[omega4179]

whatever, the movie is a dud. And Cruise cannot act his way out of a wet paper bag.

[VOA]

bump...and will be back to survey more viewer comments!!!!!

[SolidWood]

On top of that, there is the matter of the uniforms and the set design. Suddenly, we have German officers in World War II who are not wearing arm bands. Their swastikas are now small tokens on chests of medals.

Roger Friedman is a certifiable idiot. The reality is that the German Army uniforms never had "Swastika Armbands" and the SS during wartime wore fieldgrey uniforms without armbands as well. It's called accuracy Roger! He seems to be caught in the 1950's Hollywood portrayal of all-black SS Gestapo men with Lugers and trench coats... oh for goodness sake get a history book!

Apart from that, the July 1944 plotters were largely opportunists who supported Hitler until the war was obviously lost.

[VOA]

bump...for publicity

[gracesdad]

The author’s really off the deep end on this one.

[mysterio]

I’m planning on checking out the movie before I make a judgment. Probably will rent it when it hits DVD.

[Sherman Logan]

Haven’t seen the movie, and don’t plan to.

Mr. Friedman seems to think any movie that doesn’t portray all Germans as the ultimate in evil, to the point where if Stauffenberg’s group had succeeded it wouldn’t have made any real difference, looks to me like a pretty good example of ethnic bias. Once the Nazis had come to power, those who opposed them would accomplish nothing but getting themselves and their families killed. The only hope was to kill Hitler, freeing the more honorable Germans soldiers from their personal oath of fealty.

A more legitimate criticism not pursued by Friedman is that Stauffenberg’s group didn’t begin its plotting until it became obvious Hitler was losing the war. They weren’t against Nazism as much as they were against Germany being destroyed.

There were “good Germans” who opposed Hitler on ideological grounds, but these guys weren’t among them.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Where’s the suspense? I bet Tom’s character doesn’t survive the movie. On the other hand, I suppose many moviegoers do not know how this affair ended up in real life.

[Philo-Junius]

It’s fine to hate Tom Cruise or Scientology, or whatever it is that Friedman really dislikes here, but it’s a sham to pretend that this was a disinterested review. Friedman was slagging Cruise’s performance before the movie was even released.

Coupling this with his neurosis about Mel Gibson’s projects, I think it’s safe to say that Friedman writes his reviews mostly with an eye to advancing his personal interests, and only secondarily to actually considering the movie on its own merits.

He’s becoming an increasing embarassment to Fox.

[smokingfrog]

poorly executed?

[VOA]

For those lukewarm/unhappy about “Valkyrie”...
Might I suggest an “anti-Hitler” alternative that appealed to
me (well, at least personally).

Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250264/

I liked this production.
Bohhoeffer isn’t shown to be a saint; even some misgivings are opening
mentioned about his love for a very young lady.

But the film is fairly honest about Bonhoeffer and his up-sides
and his down-sides.

Definitely something a lot of people to see in considering what
they will do/not do when confronted by an adverse movement like
Nazism/Facism/Communism/Authentic Islam.

[Falconspeed]

“Valkyrie” is frustratingly stupid in this regard. Hitler is not frightening anymore.

Not a good way to make a movie about Nazis.

[joe.fralick]

The plotters tried to save Germany from conquest and occupation (especially by the Red Army). They were naive, didn't know that anything short of "unconditional surrender" was already off the table as far as the Allies were concerned. They took their chances and paid a severe price. (The ones who were captured got to strangle slowly on piano wire hung from meat hooks, as I recall.)

I don't know if they were ideologically correct or as anti-Nazi as we keyboard warriors would prefer, but they were brave men who tried to overthrow a tyrant who had lost all compassion for the people who had trusted him with ultimate power.

[Vision]

He doesn’t even attempt a German accent, his mannerisms are all from his "Jerry Maguire" era, and his earnestness suggests at best some kind of fictional American soldier trying to infiltrate the Luftwaffe. You knew it would be bad...

Ditto.

[Vision]

You'd have to be nuts to make a commercial movie where the good guys are trying to kill Hitler, but fail and then go along with the Holocaust, experiments, war, etc.

[InvisibleChurch]

It was a good show. My son and I saw it this afternoon. It laid out the facts, had some Hollywood, I suppose, and even though you know the ending you hope it turns out differently. It's a bummer when the conspiracy falls apart. It shows people in positions of power who fail to live up to their parts in the plan and others pay for it. Tom Cruise played his part well and though I don't know all the facts of the plan it still would be a good history lesson. One part I found difficult to believe was the openness of the conspirators. They talked about the plan or made mention of their dislike for Hitler in places I wouldn't have expected them to do so. Maybe it's just a reaction to how Hollywood generally portrays a conspiracy such as in All The President's Men. Otherwise, it was a good show and TC at least ought to be lauded for bringing the story to the screen.

[bpjam]

Let’s get the bottom line straight here.

Roger Friedman is a big, fat, too unattractive to pick up boys at bars ugly, queer gas bag. (This guys loves all things Rosie.)

Friedman hates Cruise because Cruise is a Scientologist. Scientology views homosexual activity as being ‘aberrative’ behavior and seeks to correct people from continuing destructive personality traits like trolling for dudes in truck stops.

Friedman has frequently used the ‘Cruise is gay’ rumor as justification for attacking Cruise for being a self-loathing gay man. Of course, there appears to be absolutely nothing gay about Cruise (other than the fact that he wears make-up and dresses up like other people for a living).

Friedman is a troll. He is fighting the culture war from the wrong side. And he wants to take down anybody he doesn’t think is on his side.

With all that being said, this latest Cruise movie is just a movie. It succeeds, it fails, so what?? It doesn’t have any larger political, social or societal meaning. The German got their own sordid past to sort out and frankly they bore me.

[Happy Rain]

I suppose this dolt thinks “The Longest Day” sucked because it didn’t bring up the Holocaust.

History should be spared spin even if for a good cause—being accurate is enough AND hard enough to come by as it is.

[CaptRon]

I see from the ads that he is still whispering is lines. That is so annoying.

[Revolting cat!]

"Schindler’s List," "Shoah," "The Last Days," and countless other works that brought the truth of the Holocaust into focus at last on film.

Barbra Streisand! Historical truth from Hollywood? Who knew?