I am hesitant to see Valkyrie....

[jomar]

Speaking as an actor, I think you're mis-reading the way it works.

He wasn't cast as a pretty-boy 'star, that's simply what he became. He's extremely good at playing *Tom Cruise* in an earnest and convincing way, but he's by no means a character actor. ...His successful attempts to stretch away from *Tom Cruise* have mostly been playing up the darker aspects of his screen personality, especially his creepy intensity.

...

Yes, Cruise was actually quite good in 'Magnolia'. I wonder if it was because his character was a self-possessed charlatan with an ego built on incredibly shaky emotional, moral and intellectual grounds, hence he could draw on his own attributes for the role.

...

Interesting thoughts. His best role since Magnolia was as a greedy studio head in Tropic Thunder.

...
It's odd Doc. Here I am trying to figure out how to tell a story from the eyes of a female German guard. I don't agree with how she lived her short life, and I keep telling myself that I WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT. However, I do also wonder ... would I have been?

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl

 

[DesertPirate]

Best description of Cruise I've heard. Burt Reynolds to Toby Keith: "As a leading man in film you can be the friendly loveable guy or the intimidating presence. In Smokey and the Bandit I did the first. John Wyane did the second with ease and sometimes the first. Tom Cruise can't intimidate me with a samurai sword."

 

[trysail]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...ivor-from-plot-to-kill-hitler-dies-at-90.html




Von Kleist, Last Survivor From Plot to Kill Hitler, Dies at 90
By David Henry
March 12, 2013

Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist, the last surviving member of the German resistance group that tried unsuccessfully to kill Adolf Hitler, has died. He was 90.

He died March 8 at his home in Munich, the Associated Press reported, citing his wife, Gundula von Kleist.

As a 21-year-old lieutenant, von Kleist accepted Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg’s personal request to make an attempt on Hitler’s life. The young officer planned to conceal two hand grenades under his coat and to detonate them in the Fuehrer’s presence at a demonstration of military uniforms in February 1944. The suicide mission never took place because Hitler was unable to attend on several occasions. It was one of at least 40 known attempts to kill Hitler.

Von Kleist then joined his father -- who had endorsed his son’s assassination plan -- in the “Operation Valkyrie” plot led by von Stauffenberg and Major General Henning von Tresckow. On July 20, 1944, the group of senior officers and supporters, disillusioned by the mass killings of Jews and others in Eastern Europe, staged a synchronized coup with the backing of a reserve army. Von Stauffenberg failed to kill Hitler with a bomb that exploded at the Wolf’s Lair headquarters in East Prussia, and the conspirators were quickly rounded up by the Gestapo.

About 600 people were arrested and about 150 were executed for their roles in the plot, says Johannes Tuchel, head of the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin. Von Stauffenberg and von Kleist’s father were among those killed.

Eastern Front
At the reserve army headquarters in Berlin, where von Stauffenberg was chief of staff to General Friedrich Fromm, von Kleist played a supporting role during the plot. A preliminary investigation into his involvement was terminated in December 1944. He was sent to a concentration camp and then to the eastern front.

“I had something that is no longer common today but played a big role back then: a strong attachment to my people and my country,” von Kleist said in an interview with the weekly newspaper Junge Freiheit in May 2001. “I found it appalling that such crimes were committed in the name of Germany.”

Von Kleist was born on July 10, 1922, on his family estate in Schmenzin, a town in Pomerania that is now part of Poland and called Smecino. His ancestors had served in Prussian military and administrative positions for centuries.

His father, a member of the Confessing Church, resigned from public duties when Hitler took power in 1933, and he managed the family manor. In August 1938, the elder von Kleist met with Winston Churchill, a Conservative Party parliamentarian at the time, in London to gauge his support for an army revolt against the Nazi regime and to steer the U.K. away from a policy of appeasement.

Liberal Schooling
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist was sent to high school at the Gymnasium Birklehof, near Freiburg in southwest Germany, where he was exposed to liberal ideas with French and American influences. After his schooling, he returned to Pomerania to pursue an apprenticeship in agriculture. He joined the German army at age 18 and volunteered for Infantry Regiment 9, which was known to have many officers and troops with anti-Nazi sympathies.

After the war, he started his own publishing business and founded the Wehrkundetagung, later known as the Munich Security Conference, in 1962. He stepped down in 1998 as chairman of the conference, a foreign-policy forum for government ministers, academics, high-ranking army officers and media.

The Munich Security Conference was the scene of German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer’s vocal opposition to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s case for war in Iraq at the meeting in 2003. It highlighted a cooling of relations between the two countries during President George W. Bush’s tenure.

Von Kleist and his wife, Gundula, had a son, Christian, and a daughter, Vera.

“The attempt to save millions of lives was worth it,” von Kleist said in a remembrance speech for von Stauffenberg’s 100th birthday in November 2007.




http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...ivor-from-plot-to-kill-hitler-dies-at-90.html

 

[NaokoSmith]

I enjoyed Valkyrie particularly because it has Eddie Izzard in it and he is great. Best straight role I saw him in. Like TGP I'm bored by WWII stuff but this was a nice glossy film.

What didn't come across in the film but from what I remember is clearer in the documentary on the DVD is that this is probably more a plot of the old Juncker aristocratic class, attempting to get Germany back into the old ways when they were top dog, rather than a pure idealistic effort to tackle the genocide of National Socialism.

It's an enjoyable movie, rather like some stories on here, more classy stroke than Great Art.

I can't decide whether to see Inglourious Basterds. I do feel tempted, was that any good?

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I enjoyed Valkyrie particularly because it has Eddie Izzard in it and he is great. Best straight role I saw him in. Like TGP I'm bored by WWII stuff but this was a nice glossy film.

What didn't come across in the film but from what I remember is clearer in the documentary on the DVD is that this is probably more a plot of the old Juncker aristocratic class, attempting to get Germany back into the old ways when they were top dog, rather than a pure idealistic effort to tackle the genocide of National Socialism.

It's an enjoyable movie, rather like some stories on here, more classy stroke than Great Art.

I can't decide whether to see Inglourious Basterds. I do feel tempted, was that any good?

If you like Tarantino and you can handle Brad Pitt, then you should love Inglorious Basterds. Every scene with Christoph Waltz is amazing. He steals the show.

 

[Handley_Page]

William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall Of The Third Reich details the gruesome and bloody vengeance taken by the Nazis on the participants and thousands of relatives and others who were merely suspected of involvement.

They deserve to be remembered:

( a partial list )
Lt. Col. Klaus Philip Schenk, Count von Stauffenberg
Field Marshall Erwin von Witzleben
General Erich Hoepner
General Hemuth Stieff
General Paul von Hase
Lt. Dr. Hans Hagen
Lt. Klausing
Lt. Bernardis
Count Peter Yorck von Wartenburg
General Henning von Tresckow
Count Friedrich Werner von Schulenburg
Count Fritz von der Schulenburg
General Fritz Lindemann
Colonel von Boeselager
Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Colonel Georg Hansen
Count von Helldorf
Colonel von Hofacker
Dr. Jens Peter Jessen
Otto Klep
Dr. Karl Langbehn
Professor Adolf Richwein
Count Berthold von Stauffenburg
Count von Moltke
Trott zu Solz

I commend to anyone interested in this fascinating, terrifying subject the book by H H Kirst, "The 20th of July".
He didn't shy away from the executions: On meat hooks, by cheese wire, and filmed for Hitler's personal enjoyment.

Being a German that is also studying film and american studies, I'm going to compromise...

...I'm going to see it and then slam it to pieces in front of my friends.

=)
Snoops

Best statement yet made, mate.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

How/why did you go about resuscitating a four year old thread Naoko?

 

[slyc_willie]

How/why did you go about resuscitating a four year old thread Naoko?

She didn't. Trysail did. He likes stirring the pot.

 

[NaokoSmith]

She didn't. Trysail did. He likes stirring the pot.

Oh, is this thread really old? It was quite lively suddenly with lots of people posting in it. I was a bit surprised as Valkyrie's been out so long. Still, I got a good tip on Inglourious Bastards. I loved Kill Bill and I like Brad Pitt so I'll order it.

 

[slyc_willie]

Oh, is this thread really old? It was quite lively suddenly with lots of people posting in it. I was a bit surprised as Valkyrie's been out so long. Still, I got a good tip on Inglourious Bastards. I loved Kill Bill and I like Brad Pitt so I'll order it.

Check the dates on the postings. Most of them were made in 2009, including quite a few on this page. Trysail just resurrected it . . . to make a point, I suppose. He's always had a flair for dumping his own view on things and letting it go from there.

That being said . . . .

I wasn't a fan of Inglorious Basterds. Tarantino's films are hit or miss with me. I like most of his early stuff, but after From Dusk Til Dawn, I've been a bit "eh" about his films. Django Unchained looks interesting, though, if only because of the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Check the dates on the postings. Most of them were made in 2009, including quite a few on this page. Trysail just resurrected it . . . to make a point, I suppose. He's always had a flair for dumping his own view on things and letting it go from there.

That being said . . . .

I wasn't a fan of Inglorious Basterds. Tarantino's films are hit or miss with me. I like most of his early stuff, but after From Dusk Til Dawn, I've been a bit "eh" about his films. Django Unchained looks interesting, though, if only because of the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio.

Django Unchained is apparently hilarious! and gory. I'm quite keen. I always think I won't like gory films but I LOVED Kill Bill. My sister said she was going to adopt the management technique of Lucy Liu in the board meeting of the Yakuza group. LOL.

 

[slyc_willie]

Django Unchained is apparently hilarious! and gory. I'm quite keen. I always think I won't like gory films but I LOVED Kill Bill. My sister said she was going to adopt the management technique of Lucy Liu in the board meeting of the Yakuza group. LOL.

It's an unwritten rule that Tarantino can't make a film unless at least three gallons of blood are spilled on film.

Saw parts of Kill Bill. I get that it was an homage to 70s martial arts films, but the only saving grace for me was David Carradine.

 

[MatthewVett]

Kill Bill was one of my favorites.

On the topic of good films about Nazis, though, I loved Downfall. It focuses on Hitler's last days in the bunkers, and it's really well-done.