Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Valkyrie

Feeling Normal

L

ast week, I borrowed Valkyrie from the Library.

Valkyrie DVDHave I mentioned that the last video rental place around here closed down this month? Not that I rent movies. I usually try to buy a movie if I think I'll like it because it's cheaper in the end, especially if I'm going to watch it 500 times.

Anyway

I had seen the "special" on the History Channel about the real Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg & the plot to kill Hitler. (Did you know various groups or individuals had tried to kill Hitler 40 times or some shit?) I'm sure the special was on about the time that the movie was released in theaters, so after seeing the special, I wanted to see the film.

Luckily I am a) forgetful and 2) patient when it suits me. So if I want to see something and forget about it, it will eventually come on TV and I'll get to see it for free. :-)

Whatever.

The movie was awesome. The special effects were great, IMO. The only problem I had for about 5 minutes, before I really got into the film, was that Tom Cruise was speaking with an American accent and everyone else was British.

...

‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’I mean, I saw "Far and Away" way back when so I know that accents aren't Cruise's strong suit (he should leave the accents to Brad Pitt) but really, he couldn't even fake a British accent? Isn't he friends with David Beckham (who has a very low class British accent, IMHO)? He couldn't pretend to be Becks so he'd fit in with the rest of the cast?

It doesn't matter in the end, because once the story really gets moving, the last thing on your mind is Cruise's accent.

Even though I knew the plot was going to fail, I wanted to know why it failed.

I blame the pussies General Friedrich Olbricht (he didn't put the plan into effect until it was too late) and General Friedrich Fromm who, like most politicians, was only looking out for himself and not "the people" that he was supposed to be representing.

It's really strange that such a small man (Hitler) can make so many people scared to death of him. Even when there are a few who try to stand up and do the right thing, there are others who are so scared that they'll continue to do the wrong thing.

Another thing I found interesting was how much Cruise looked like the real von Stauffenberg.

Cruise & Stauffenberg

I don't feel like I need to tell you the whole plot of the movie. You know this already. (Maybe not this specific plot, but you know that there were attempts to kill Hitler.)

Growing up, I didn't hear anything about all the plots to kill Hitler. So, like a lot of Americans, I assumed that most Germans were racists who didn't see anything wrong with the genocide of the Jews.

A lot of people equate German with Nazi. That's not the way it was. That's why we need movies like this. Germans need movies like this.

I will say that I don't think this is a movie you'd want to watch over and over for years to come, so I'd suggest rental or borrow it from your library versus buying it. But it is worth the $5 or whatever it costs to rent a movie these days.

:-)

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10 comments:

  1. I agree, there were a few pussies that screwed that whole thing up. Nor did I know about any plots against Hitler by Germans until this movie was being released... and I used to BREATHE History Channel, so they totally dropped the ball there. As far as the rental, look for redbox near you (you can look it up online and it will give you the nearest one). Redbox is how I test out movies; they only charge $1 a night plus tax. If I hate it, I'm only out a buck; if I love a movie I've only added a dollar to the cost to make sure that I want it enough to buy it. They usually have them in Walmart or outside McDonald's (sometimes grocery stores too).

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  2. Pookie - They have a Redbox @ our Wally World. I think I got on there once. Free trial from an internet source. :-)

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  3. I've still got this on my Sky+ box and still haven't got round to watching it yet, I must set aside a few hours to watch it one of these days ;)

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  4. I DVRed it off Showtime... now I really want to watch it! Thanks for the review!

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  5. I didn't have much interest in Valkyrie, even though I like Tom Cruise (not so much for his acting, I just think he's pretty) but I just can't bring myself to watch another movie about Nazis. Btw, I have netflix... I get one video at a time, and all of the stuff they have online for free streaming. I almost never watch the dvd but they have a lot of good movies online.

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  6. Vettech - It's nothing like Schindler's List. It's not really a Nazi movie in that way. I mean, we see the flags & whatnot, but there isn't shot after shot of concentration camps & stuff like that. Even if you hate Nazi movies, or they make you emotional, you won't feel like that with this one. It's more a suspense film than a docudrama. Give it a try! :-)

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  7. Vicar - Yes. They gave him a very slow acting dose of WTFium that caused him to shoot himself in the head & take cyanide almost a year after the Valkyrie plot.

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  8. A dose of WTFium? Don't be so hard on the senile old vicar. Not that I care. I mean, why would I care?

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