Valkyrie - Personal (Mini) Review (1 Viewer)

[Mantello]

It's a good movie, and people who like regular "drama" will dig it, but if you're like me and think war + nazis + assassinations = action, this movie might catch you off guard. It's not an action movie by any stretch of the imagination, it's a drama. Tom Cruise was pretty good in it too I guess... I can't stand the fucking dude but I was able to stomach him through this.

For the history buffs - it was pretty accurate too, down to minor details of the assassination attempt, names, places, uniforms, equipment, furniture, style, etc. And they didn't do any dumb Hollywood bullshit either like make some dumb underlying love story or something, it was very immersive and realistic and focused only on military matters.

The only beef I had with the entire movie was technical - they had a P40 "Flying Tigers" in North Africa, which I think is inaccurate because the Flying Tigers were only in Burma. (Although the P40 was used in N Africa, just without the shark jaws painted on them.)

I figure if that's the only thing I can bitch about, that ain't bad. Usually on WWII movies I have a whole catalog of shit to complain about.

I'd wait til it came out on DVD and watch it at home, I didn't really think it was a "big screen" flick worth going to the movies for.

 

[Iron]

Refeshingly serious and sombre, but didnt hit any home runs. Had a few moments of suspence, but nothign approaching epic. A respectable edition to the Nazi genre

Small details were very good. Captured German austerity well and made it easy to understand the pressures involved in betraying a force which had so obviously created much national unity.

Also had some crreative moments, like the flash-forward scenes to anticipated executed plans as they were being explained (which were never achieved), as well a good application of suspence to portray the event as a much closer-run affair than it really was.

Was pleased with the cast, though Hitler could have had a more menacing presence other than a fairly good likeness. Actually, the major plot hole was the limited role Hitler and the inner circle were given, esp. in the moments around the bomb blast/attempted coup.

Like many Nazi flicks, I felt that it assumed that the audience were on board with the anti-Nazi stuff in a more than token way. There's obviously a fascination with the Reich, and I think that this often borders on sympathy with many. This complex relationship with the most evil regime to ever exist should be confronted in a serious and intelligent way, as it was in Downfall. There was obviously some attempt at this, as we were to believe that the plotters were German patriots above Nazis, and that the German military could be seen as a force for good if they were given the right leadership. But unfortuantely not enough time was devoted to exploring the psyche of these characters, and there was a classically Hollywood tendancy to substitute this failure with patrionising special effects.

Could have made much more of the relationship Hitler had to Wagner's music too! Wasted opportunity!

 

[Mantello]

Pretty sweet review man.
I agree with the whole Hitler needed to have a more suspenceful / menacing approach for everytime he entered the different scenes that we saw him.

Otherwise, yeah pretty spot on.

 

[binary star]

Great review.
Plan on seeing it sometime soon... if i have time..

 

[Kittikhun]

The only beef I had with the entire movie was technical - they had a P40 "Flying Tigers" in North Africa, which I think is inaccurate because the Flying Tigers were only in Burma. (Although the P40 was used in N Africa, just without the shark jaws painted on them.)

Actually, they did paint shark teeth on P-40s flying in North Africa. Have a look here-

File:TR 000978 kittyhawk.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also, didn't the Flying Tigers mostly fly in China rather than Burma? They flew and fought the Japanese there before 1941, if I recall correctly of the reference in the library book that I borrowed about it.

Anyways, this film looks great. I don't mind Tom Cruise, to be honest. He's a good actor but a bad public relations man outside his film sets.

 

[Kittikhun]

Wrong, there. I just researched it and I have been incorrect about the Flying Tigers serving before 1941. Sorry.

 

[ctrlaltv]

If you have watched Valkyrie, please don't ruin it for other people who haven't. I'm not saying I haven't, I have, and I reckon it was pretty damn good. Hitler actually looked like the real Hitler, and Tom Cruise was amazing.

 

[ConquerDiscover]

I found it well filmed and acted. A really interesting movie. 8/10

 

[Mantello]

SPOILER ALERT!!!!



Hey, one question though, when Tom Cruise, well, Staffenburg (sp?) went to see Hitler to get the signature/authorization from him in order to have control of the reserve army, in that Private Residence, was one of those guys sitting with Hitler, Albert Speer?
I'm talking about the guy that was wearing the Green / Brown suit.

 

[Omium]

They could have made it so much better.

They should have shown the German army murdering people..... or Hitlers SS carrying out assasinations.

There were no real military scenes of force to show how ruthless Hitler was.

But it still was a good movie

 

[Mantello]

But also keep in mind, this was more so the main focus on assassinating Hitler...and having screening all the shit that Hitler did would have made the movie such a commercialized film that everybody already has the jist of what he did during his time as being a ruthless fag.

 

[nugget01]

i usuaully compare all nazi/ww2 movies against greats like downfall, schindler's list and the pianist, and predictably, this movie kinda failed. i didn't like tom cruise at all and i thought it was odd that the germans had a strong british accent and possessed mannerisms unlike german people. i think they should have got a bunch of no-name german actors to play the roles. it would have given the movie a much more historic feel. in saying this, i cannot fault the uniforms, furniture etc. used to represent the time. oh yeah, a bit of a love story wouldn't have gone astray, as hollywood as it seems.

6/10.