This review might be more about Johann Georg Elser than this particular movie. He is one of the shining lights in the darkest hour of German history, though Stauffenberg gets all the attention. People seem to forget that Stauffenberg gladly went to war and followed Hitler until he realised that the war would be lost. That's not a hero in my book. Elser, though, is. He decided that Hitler had to be stopped and tried to do so on his very own. As another reviewer on here saw fit to mention that Elser's bomb attack might have been staged by the SS, I feel forced to mention that these claims have been found unfounded some time ago (1964), when the Gestapo's interrogation files were examined.
As for the film, well, I think the acting is pretty good, so is the directing, but it has to be mentioned that it is a bit strange at times. What I absolutely didn't like about this film was that it didn't follow the truth. It might be necessary to add a few things here and there to make Elser's story dramatic enough to fill a feature-length film, though. There is absolutely no evidence that Elser had a fiancée at the time. The same goes for many of the other entanglements we can see on the screen. Disappointing, really. I personally would have preferred a film much closer to actual events. There also exists another film about Elser from the 1960's, which might be closer to what I had hoped to see, but it seems impossible to get hand on that.
tl;dr Elser was a fine man, Stauffenberg not so much. This film adds too much fiction to the real story.
As for the film, well, I think the acting is pretty good, so is the directing, but it has to be mentioned that it is a bit strange at times. What I absolutely didn't like about this film was that it didn't follow the truth. It might be necessary to add a few things here and there to make Elser's story dramatic enough to fill a feature-length film, though. There is absolutely no evidence that Elser had a fiancée at the time. The same goes for many of the other entanglements we can see on the screen. Disappointing, really. I personally would have preferred a film much closer to actual events. There also exists another film about Elser from the 1960's, which might be closer to what I had hoped to see, but it seems impossible to get hand on that.
tl;dr Elser was a fine man, Stauffenberg not so much. This film adds too much fiction to the real story.