Valkyrie (movie)

Give them to me, I'm off to see it tomorrow.

 

I think that they were running out of film, and had to do a montage of the executions. Keep your popcorn urqh. Sit through it again in case you missed something!

 

Valkyrie Review....

At last I have seen it, and seemed close to events that took place. I will have to re-read one of my books tomorrow while its fresh in my mind.

As to what Wolfy said...(The end was bizarre...the executions seemed way too disorganized.) he has a point there, seems to jump about with later events like Roland Freisler dishing out his sentences and then officers killing themselves or being arrested while this is intertwine with the shooting of Stauffenberg and Co.

As for Tom Cruise he came off poor and I feel someone else could had done a much better job. The pace of the film is alright and keeps your attention. The story starts in North Africa which then leads us to the failed Airplane bomb to kill Hitler in 1943. Then moves on with the recruitment of Stauffenberg in to this resistant group and the rest is history.

David Bamber who played Hitler struck me as rather low keyed...not very forthright at all. Interesting cast of British actors in there, anyone notice three of the actors who were in the BBC drama Conspiracy?

I do have one point with the film but may be correct, Stauffenberg adds amendment to the Valkyrie order which would look like the SS were the ones who plotted to kill Hitler. Seems rather odd as the SS were much more loyal to Hitler than the Army.

Over view of this film

In my opinion is this film was a typical Hollywood film turning Stauffenberg in to a hero and over looking the fact he was not keen on the Jews. More like a TV movie. Clearly this film could have been so much better but this was not the case. Alright for joe public who do not read books about WW2 but for the rest of us a let down. Sorry to say, I don't really recommend it. Better off seeing Defiance which is a much better film.

I would give this film 4 out of 10.


Now some lighter remarks....

Eddie Izzard portrayal of General Erich Fellgiebel, responsible for communications at Hitler's bunker went right over my head! I did not spot him, had to look him up in the role he played.

I had a bit of a laugh at Kenneth Cranham as Wilhelm Keitel when he made the remark hoping some officer would shoot Mussolini. :lol:

 

I was thinking about 3.2 out of 10.

 

I give it a 4.

Not impressed at all. That could have been a good flick. I think I would have rather seen a chick flick................and I hate chick flicks!

 

My score for this would be maybe 6/10. I would give Der untergang (Downfall) an 8/10.

Seems like half a movie- though competently executed. There should have been an hour about S's experiences before the attempted coup. The movie seemed to" jump into" the coup, without sufficient analysis.

 

I didn't realise it had such adult content.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing it. Tom Cruise (not a big fan) does bare a slight resemblance to Stauffenburg..hope he doesn't ruin it.

 

GS;
I think you might revise your opinion of TC after this one. There is a whole lot of other great acting in this one and Kenneth Brannagh gets a JeffinMNUSA oscar for his portrayal of Von Trescow. The movie sticks pretty closely to the facts but...well face it folks, the filmmakers job is to produce a two hour product that will make $$$, and some degree of Hollywoodization is inevitable (hey, artistic fictionalization of real events has been going on since Homer).
With the "Defiance movie" there are now TWO EXCELLENT WWII FILMS IN THE THEATERS! We students of the era should be dancing in the streets.
JeffinMNUSA
PS. But stay on the filmmakers' cases guys-keeps 'em somewhat honest.

 

Anybody notice that the Valkyrie conspirators all had American/British accents and most of the other Germans (against valkyrie) had German accents? Interesting distinction (and worked, imho).

 

It's Hollywood, historically accuracy is another thing. In fact Stauffenberg started speaking with an American accident because of Sharpnel he got in his head in 1943, but hush.... that's a secret you're not supposed to know before Walkyrie II when the bodies of the executed rise again to seek for revenge and start killing Nazis with Indiana Jones.

 

Yeah, I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that the plotters were largely aristocrats?
In "Defiance" accented English=Yiddish, Russian=Russian, and German=German. This is expedient to film making because most audiences do not like a whole lot of subtitling and hey! It's their dime. I myself prefer subtitles but I suspect that people of my view represent an extreme minority. My musical tastes wandered off the "English only" reservation decades ago and and my library has a lot of CDs of folksongs in Yiddish, Spanish, Gaelic, Greek, Russian and etc.
JeffinMNUSA

 

Another let down was the Director Brian Singer who clearly is going through a bad patch. I question the fact should he directed? No is my answer.

 

I agree with this review. I saw it about 2 weeks ago. Going into it you MUST realize there will be some liberties taken with the material, but the core story is there. This film is interesting and makes me want to learn more about Operation Valkyrie and all of its major and minor players. We can only hope the youth of today should take such a lesson from this film. Anything that makes one want to learn more about a given subject has to be viable work in my opinion.

Tom Cruise also did a good job. After all, he doesn't play his real world crazy persona in his movies, so...high marks for him – which is usually the case with his acting for me.

 

The criticism that Tom Cruise was playing the same, one-dimensional intense self is valid, I think.

 

Hi;
An interesting allegation about Himmler KNOWING about the plot and doing nothing in hopes of seizing power for himself; Axis History Forum • View topic - heroes or traitors?
NOT a positive development for the Allied cause if this were to have happened-there was no WWII leader that played strategic defensive game more poorly than AH.
JeffinMNUSA

 

Saw Valkyrie last night and it is a well made and produced movie, however towards the end the movie seemed to be speeding up like they were in a hurry for some reason. I guess they had to start cutting more and more film away as they noticed the 2 hour limit was soon reached.

I don´t know why but I´d have liked to have seen more footage of Hitler after the bombing, as well as the Mussolini visit, but I guess they wanted to keep the story with Stauffenberg.

It´s good to see how they also through Cruise´s mouth let you understand that if everyone had done what was planned they would have very probably succeeded in the coup anyway, but somehow everyone was so afraid whether Hitler would live or not. "Poor Fromm" who should have known better in the first place.

 

Is this a remake of the German film "Stauffenberg"? I've seen that one and am looking forward to seeing the Hollywood version. Has anybody seen both? Which is better?

 

Seen the German ( 2004? ) version and Cruise´s version. I think the latter is better but it´s mostly because of the quality (=money ) put into the film.

 

Was that the one with the big Rommel? I saw one on the bomb plot some years ago and the actor tho played Rommel was on the big side. Struck me as a TV movie, only saw it once and never seen on TV since then.