This photo from July 1944 seems to confirm that
Oh, and that tall (really tall) chap on the far left - that's the character played by Tom Cruise.
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 ...
whatever, the movie is a dud. And Cruise cannot act his way out of a wet paper bag.
bump...and will be back to survey more viewer comments!!!!!
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.
bump...for publicity
I saw the film yesterday and I really liked it. I also thought that Tom Cruise was great. It looks like I’m a minority of one here.
There was a t.v. movie about this same topic a few years ago. I thought it was good and that the men involved deserved to be remembered for being Germans who tried to “stop” Hitler. Hollywood fantasies are actually probably mostly dangerous due to PC.
The author’s really off the deep end on this one.
I’m planning on checking out the movie before I make a judgment. Probably will rent it when it hits DVD.
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.
Exactly, most wanted surrender terms more favorable to Germany. They were mostly horrified at the prospect of losing and fearful of an increasingly erratic and insane leader.
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.
What is it they say about success having many fathers but failure being an orphan?
Was talking with some people yesterday who had never even heard of this rather famous plot to kill Hitler.
Amazing.
“
I thought it was good and that the men involved deserved to be remembered
for being Germans who tried to “stop” Hitler.
“
Agreed.
And The White Rose participants deserve a decent presenatation that
translates to American/English (Anglosphere) audiences.
If The History Channel has talked about them...I’ve missed it.
(Which is possible as I’m not omnipresent...LOL!!!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose
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.
poorly executed?
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.
This photo from July 1944 seems to confirm that
Oh, and that tall (really tall) chap on the far left - that's the character played by Tom Cruise.
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.
Cruise as Stauffenberg is just plain laughable.
You’re confusing the Stauffenberg attentat with Ludwig Beck’s aborted coup attempt just before the Munich Conference in 1938. When Stauffenberg attempted to assassinate Hitler in July 1944, the Holocaust was already underway, and the Reich was crumbling.
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.
"Their swastikas are now small tokens on chests of medals. They look more like airline pilots than Nazi soldiers."
Of course he is referring to the Wehrmacht eagle on the right breast of the tunic. (This included a small swastika.) But it is clear that he is crazy with rage that the filmmaker actually used historical markings and not the ones Freidmann wanted.
And I must also comment on Freidmann's last few sentences.
"But frankly, when the violins come out at the end of the film, and Singer flashes their written fates on the screen, I felt nothing for them and anger for him. The idea that you’re supposed to feel anything but revulsion for all these people is astonishing to me."
He will be happy to know that his feelings towards the conspirators were shared by most of the German Army, almost all of the SS and most of the Nazi party.
Mu husband and I saw it tonight and we both agree with you. I was pleasantly surprised by Tom Cruise’s performance, I personally think he is over-rated as an actor and spends most of his movies smiling his way through them. Not this one though!
I’ve never seen a Tom Cruise movie all the way through; the bits I have seen, he’s been too annoying for me to watch for very long. Whiny voice, blank, vacant eyes. “Valkyrie” sounds like a good idea, but not with Cruise in it.
I’ll wait for Viggo in “Good”.
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.
I see from the ads that he is still whispering is lines. That is so annoying.
Barbra Streisand! Historical truth from Hollywood? Who knew?
Is it the greatest film ever made? NO.
Is Tom Cruise acting in Valkyrie the most authentic portrayal of a German Officer? No.
Would I recomend it? Yes at matinee prices.
I actually think the best treatment of the assassination attempt on Hitler, was actually portrayed in the made-for-TV series, “War and Remembrance.”
They might as well have cast Dick Shawn as Hitler...oh wait, that's already been done. (plus he's dead, but that's a minor detail)
My friend ( a war history geek) liked it also. His 10 yr old son didn't get up to go, because he didn't want to miss any.
I'll wait for the DVD.
Roger doesn’t even get how ridiculous the accent situation in the movie is. Cruise speaks with an American accent which is perfectly all right for an American movie. Trouble starts when other actors playing Germans speak with a British accent, and another actor, who is German, speaks with... a German accent. Ridiculous Hollywood trash, and conservatives donate money to it?!
That's too bad. There have been a couple of shows on the History and Military channels about this incident and they are quite riveting. I'm sure an excellent movie might have been made, but why Tom Cruise was chosen for the lead, I do not know. Just looking at him in the commercials tells me I'm better off watching Nazis on cable than going to see this flick.
Sounds like its not even worth buying as a DVD later on.
another Hollywood failure, what else can they screw up?
I actually like Tom Cruise as an actor. I thought he was terrific in flicks like Rainman and Jerry McGuire. His religion is a tad "out there" for my taste, but whatever.
I thought that the film is a real contribution to the education of our dumbed-down kids. My daughter actually whispered to me halfway through "he doesn't succeed, does he?"
Yikes.
So it's good to bring this up.
As to the reviewer's concerns about it being a "Nazi apologia" - that's just silly. The film is a pean to a group of very brave men who tried to kill Hitler. What's not to like?
Had they succeeded and managed to depose the SS, millions of lives would have been saved. Maybe Warsaw could have been spared, who knows?
I was looking forward to seeing the movie ... until I saw that it was just another Tom Cruise vehicle.
Too bad.
Cruise wouldn’t make a pimple on von Stauffenberg’s ..... nevermind.
I enjoyed the movie and I am still stunned at how much Cruise looks like von Stauffenberg.
From what I’ve read on the subject they loved their country and, for a while, admired what Hitler was trying to accomplish, but sometime in the early 1940’s became disillusioned by him... Hitler didn’t truly “Nazzify” the military until after this attempted suicide, however.
What I keep thinking is something like this could never get so far in 2008, especially under someone as paranoid as Hitler. All our surveilance systems pretty much rule out something of the sort.
Actually Cruise was the perfect choice given he is the spitting image of the character he was playing. So far the only negative comments I’ve read on this movie is from people who have not actually seen it yet... those who went to see it came away with a different attitude.
That is one of my favorite mini-series, I still want to buy the DVD set.
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