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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Movies that deal with historical events--as "Valkyrie" does--are best made in semidocumentary style. They should be comprehensive, and they should adhere to the historical record. Consider "The Longest Day" (1962) about D-Day. It was based on Cornelius Ryan's book. "A Night to Remember" (1958), about TITANIC's sinking, was based on Walter Lord's book of the same name.
"Sink the BISMARCK!" (1960)? A good movie, if loose with the facts on occasion. The German fleet commander, Admiral Gunther Lutjens, is portrayed as a rabid bad guy (the opposite of the Admiral's actual character and personality). BISMARCK is shown taking torpedo hits from Captain Vian's destroyers (she didn't), sinking a destroyer (she didn't), and shooting down Swordfish torpedo bombers (she didn't).
My point? If you're making a movie dealing with an historical event, stick to the historical record, to the known facts. The events speak for themselves.
You said your son is a history major. He would flunk my WWII class. This movie is not accurate. The plotters hated Hitler and wanted to kill him because 1.Hitler violated his Faustian bargain with Hindenberg that the Landwehr would be the only bearer of arms in die Fatherland by creating the Waffen SS and giving them priviledges over the General Staff 2. Hitler interfered with military tactics and strategy, leading to horrible losses and problems (see Barbarossa as an easy example of why the General Staff hated Hitler and 3. Hitler diverted supplies and soldiers from the Eastern Front to the death camps, making horrible situations even more so and 4. Hitler's buddy screwed up the Luftwaffe, denying them air supremacy, etc.Add in that Hitler was just an enlisted man...They didn't give a rat's ass about the atrocities at the camps; the camps were built to keep soldiers from going insane on the Eastern Front from directly killing Jews (see the Wann See Conference). All these guys wanted was to win enough battles to negotiate a settlement with the Allies on favorable terms.
The most important thing to come out of this was Rommel's suicide (he was given the choice of suicide or a public trial with reprisals against his family). It sealed the Axis's fate and really gave the ground war to the Allies in the invasion of Fortress Europe.
I've read the plot, and gotten the package from the producers (I am a military history professor teaching WWII next semester, and they want us to recommend it). No.
So maxiemom, tell your some to read Keegan's The Second World War, watch the excellent World at War series, and whatever he does, DO NOT reference this film in any WWII military history class. If he does, he will get humiliated.
Cruise does not carry himself as he should. I've seen that in the trailers. I would rather have seen this story made by a German director with international actors (like Das Boot). The trailers have little things wrong with them. Perhaps if they had actually read "The German General Talk" or the Nuremberg debriefings they would have gotten the story right.
There are no heroes here. Not in this story. That is one thing that many Germans understand. It is not that they see him as a traitor. It is that they wanted to do the right thing for the wrong reason AND they screwed it up.
Rent 1949's "Decision Before Dawn" starring Oscar Werner, and spare yourself a senseless trip to this "hero biography," about an aristocratic Nazi general, who when the stakes were so sky high, bungled up operation, mission: Hitler Die!
I share your enthusiasm for James Mason, a definite crush when I was a young person, therefore it was somewhat shocking to discover much later that Gen.Erwin Rommel was not the nice person Mason with his very sophisticated personality portrayed.
The real general was a brutish animal.
The name of the film that you are looking for happens to be:
The Desert Fox
I share your enthusiasm for James Mason, a definite crush when I was a young person, therefore it was somewhat shocking to discover much later that Gen.Erwin Rommel was not the nice person Mason with his very sophisticated personality portrayed.
The real general was a brutish animal.
The name of the film that you are looking for happens to be:
The Desert Fox
Ever see Carol Reed's "Odd Man Out?"
Reed also put out one of Orson Wells better turns at acting - the legendary "Third Man."
Mason put in a pretty good performance in Sam Pekinpah's brutal "Cross of Iron" too, a definate departure from Hollywood's usual long held tradition of romanticising war..
You know the dull old drill, catsup, Bugs Bunny, John Vain, and Johnny Jingo...
Sorry, but the only thing worse than a Scientologist is a Psychiatrist. Being against those drugs is the only good thing about Scientology.
Phenothiazine, an insecticides, cattle wormer and dye, gave us the miracle drugs of anti-psychotics and tricyclic antidepressants. The SSRIs? Based on fluoride insecticide technology.
The two major types of happy pills are based on insecticides. Nerve poison is not good for your neurochemistry. Fluoride really messes up your thyroid which is its mechanism for effect - if you want your serotonin working right, eat beans, turkey and salmon.
Don't stop taking the drugs abruptly unless you want to freak out and go on a killing spree followed by a suicide. Ever wonder why there are so many of those today and that hardly ever happened BEFORE we started doping up a quarter of the population?
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=antidepressant+violence&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
The industry is doing its best to confuse the issue and hide the truth. Did you know that the Columbine killers where on antidepressants? Did you know that the marines turned one of the down right before the the massacre?
Why do you think they run so many ads on TV and in the print media?
It buys silence.
Sorry, but the only thing worse than a Scientologist is a Psychiatrist. Being against those drugs is the only good thing about Scientology.
Phenothiazine, an insecticides, cattle wormer and dye, gave us the miracle drugs of anti-psychotics and tricyclic antidepressants. The SSRIs? Based on fluoride insecticide technology.
The two major types of happy pills are based on insecticides. Nerve poison is not good for your neurochemistry. Fluoride really messes up your thyroid which is its mechanism for effect - if you want your serotonin working right, eat beans, turkey and salmon.
Don't stop taking the drugs abruptly unless you want to freak out and go on a killing spree followed by a suicide. Ever wonder why there are so many of those today and that hardly ever happened BEFORE we started doping up a quarter of the population?
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=antidepressant+violence&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
The industry is doing its best to confuse the issue and hide the truth. Did you know that the Columbine killers where on antidepressants? Did you know that the marines turned one of them down right before the massacre?
Why do you think they run so many ads on TV and in the print media?
It buys silence.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
