13 Minutes (Elser)

Critics Consensus

13 Minutes explores an oft-neglected corner of World War II history with just enough craft and narrative momentum to offset a disappointing lack of subtlety.

75%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 88

61%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 1,830
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Movie Info

During Hitler's anniversary speech on November 8, 1939, a man is arrested on the Swiss border for possession of suspicious objects. Just minutes later, a bomb explodes in the Munich Bürgerbräukeller, immediately behind the Führer's lectern, killing eight people. The man is Georg Elser (Christian Friedel), a carpenter from Königsbronn in the Swabia region. When a map of the site of the assault and detonators are found on him, he is sent to the head of the Criminal Police in the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Arthur Nebe (Burghart Klaussner) and the head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller (Johann von Bülow) to be questioned. From them, Elser learns that his attempt has failed--that the man he wanted to kill in order to stop the bloodshed of the World War that had just begun, has left the Bürgerbräukeller 13 MINUTES before the explosion. For days, Elser is interrogated by Nebe and Müller, for days, he holds out against their questions. Until he finally confesses and relates the story of his deed. Thus, Elser remembers how National Socialism slowly metastasized in his home village. How he attempted to oppose it, together with his best friend Josef Schurr (David Zimmerschied) and a few others. How he met Elsa (Katharina Schüttler), fell in love with her, but because of his plans had to turn away from her, his friends and his family. And how, finally, he acted: How he built the bomb, and installed it at the site in long nights of work.

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Cast

Christian Friedel
as Georg Elser
Katharina Schüttler
as Elsa
Burghart Klaussner
as Arthur Nebe
Johann von Bülow
as Heinrich Müller
Felix Eitner
as Hans Eberle
David Zimmerschied
as Josef Schurr
Rüdiger Klink
as Erich
Simon Licht
as SS Obergruppenführer
Cornelia Kondgen
as Maria Elser
Martin Maria Abram
as Ludwig Elser
Michael Kranz
as Franz Xaver Lechner
Gerti Drassl
as Lore
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Critic Reviews for 13 Minutes (Elser)

All Critics (88) | Top Critics (26)

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Audience Reviews for 13 Minutes (Elser)

  • Mar 29, 2015
    The kind of run-of-the-mill biopic that seems like a telefim, with a conventional script that lays every detail out in the open (in case you have any cognitive problem) and a series of irrelevant flashbacks that don't really help us understand the character as well as they should.
    Carlos M Super Reviewer
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