4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ehre und Tapferkeit, March 6, 2004
The title is unfortunate, leaving the impression that the 20 July group was a gang of military pirates. Nothing could be further from the truth. They were among the best, attempting one of the more noble actions of the Century of Massacre. They deserve better.
The film itself is excellent, an almost perfect example of how to deal with a historical subject in a brief 90-minute canvas. The treatment is near-documentary, with virtually every scene taken from the record (with a few exceptions, such as Stauffenberg's encounter with the old couple outside a church.) It's the simple, step-by-step story of how the coup attempt began, faltered, and then failed, leading to the deaths of most of those involved, along with several million others. It's impossible to see this film and not wish to your depths that things had happened differently.
This is one of Pabst's last films. He made it as testimony, and it's worthy of that ambition. You could do worse than to familiarize yourself with the 20 July group and their noblest of failures. There may have been better men than Stauffenberg in our time, but I can't think of any.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It Happened on July 20th, July 23, 2011
This review is from: Jackboot Mutiny (DVD)
IT HAPPENED ON JULY 20th AKA JACKBOOT MUTINY (1955) Directed by G. W.
Pabst.
Starring Bernard Wicki(as Count Schenk von Stauffenberg), Karl Ludwig
Diehl (as General Ludwig Beck), Jochen Hauer (as Fieldmarshall Wilhelm
Keitel) and Willy Krause as Joseph Goebbels.
A detailed docudrama covering the 24 hours of the July 20th, 1944
officers plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Later remade with Tom
Cruise, this is the German original filmed in that stark black and
white on location style that was so prevalent of the decade. Lean,
accurate and to the point running a little less than 75 minutes, this
viewer does not see how the subject can be improved or bettered in
anyway.
In regards to modern anti-Christian bigoted sensibilities currently in vogue in American and European cultures as totalitarian socialism gains in ascendency, the film might alienate some since it
spends a few moments dramatizing Stauffenberg's devote Catholicism that motivated his brave actions but this is,
of course, historically accurate. The film choses to keep Hitler off
camera with only his voice being heard but Goebbels appears
prominently. The War was less than ten years old at this point so the
uniforms and equipement are the real thing. The film is so perfectly
made that there is little really to comment on.
A must for WW2 buffs and anyone else interested in this subject.
The DVD comes with subtitles and the print is pristine.
Other films that cover the same material from different angles and are worth seeing are
THE NIGHT OF THE GENERALS
THE DESERT FOX
WAR AND REMEMBRANCE.
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