Valkyrie (1 Viewer)

Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends
Okay, now it's time to throw some Tom Cruise rocks and dirt at me.

This movie was better than I expected and was quite entertaining. Yes I think Tom Cruise can act. He does a fine job as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg the main character of the story. The movie was filmed in nearly all of the exact places where the actual events took place. Apparently the German people are very proud of this historical event, well at least the Germans who are not Nazis. ( please let us know how you real Germans feel about this event.)

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I wouldn't use the words German, pride and history in one sentence (only in this one).
The world still has a special eye on Germany and I think it shouldn't be any different. What are 60 years? We must never forget.
I haven't seen the movie and don't attempt to do so, but maybe it helps uninformed/prejudiced people to gain another view. ...still...
Tom Cruise the Scientologist as Stauffenberg?
That doesn't work.
Not exactly the same, but imagine Michael Jackson would have played the Kindergarten Cop.
 
Tom Cruise is a wonderful actor... he has a bit of a crazy streak (ok, one HELL of a crazy streak), but he's still one of my favorite actors. Like a lot of people I respect for their talents, though, I wouldn't want to hang out with him.
 
I saw this flick at the cinema. It was unintentional as we were running late and missed the planned movie. I was quite impressed with it and I was even more impressed that Cruise suppressed his tendency to overact and to yell in shrill voice.

There were one or two instances of dramatic licence, at least one clumsy bit of kitsch (the gramophone playing "Ride of the Valkyries" at Staffuenberg's house while it was being bombed during an air raid) and the necessary concessions to brevity, but overall the flick followed the story faithfully as I know it (thanks to a very good documentary).

Oh, and thankfully, we were spared an overdose of Hollywood style Nazi accents.
 
...Tom Cruise can act.
No doubt. But if all you ever did was act, 24 hours a day every day, you'd be a pretty good actor too.

My ex worked with him on two movies, A Few Good Men and Interview With the Vampire. He wanted her to be his personal costumer on all his movies after that, but she was too creeped out by him (and she was already Demi Moore's costumer). Before starting Interview, she had to sign a five or six page document that basically said she couldn't breathe, blink or make any movements without Tom's consent, and she couldn't talk about him for 8 million years or something.

But I didn't sign that! ;)

As hard as it may be to believe, he is way freakier than you imagine. If you think Scientology is a secondary, fringe-y part of his life, think it's not. He is surrounded by Scientologists around the clock who control his every move, while encouraging him to believe he is making his own decisions. Constantly whispering in his ear, taking him by the arm, keeping any and all non-Scientologists - including members of the film crew who need to deal with the actors, obviously - away from Cruise. They pander to him in an unimaginably all-encompassing way. Going so far as to purposely lose to him in anything that involves competition - pool, cards, go cart racing...Tom wins again! Amazing! Ha.

Scientology also had a hand in funding Valkyrie and in geting the production permission to use some of the actual German locations (which Germany was initially opposed to). They were interested in it as a propaganda tool, because Germany recently took a very hash stance against Scientology, calling it the cult that it is. So they have concentrated a lot of money and effort on "winning back" Germany, and the movie was part of that.

As far as Tom's fathering skills, maybe he's great now. I don't know. A lot of time has passed since I was around him. But I was in New Orleans and London for a few weeks while they were filming Vampire, and he and Nicole rarely touched those kids. They had a staff for that. And when they did hold them, they held them awkwardly, away from their bodies...like you'd hold road kill or something. It was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen.

So yeah, Tom Cruise. What can you say. I thought Vampire was actually pretty good, though I'm not a fan of that cringey goth-schlock storytelling of Rice's. But overall Cruise just creeps me out. I can't watch him without thinking about what a goddamn freak he is. Kind of like a Michael Jackson video. ;)
 
I just tried to pull up a poster about Scientology that was made by ebaums world and it locked up my computer. I guess the cult's internet police didn't like the joke. North of my house is a compound with several castles and film studios used by the church/cult.

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We don't see them in their uniforms as much as we use to. I hear tell that they attend certain movies in force to get the box office up.
 
Same as when they buy out all available copies of L. Ron Whatacrockofshit's books to get them on the NYT bestsellers list.
 
I just saw Valkyrie. It was not as bad as I expected but it wasn't great either. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed. I'm no Tom Cruise fan, but I guess he did alright. If only the movie had been made by the same people who did Der Untergang (The Downfall), about the last days of Hitler, then we would have been in for a real treat, I think. IMO it's just another mediocre Hollywood movie about an important event in WW II. It certainly did'nt measure up to Der Untergang, but maybe that's too much to ask. I think a movie about an important German event should be made by the Germans themselves. Then there's a chance the movie gets the right atmosphere or ambience. The German language alone creates a credibility that one cannot obtain in English. I mean, Stauffenberg speaking English with an American accent? That I find hard to swallow. It takes away from the credibility of the movie. Out of five stars, I'll give the movie three. It's entertaining and it seems to have most of the historic facts correct (although I have'nt double checked them), but it simply falls flat somehow...
 
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Wow! Very good point. Now I want to learn how to speak German. Did anyone notice how the SS officer looks like Michael Jackson's dermatologist?

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