Posted on 12/11/2008 9:04:57 AM PST by mojito
After a long takeoff, "Valkyrie" finally takes flight as a thriller in its second half but never soars very high. Bryan Singer's long-awaited account of the near-miss assassination of Adolf Hitler by a ring of rebel German army officers on July 20, 1944, has visual splendor galore, but is a cold work lacking in the requisite tension and suspense. This second production from Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner at United Artists will do better than the first, "Lions for Lambs," but is a decidedly odd choice for Christmas Day release, and looks destined for just so-so commercial returns. Cruise himself is a bit stiff but still adequate as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the handsome, aristocratic officer whose disenchantment with Nazism, the Fuehrer and the war finds sympathetic ears among a sizable number of military bigwigs at a time when the tide has turned against Germany in the East and an Allied invasion is expected imminently in the West.
Well-carpentered script by Christopher McQuarrie, reuniting with Singer for the first time since their joint career breakthrough on "The Usual Suspects," and Nathan Alexander must inevitably wrestle with the "Day of the Jackal" issue of the known failure of the central plot. Allowing for the need to compress and streamline events, the scribes have hewed pretty closely to the facts but haven't injected sufficient sizzle into the dialogue or individuality into the characters.
As if the filmmakers felt the need to placate modern viewers who might wonder why they should emotionally indulge Nazi authority figures, the opening is swathed in Stauffenberg's feelings about how Hitler and the SS are a "stain" on the German army and his coincidentally contemporary desire for a "change" in the country's leadership.
(Excerpt) Read more at variety.com ...
Tom Snooze? No thanks. It’s hard to imagine him doing anything quite as memorable as jumping up and down insanely on a couch.
Why is that? Was Heydrich also gay?
Also,Davis was in Charoits of Fire.
Jeez... you probably hate Emeril and Rachel Ray too.
Perhaps they should have had Stauffenberg's plot be because Hitler's Panzerkampfwagens were notorious for spewing CO2 and causing global warming.
An Inconvenient Valkyrie - "Mein Gott, Fuhrer. Think about what war is doing to the planet. Ve haf only 10 years before ze vorld is kaput."
The history channel ran a pretty in depth show about it in connection with the movie. The history channel covered the families of those involved as well as the problems faced by the conspirators immediately following the war.
The little missus wants to see it. I am curious to know how that Mid Ohio accent works for a Nazi Staff officer.
Every Tom Cruise movie in a nutshell.
I’m curious as to how they worked in the war hero L. Ron Hubbard into the plot.
It'll be better than the usual cliche of having the Nazis speak English to each other with German accents.
Gee, one would get the impression you're not so keen on Cruise and Scientology.
That was pretty good. I’m surprised O’Donnel (or whatever his name is) would take Cruise to task like that. I wonder how many in the industry think he’s a real wing nut now? (Cruise, that is...)
It could have been fear, it could have been his success, it also could have been all the Iron Crosses and Field Marshall medals/promotions Hitler was handing out.
In the end the German/Prussian Officer Corp let the German people down big time by not standing up to Hitler. Yes, Von Stauffenberg (sp) gave it a try, but most were unwilling to get behind his effort.
I could be a great movie if it portrays the entire affair accurately. I doubt that it will be.
schu
Tsk tsk. So much hate for some guy who is after all, only an actor/movie maker.
The best telling of this story I remember from my childhood.
David L. Wolper had a series back in the late 60’s and early 70’s on TV called “Appointment With Destiny”. The gimmick of this series was that as historic events unfolded, (Lincoln’s assassination, Christ’s crucifixion, et. al), TV reporters would rush up with a camera crew and interview the participants on the spot as if modern-day TV news were covering the events as they happened. Coming so soon after things like the JFK assassination covered the same way in reality, it was a very novel way to bring history alive for us wide-eyed boomers.
“The Plot To Murder Hitler” was one of the episodes. As my
somewhat failing memory recalls, this story was masterfully told and very well done with a very realistic sense of you-are-there. I’m not sure if any of the series is available yet on DVD, but if it ever does come out I’d love to obtain the series, not just for this one particular episode.
imbd does have a site for this show and this episode here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844509/
Interesting.
On a side note it always made me wonder how officers of high rank could not get it through thier collective heads that the simplest and easiest way to get rid of Hitler was to walk right up to him and blow a hole through his head.
It had to be some elaborate, conspiratorial plot that was doomed to fail.
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