Posted on 12/26/2008 4:27:13 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
Say what you will about Tom Cruise’s acting in other movies; in "Valkyrie," which opened yesterday, he is awful. Amid British and European actors, Cruise stands out like a sore thumb. 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, and it is.
I’m more concerned that “Valkyrie” could represent a new trend in filmmaking: Nazi apologia. We know already what Valkyrie is about: a group of German soldiers who tried to assassinate Hitler in 1944 and failed. Cruise plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg—referred to in this film constantly as “Stauffenberg”—as if to make him sound less German or something.
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. They look more like airline pilots than Nazi soldiers. When they meet, it looks like they’re at a lovely retreat in the Adirondacks. Director Bryan Singer is so sparing with his Nazi flags, swastikas, etc that you’d think the Nazis hardly existed. What’s everyone so upset about anyway?
Because in “Valkyrie” Singer opens the door to a dangerous new thought: that the Holocaust and all the other atrocities could be of secondary important to the cause of German patriotism.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
As was mentioned above, everyone involved in this plot was executed.
You don't think that they were human? I guess it makes it easier to handle, to fantasize that there was something about them making them non-human, makes one think that it couldn't happen here.
Schindler's List was more horrifying, IMHO, and even it was cleaned up considerably.
I’m starting to believe that there is some unwritten rule that says all Roman characters have to be played by British Actors. LOL!
If the History Channel had talked about the White Rose patriots they would have probably portrayed them as racist homophobic whites who, oh by the way, didn’t agree with Hitler. I watch History Channel presentations with a very jaundiced eye.
I thought the movie was great & Tom Cruise did an excellent job!
Was every little detail correct ? probably not but I NEVER go the the movie for “gotchas - how many errors can I find. I go to be entertained & this movie delivered
Tom C has his share of personal oddities but I suspect most of the bashing is from men jealous of his talent, success & good looks. And who cares if he is short (a superiority bash” from men who are perhaps taller but have NONE of TC’s other assets)
We see it with women critical of Anne Coulter, Angelina Jolie, Sarah Palin & other successful & attractive women
I am in minority at FR & don’t think the “old movies” outshine the new.
There are many fine productions currently on big screen & many very talented performers in them.
I also love what is done with special effects & makeup -— The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - case in point - another new flick with outstanding performances by Brad Pitt & Cate Blanchett
Yes the old movies have enjoyment .. I like vintage cars also... but prefer all the nice things the newer car provide. The old movies & old cars are in same situation - don’t throw them out the window but dont be ridiculous in saying the new are trash
loved the Bonhoeffer flick
Appreciate your input & to those MANY who liked the flick — agree with you!
After seeing any historical movie or one based on a true story I follow up with research.
Did not ping you (sorry) to my thoughts in post 87 above
AND I rarely follow reviews by self righteous Friedman, who has an obvious filter(s) that I do not!
by Roger Ebert
"Valkyrie" is a meticulous thriller based on a large- scale conspiracy within the German army to assassinate Hitler, leading to a failed bombing attempt on July 20, 1944. At the center of the plot was Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, played here by Tom Cruise as the moving force behind the attempted coup, which led to 700 arrests and 200 executions, including von Stauffenberg's. Because we know Hitler survived, the suspense is centered in the minds of the participants, who call up the Reserve Army and actually arrest SS officials before discovering that their bomb did not kill its target.
Considering they were planning high treason with the risk of certain death, the conspirators seem remarkably willing to speak almost openly of their contempt for Hitler. That may be because they were mostly career officers in the army's traditional hierarchy and hated Hitler as much for what he was doing to the army as for what he was doing to the country. Realizing after the invasion of Normandy that the war was certainly lost, they hoped to spare hundreds of thousands of military and civilian lives.
Von Stauffenberg was known to be "offended" by the Nazi treatment of Jews in the 1930s and considered the Kristallnacht a disgrace to Germany, which possibly disturbed him as much as the fate of its victims. In any event, little is said among the conspirators about the genocide then underway -- although, being alienated from the SS, perhaps they didn't know what was happening. Perhaps.
They repeatedly tell each other that even should they fail, at least the world would know that not all Germans supported Hitler. And so it does. And whatever their deepest motives, they gave their lives in trying to kill the monster. The film, directed by Bryan Singer ("The Usual Suspects"), works heroically to introduce us to the major figures in the plot, to tell them apart, to explain their roles and to suggest their differences. The two best supporting performances are by Kenneth Branagh, as a major-general who smuggles a bomb into Hitler's inner circle and then must smuggle it out again, and Tom Wilkinson, as a general who artfully plays both sides of the fence, treating the plot with benign neutrality while covering himself should it fail.
Tom Cruise is perfectly satisfactory, if not electrifying, in the leading role. I'm at a loss to explain the blizzard of negative advance buzz fired at him for the effrontery of playing a half-blind, one-armed Nazi hero. Two factors may be to blame: (a) Cruise has attracted so much publicity by some of his own behavior (using Oprah's couch as a trampoline) that anything he does sincerely seems fair game for mockery, and (b) movie publicity is now driven by gossip, scandal and the eagerness of fanboys and girls to attract attention by posing as critics of movies they've almost certainly not seen. Now that the movie is here, the buzz is irrelevant, but may do residual damage.
If I say that Cruise is not electrifying, I must add that with this character, in this story, he cannot and should not be. This is a film about veterans of officer rank, with all the reserve and probity that officers gather on the way up. They do not scream or hurry and do not care to be seen that way. They have learned not to panic under fire, and they have never been more under fire than now.
A key element of their plot is to use Hitler's "Valkyrie" plan against him. The reserves were held back to defend Berlin and Hitler in case of an Allied assault, so von Stauffenberg conceived the strategy of killing Hitler, ordering up the reserves to ensure stability and making its first order of business the immobilization of the SS. We see that the plan might well have worked. Indeed, it did -- until the news arrived that Hitler was still alive. So much did the Fuhrer command the fanatical loyalty of troops and civilians with an almost mystical grip, that merely his voice on the radio could defeat the plot, even with Germany clearly facing ruin.
The July 20 plot is an intriguing footnote to history, one of those "what if" scenarios. If it had succeeded, one of the hopes of the conspirators was said to be an alliance with the Allies against Russia. Given the political realities of the time, when Russia was seen as our ally, that would have been insane, but it shows the plotters continuing to dream of a reborn professional German army with roles for them. The question of the liberation of the death camps is a good one. Even the Allies did not bomb the rail lines leading to them. There were so very, very many people who did not know.
The fact that they were executed in a gruesome way should stop me from stating the obvious truth? Most of them DID go along with the war, as long as it was promising success.
There is the argument that the "natural" accent for the portrayal of an educated European of the early 20th century is Received Pronunciation English, as that is what they would be speaking (with a possible hint of their own accent) if they were speaking English. Language teachers teaching Germans to speak like Tom Cruise being scarce in 1920s Germany.
I've spoken with a number of people over the years who didn't know WHO we fought in WWII.
It's really depressing.
Mark
He doesn’t even attempt a German accent
Why do you think that, in a setting where all the characters are German, that the Germans would think the others are speaking with a "German accent?"
Mark
Your posts disgust me. Nazis were/are pure evil subhuman vermin. Camps to murder men, women, children of those whose religion they disliked or who they considered outcasts from society? Their race is superior to others and they killed in the name of that? Conducting experiments on pregnant women, making soap from dead Jews and lampshades from their skin?
I believe you've been around FR for a while and never knew what a slime ball your are. Have a nice life. Good luck with the pathetic Nazi apoligism.
That's unfortunate. He had been recently wounded by an Allied fighter plane attacking his command car, but had been expected to make a complete recovery. Because the Western Allies respected him greatly due to his conduct of the North Africa campaigns, the conspirators wanted him to be the one who would approach the Western Allies with the proposed deal.
I suspect, however, that the reduction of Rommel's role in the movie had something to do with an insistence by Tom Cruise, or his agents. Compared to Rommel, von Stauffenberg was a nobody. A larger role for Rommel in the movie would have stolen some of his thunder.
Yes, the trains were cleaned every day -
the stations had flowers in window boxes,
and children were shipped in cattle cars to their deaths.
Germans are the spiritual filth of the world - there aren't enough clean kitchens or orderly streets, or matching flower gardens to cover that stench.
And like you I have "substantial genetic heritage from the Germanic regions".
Even my wife cringed at the TV adverts.
It’s really a can’t-miss story if told honestly and compenently scripted, cast and directed. Which far too much to ask.
At least Hitler wasn’t made to look like W and Stauffenberg like John Kerry.
Actually, the cartoonish characture of Hitler as a constantly ranting lunatic is a diservice to historical accuracy and insight. Read Speer’s memoirs. I especially like the reaction of Speer’s father, a very successful architect, to Hilter and Speer’s plans for Berlin and on meeting Hitler personally.
Like any other group of 60 million people, the Germans did not all share precisely the same set of beliefs. Some embraced the Nazi philosophy. Anti-Semitism was a feature for many people in Europe, not just Germany, and it’s still there.
Other Germans did not necessarily care for the Nazis, but were thrilled by the rebirth of German pride and strength, as anyone proud of his country and its traditions might feel after being defeated and humiliated in the way Germany was defeated in the First World War.
Most of the Germans just wanted to be left alone: to raise families, tend to their homes, and pursue their civilian careers. The identity of the political party in charge did not matter to them until it was too late. We see a lot of that attitude in America right now.
A few saw what was coming. Most of them ran like hell, and got out of the country before the war. Some stayed and, if they were found out, they were quickly killed or shipped off to one of the camps.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla is a good Freeper. He has a balanced view of history, like me, and he knows that not all Germans were evil. Far from it.
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