If you are a serious student of WW II - and like tense dramas - this is the film for you. Produced by the BBC "Killling Hitler" studies the little known "Operation Foxley" - a planned attempt to kill Hitler. Extracted from British intelligence files it follows the story of a British officer referred to a L/BX - who was challenged to devise a way to assassinate Adolf Hitler. This mentions some of the numerous actual attempts to assassinate Hitler (best portrayed in "Hitler's Bodyguard") a multiple film series which describes the many attempts to kill Hitler and how he almost miraculously escaped all of them, of course which just added to his belief that he was immortal.
The filming of "Killing Hitler" juxtaposes a very realistic portrayal of the very stressful process of devising a way to kill Hitler, with the political infighting between various British organizations - SOE (Special Operations Executive) and the SIS ( Secret Intelligence Service). The story moves quickly building up quite a lot of suspense - especially for an event which never happened.
The debate as to whether it was even desirable to kill Hitler is an interesting sidelight to the story. (He was such a terrible military tactician that many thought it was better to let him continue to lead his forces to disaster.) NOTE: the latest Military History Quarterly - Vol 26 #4 - places almost equal blame on the German General Staff for the military fiascoes.
The other fascinating element in the movie is the dialogue/analysis of a group of eminent historians and military analysts who are discussing the possibility of the various schemes which are part of Operation Foxley's evolving plans. Then lend additional credibility to the story and give an interesting "after the fact" perspective to the historical drama.
The DVD I saw had an additional bonus material which described the work of Walter C. Langer who was commissioned to develop a psychological profile of Hitler. I also enjoyed this film - also well done and the speculative analysis which they worked out in 1943 seems to carry water.
If you are a WWII fan - these films are worth the time.
The filming of "Killing Hitler" juxtaposes a very realistic portrayal of the very stressful process of devising a way to kill Hitler, with the political infighting between various British organizations - SOE (Special Operations Executive) and the SIS ( Secret Intelligence Service). The story moves quickly building up quite a lot of suspense - especially for an event which never happened.
The debate as to whether it was even desirable to kill Hitler is an interesting sidelight to the story. (He was such a terrible military tactician that many thought it was better to let him continue to lead his forces to disaster.) NOTE: the latest Military History Quarterly - Vol 26 #4 - places almost equal blame on the German General Staff for the military fiascoes.
The other fascinating element in the movie is the dialogue/analysis of a group of eminent historians and military analysts who are discussing the possibility of the various schemes which are part of Operation Foxley's evolving plans. Then lend additional credibility to the story and give an interesting "after the fact" perspective to the historical drama.
The DVD I saw had an additional bonus material which described the work of Walter C. Langer who was commissioned to develop a psychological profile of Hitler. I also enjoyed this film - also well done and the speculative analysis which they worked out in 1943 seems to carry water.
If you are a WWII fan - these films are worth the time.