From a review I wrote:

“Goerdeler – conflated slightly with Gisevius and the part of the group which was idealistic, civilian and kind of anti-Stauffenberg

Pompous general – supposed to be Wehrkreis III commander Joachim von Kortzfleisch but I guess they wanted to make him look more pompously over bearing and less sympathetic (and Ian McNeice is certainly one to make it work!) rather than being ‘a simple soldier who’d rather be pulling weeds in his garden’.

Africa Korps general – probably supposed to be von Broich but he’s given a generic name and killed off. He probably represents the prior efforts of the resistance to recruit the likes of Manstein and later Rommel. I think this might have been problematic as a lot of people apparently thought he WAS Rommel!

von Haeften – takes the roles of all the ADC’s, Klausing, etc.

Mertz von Quirnheim – takes the roles of Stieff/Gersdorff in procuring and explaining the explosives as well as the role of Thiele in taking Fellgiebel’s call.

Major Freyend and General Tresckow take the roles that their subordinates (Sgt.Vogler and von Schlabrendorff respectively) historically had – again for the sake of both economy of characters and making sure the lead characters are the ones who are active, rather than having a lot of active minor characters.

The commander of the firing squad is a young officer who is introduced as General Fromm’s aide or secretary – he’s called Captain Herber in the cast list. It should have been Wachtbattalion Leutnant Rudolph Schlee. Also, Major Remer did not arrive at the Bendlerblock that evening however these are again done for the sake of character economy and to have as many of the major principals present at the climax.

We hear references to Helmuth Stieff, Col.Linstow and General Bieler as well in the dialogue. It’s really nice to think that the writers weren’t just pulling names out of their rear ends as is the case in a lot of Hollywood historical epics.

The movie does suffer slightly from shallower characterization than a lot hoped for but this isn’t because the actors acted poorly – to the contrary they did the best with what they got. Unfortunately, because of the demands of the genre, what they got sometimes wasn’t enough to really give us a good glimpse of their characters – I was wishing for more scenes with Witzleben, Beck and Goerdeler that would have given them more rounded characters. As it was Witzleben seems virtually irrelevant, which is tragic as he has the hands down BEST end speech during the Volksgericht trials, Beck is reduced to the ‘father figure’ who Cruise’s Stauffenberg is trying to please – a sort of conflation of Ludwig Beck and Stefan George perhaps! – but his role as Stauffenberg’s PRECURSOR, the one who would have had his finger on the trigger or the one arming the bomb in 1938, is absent. Goerdeler is reduce to the role of hostile and idealistic opponent to the practical and decisive Stauffenberg and his role as one of the key founders of the Resistance, his opposition to the Nazis over the Mendelsohn statue and his complex nature and naivete is likewise absent.”

As a writing exercise I’m penning a novella based on the history, starting at Kristallnacht, fast forwarding to just around the fall of Stalingrad and then to the plot itself.

I did not / do not know anything about the real Fellgiebel.

“… a movie about this conspiracy which is more focused on character development and individual motivations.”

It should be a miniseries. Maybe 6 hours, covering the rise of the Nazis, the war and then the July 20 plot, and how several characters dealt with the moral challenges, how most went along, and a few ultimately turned on the regime. With a good script, good actors, and a decent-sized budget, it could be very good.