After his father's death, Manfred Rommel was conscripted to the paramilitary work service until his desertion and capture by the French First Army in April 1945. After the war, Manfred Rommel studied law at the University of Tübingen. In 1974 he was elected mayor of Suttgart and began a much-publicized friendship with U.S. Army Major General George S. Patton IV, the son of his father's World War II adversary, George S. Patton. He was also friends with David Montgomery, the son of Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery.
While a lot of German generals are presented in this movie, Von Rundstedt usually did not wear the general's collar insignia, but the regular officer's double bar with a white background from the parade uniform. These were signs of his rank as honorary colonel of his old regiment. It is as peculiar as Montgomery with his two badges on his beret. The white double bar can be seen on the movie Quell'ultimo ponte (1977), with Wolfgang Preiss as Von Rundstedt.
Contrails were frequently left by bombers flying at high altitude over Germany. Any visible during this film should not be considered anachronisms. Even though those in the film probably were made by jets, they were not unusual at that time.
Before opening credits: "We are responsible for our obedience." - Hannah Arendt
Rommel's aide, Captain Hermann Aldinger, had served with him in the First World War in The Württemburg Mountain Battalion in 1916-18 as a subordinate officer when Rommel achieved his greatest WWI exploits at the battle of Caporetto which led to Rommel to being awarded the Pour le Merité, aka the Blue Max, Imperial Germany's highest military decoration.