Movie Review: Valkyrie with Tom Cruise (2008)

[Rev.Cambeul]

Cruise's Valkyrie blasted as "Nazi apologia"

An influential US critic on Friday blasted Tom Cruise's latest movie Valkyrie as ``Nazi apologia'' in the sharpest criticism yet of the WWII thriller.

The movie features the US superstar as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, an aristocratic German who headed a group of top officers who hatched a plot to kill Hitler late in the war.

Roger Friedman, film critic for Fox News, said the movie appeared to intentionally minimise the impact of Nazism.

"I'm concerned that Valkyrie could represent a new trend in filmmaking: Nazi apologia. Not once in Valkyrie do any of the 'heroes' mention what's happening around them. Hitler has systemically killed millions,'' said Friedman.

"Valkyrie opens the door to a dangerous new thought: that the Holocaust and all the other atrocities could be of secondary importance to the cause of German patriotism.''

Friedman criticised the set designers for minimising or hiding the swastikas that have become symbols of the evils of Nazism, and blasted the portrayal of Hitler as a ``doddering fool with a British accent and a nice suit''.

Friedman's political criticism of the movie may have been the sharpest of US reviews, but it was far from the only negative assessment.

Writing in the Washington Post, Phillip Kennicott blasted the film's puzzling failure to portray von Stauffenberg's life before his unsuccessful assassination attempt - when he was untroubled by Nazism and served as Hitler's loyal soldier.

Kennicott also criticised the movie for failing to point out that the plot was hatched not out of moral objections to Nazism but only when Germany was facing imminent collapse.

Stauffenberg ``was not a committed anti-Nazi until very late in the game'', wrote Kennicott. ``Many anti-Hitler conspirators weren't so much against Nazism, with its vile racial and militarist policies, as they were against Hitler's disastrous leadership of the war''.

Cruise himself came close to distorting the extent of German support for Hitler and his policies.

``It's important to know that it wasn't everybody - not everybody felt the way (Hitler did) or fell into the Nazi ideology,'' Cruise said during the film's US press tour.

``The thing that stood out to me was Stauffenburg himself and the amount of desperation and pain for him,'' Cruise said. ``He wanted a moral country that participated in the world, not one of annihilation and Holocausts and world domination.

``He was a man who was able to see through all the propaganda and see how utterly insane Hitler was, and ultimately he was the one to say, 'Somebody's got to shoot that bastard.'''

Now I'm confused. Originally I wasn't going to bother watching that movie because it would no doubt be another dose of anti-Nazi propaganda from the Mayer-Goldwyns of Hollyweird, but if watching it offends the Holohoaxers and might possibly promote a future trend towards movies promoting German nationalism while minimizing or even ditching altogether the mythical stories we've heard far too much about, then I think I should go see it.

Now to deal with the fact that I can't stand Tom Cruise and still don't want to see the film. I'd rather watch a good documentary.

@Cailen.

[Rev.Cambeul]

If Von Stauffenberg had spared even a single Jew from being sent to a KZ camp and risking death from cholera or dysentry, then Spielberg would have made the movie himself; Von Stauffenberg would have been honoured as a Goy hero of the Chosen People; And Hollywood would have made millions making movie after movie about traitors within the Third Reich, but no. They want to keep the kiddies believing that old Grandpa was an evil purveyor of the Nazi death cult, stacking Jews into pyres and incinerating them.

So kiddies, watch the movie (if you can tolerate Cruise). Discover that there were ordinary people and even traitors within the Third Reich that had absolutely nothing to do with Jews, and you might drop your unwarranted guilt about Grandpa.

@Cailen.

[Albert]

Has anyone seen "The Pianist" or "Schindler's List"?

I really enjoyed these movies (they're worth having on disc). Great entertainment but not in the way it was intended.