die Welt verändert (German)


Genre:
Biography, Drama.


Length:
Approximately 6-minute read.


Review:
     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.



Suitable for:
Tween, Teen, Adult, All


Final verdict:
Ignore, Bad, Average, Good, Excellent


Similar movies:
The White Ribbon, Son of Saul, Colette, Defiance, Lore, Strayed, The Eichman Show.


External link(s):
    


WCA geolocation:
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Saturday, September 13, 2014

Diana (2013) United Kingdom

Princess and her secret affair.





Genre:
Biography, Drama, Romance.


Tagline:
"The only thing more incredible than the life she led was the secret she kept."
"The legend is never the whole story."


Review:
     A biographical movie of princess Diana. It tells the story of her last two years of life, especially the romance side. A better movie than I anticipated. I think Jessica Chastain would have been also a good choice to play the role princess Diana, anyway Naomi Watts excelled in her opportunity. The movie did not fail because of the cast, characters and performances, the thing is I really don't know why, different people say different reason, but I enjoyed it. This real incident was happened when I was a little kid, I did not know the whole story then till I watch it now.

‘‘There's about 5 billion people on this planet who can say
they love me! But is there one who can stay with me?’’


     After all Diana was also a human like everybody else and I did not find anything wrong with her romantic affair in her final days. In fact, as a cinematic it chronicles on the sufficient amount of limited characters. Lots of the big names were just left out. That's great because the movie had all the time to concentrate on the particular relationship. Except that I waited for the end tragedy scene which never came. I assumed, that could have been the highlight of the movie, which might have brought the tears. So I believe it is a great let down, the movie did not have the car crash scene. Especially the real reason behind it remains fishy and mystery. Naveen Andrews was great, but he was no way near to Hasnat Khan in appearance.

     There might be some flaws in the movie, because in the biopics people often complain about many things. Those who observed all this incident closely at that time when it happened may recognize errors. But I feel modification sometimes need while transforming a real life to cinematic. Like any romantic movie it can be enjoyed by everyone who love biography. I did and liked it, certainly not a class movie like it should have been.



Similar movies:
Iron Lady, The Lady, The Young Victoria, The Queen.


Suitable for:
Tween, Teen, Adult, All


Final verdict:
Ignore, Bad, Average, Good, Excellent


External link(s):
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