Valkyrie

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crazygirl_519

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I haven't seen a thread on this so I thought I'd start one.

I saw Valkyrie on Christmas Day here in the USA where I am visiting. It's the true story about an attempt to overthrow Hitler. This story has been told in depth in docs on BBC and Discovery and the film is reminiscent of them.

It stars Tom Cruise as a (don't laugh) one-eyed, one-handed Nazi who sets out to kill the Fuhrer. Mission Impossible it might be but it's nothing like those movies, this is serious and intelligent, thoughtful and Cruise does well in the role, he overcomes what could be the stagey gimmics of the eyepatch and missing hand - the real-life protagonist had been badly injured in the war.

It's low key and complex but gripping, carefully plotted, very tense, it seems to be factually based, there's no showy moments either in terms of effects or overacting, no cliches or rubbish war movie dialogue. Most of the cast is British with David Bamber (Mr Collins from the classic Pride and Prejudice) unrecognisable as himself in the role of a really creepy, failing Adolf Hitler. Bill Nighy, as usual, is in danger of walking off with the film, all decency mired in nervous tension. Eddie Izzard is good in it too, surprisingly and effectively cast.

As a Brit it confuses you slightly because we are not used to seeing 'good' Nazis and these guys had obviously been part of the Nazi effort until they saw Germany losing, so you have to empathise with quite difficult characters, but the story is well told, so you do.

It is a very good exposition of how a coup could start and then go either way, of the nature of power and how it drains away or doesn't, with everyone's self-serving human nature glaringly exposed double guessing what is really happening and where they should append their loyalties.
 
I think this film is kinda doomed to begin with. If you cast British and Americans actors to 'act' with German accents it might sound silly (anyone remember the classic BBC comedy show Allo Allo?) and if you cast actors to speak with their British or American accent it might sound silly too. I'm not sure there's a way round this problem.

Hearing Tom Cruise speak his 'American German' accent sort of puts this film in the daft bracket. :D The film may be good - I haven't seen it - but Tom Cruise as a German with a perfect American accent doesn't really enhance the story (which is based on a true event). It's just Cruise playing himself. A bit of method acting sometimes isn't such a bad thing!
 
I don't know where you're picking up this information about accents. Tom Cruise is perfectly fine in this movie, as is everyone else. He creates a complex and fascinating character, nothing like his real self. It isn't a star vehicle, there are a lot of characters of which Cruise is just one. He also plays a failure, that is not part of the Cruise star image at all.

It's standard practice in English language films about foreigners to speak in normal English. That TV movie Conspiracy with Kenneth Brannagh - also in Valkyrie - about the Wannsee conference and the Final Solution, had everyone speaking in standard English, it's one of the most compelling pieces of drama ever made about the Nazis, all anyone did in it was talk actually. The recent series Rome had everyone speaking British English. It's absolutely standard to the genre, when all the characters are one foreign nationality.

I did read this criticism on the Fox News website, is that where you found it? I thought their movie reviewer was the most ignorant, illiterate professional ever to review movies for a media group. I don't think he could find Germany on a map. Tom Cruise is not liked by a lot of people in the USA at the moment, but that does not mean this is not a worthwhile film. In the upmarket press it has been well received and it came in a close 4th at the holiday box office in the USA, which is much better than predicted.
 
I've been looking forward to this for a while now, as it's directed & written by the guys behind one of my favourite movies of all-time, The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer & Chris McQuarrie respectively).
 
I saw this last night, at the cinema. It got under my skin, as the film progressed the tension rose and I had a distinct feeling of dread, because I knew where it was going, as I already knew most of the story.

I did like the movie, the cast were very good. Huge amount of talent in the cast. Predominantly a British cast.

Accents a complete non issue for me.

A good thriller that happens to have a WW2 backdrop.
 
I know the story quite well - including how it nearly worked even without Hitler being killed (had the officer in charge of the Berlin Garrison not been quite so concientious the conspirators might well have controled Berlin and the media and, therefore the whole show), the show trial with an evil judge and how those on trial were killed (and the implication of Rommel in the plot).

I will not see this (at least as the cinema) as I can imagine it being 'Hollywoodised'.

Incredible true story though.

The post WW2 world could have been much different if it had suceeded.
 
It's a difficult choice to make on the accent front. As Cruise stated in an interview, the cast could have tried to be more authentic by using German accents but they probably wouldn't have been very good accents and if you are trying to be authentic then why not just speak in German?

So basically you just have to be drawn in by the story and forget about the accents.


I remember Enemy At The Gates. I'm pretty sure the Germans were American and the Russians were English. That's one way to tell the sides apart :D
 
Germany seeks peace terms on the basis that the National Socialist state had been dismantled and the new Government were very much of a different cloth. They would withdraw to their 1936 borders (or earlier) and look for a fairer peace than that agreed in 1919.

It is very likely that the Russians would not then have been able to impose their will in Poland and the other countries that became part of the Eastern Bloc (Stalin only really seemed to develop thoughts in that direction very late in the war). Germany would certainly have remained a single entity.

The time between the plot failing and the end of the war allowed Stalin to cinsider, and take, much more than would have been possible in July/August 1944.
 
No it wouldn't. The Nazi's would have been prepared for this if they managed to take out Hitler and Himmler as there were assasination plots against all the major members of the party. Plus the allies would never have engaged in truce discussions. When Hess parachuted his way into Scotland and tried to arrange a truce it was a big fat no from the allies. I saw the film last night and I studied history at uni so there were parts that I did not like. First of all Stauffenberg was a massive anti-Semite-he wasn't concerned about the treatment of Jews at all. Plus he only turned against Hitler when they started losing the war. I hated Cruise's American accent as he could have at least put a British one on, which is a lot easier to do than a German one. But as a film itself it was well made and a very good thriller.
 
This was finally released here in Oz and I saw it tonight. I was ........bored actually. I thought it was ok, but pretty slow really.

I love Bill Nighy- saw The rise of the Lycans last week, he's great. He plays Victor really well and he was great in Hitchikers guide.

Don't like Tom Cruise very much at all, think his acting ability is highly overrated. I'm VERY pleased he didn't try to do an accent - cast your mind back to his effort of the Irish accent in Far and Away! (not good)

So all in all a little disappointed - at least I got to go out, have a meal and watch a movie!

Next week it will have to be Gran Torino I reckon.
 
Saw Valkyrie last night and was pleasantly surprised at how Bryan Singer managed to construct a gripping drama out of a story i already knew the ending to.

To begin with i found everyone speaking English a tad distracting but I soon got engrossed in the movie and enjoyed the fine acting from a strong cast. Not a classic on par with Downfall by any means but it was well worth a trip to the cinema for so will give it 7/10
 
I watched this by mistake (messed up the timing - it was the best choice for the time I was available ...). Just felt the story was good for a 1/2 hr documentary, not a 2 hr film. Bit tedious as very drawn out. Yes - we know people died at the end - felt the whole film needed this fact to give it weight, so poor film IMO. I would watch a docu on this topic though.
 
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