Comments on: Valkyrie: They Dared To Stop It

By: Bill Brandt

Bill Brandt — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:15:26 +0000

I saw it and was pleasantly surprised at the quality and historical accuracy. As for the critics lampooning it because there were no fake German accents, what a bunch of rubes. Fake accents detract from a movie’s quality not add to it.

They said the same thing about the Boy In The Striped Pajamas – all the “Germans” and the 2 boys had British accents.

It’s the acting that either makes it or breaks it and in both cases the acting came through.

Knowing what I have read about Rommel (he was to be installed as a head of the new govt to negotiate with the allies – because he was one of the few respected German Generals – and the fact that about 5,000 were rounded up after this attempt – both not mentioned but it did not detract from a good movie.

By: AKLOKI

AKLOKI — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:09:14 +0000

Great story. Too bad it’s star is Tom Cruise. Should have been done with a cast of nobody’s. Tom Cruise playing the part of Tom Cruise playing von Stauffenberg, Tedious!

By: Titov

Titov — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:04:03 +0000

Beverly, to say that every American soldier clearly understood that they were fighting a “totalitarian evil” badly oversimplifies the actual EXPERIENCE of war. My great uncle died in the German Army on the Russian Front. Does this mean that he was a Nazi working to install that evil around the world? No, it means that he was drafted. I take it that you studiously have avoided seeing movies like Letters from Iwo Jima and Das Boot because they dared to humanize the Axis soldiers and sailors.

By all means, the Allied cause WAS truly moral, no debate there. But once you’re in the thick of battle, the geopolitics and big themes of WAR go away. Then it becomes about survival and fighting for the man next to you. Saving Private Ryan captured that magnificently, although it’s wobbly final sequences kept a good movie from being a great one.

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:49:37 +0000

I just went to see it last night with my family, motivated in part by your review, Chuck. I can’t say that it’s a great movie from an artistic point of view, but the story is one well worth telling, and it was told well.

On the way out of the theater, my mom said that “it makes you realize how important it is to fight for our freedom while we’re still free.” I think she nailed it. It’s important to think about what we would do were we in Colonel Von Stauffenberg’s shoes, but we also have a here and now to deal with. We must always stay vigilant.

By: Carol

Carol — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:00:55 +0000

As it clearly states at the end of the movie, in all thirteen attempts were made to assasinate Hitler. This was just one. Because it came late in the war, does not negate the guts and courage it took to impliment the plan in play and carry it out.
Try to imagine what would surely have happened in Germany after Hitler’s death had the SS taken control of the government. The changes in the plan for Valkyrie were far reaching and meaningful to those left behind in a country that would have been at the mercy of Hitler’s hand-picked successors.

By: Robert W. Franson

Robert W. Franson — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:38:30 +0000

It’s both an acknowledgment of the breadth of the German Resistance, and a tribute to Stauffenberg as its most determined and most nearly successful proponent, when we realize that Stauffenberg is the tip of the Resistance iceberg, the part we see most clearly.

“The History of the German Resistance, 1933-1945″ by Peter Hoffmann (first published in West Germany in 1969) is a very substantial book of 850 pages. The variety of anti-Nazi groups within Germany, the uncertainty of the course of the war and of Allied intentions, make for a complex and shifting opposition. Stauffenberg’s story makes up about two-fifths of Hoffmann’s text, and is told with great detail.

The book also is well supplied with notes, and maps and plans not only down to the level of the headquarters complex and the briefing hut, but even extend to diagrams of the available telephone and teleprinter links, which proved crucial.

By: Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » Big Thanks: A Really Big Launch, A Really Big Tent, A Really Big Future

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 01:19:17 +0000

[...] that “24″ is about to start up again. California Assemblyman and huge history buff Chuck Devore gave two thumbs up for “Valkyrie.” More elected officials and aspiring candidates to [...]

By: Wick

Wick — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:35:08 +0000

The issue with this movie is less Tom Cruise – American down to his tighty whities – and more the legion of Brits playing German Army officers. There are more British accents in this cast than you’ll find at the Oxford Union. Its bizarre and nearly undoes an otherwise great movie, as the ethos of German militarism and martial honor that animates the story simply rings false when articulated by Brits and Yanks.

By: Beverly

Beverly — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:31:55 +0000

“While the film won five Oscars, Saving Private Ryan was entirely devoid of any meaning beyond that of soldiers fighting for each other.”

Thanks for putting your finger squarely on what has always been the core weakness of this movie. Veterans will tell you that, yes, they do fight for the guy next to them and not to let their buddies down. BUT they will also tell you that they were keenly aware that they were fighting tooth and nail against one of the blackest villainies the world had ever seen, and that it put steel into their spines.

But the Left dare not acknowledge that moral core: that we were free men fighting against totalitarianism and tyranny, the exact same tyranny they want to impose on us still.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:37:19 +0000

Useless Dissident – I agree that a film on Communist evil is way overdue, Stalin was a evil man no doubt, (read: Triumph and Tragedy by Dmitri Volkogonov) but we must remember that many of the movers and shakers in Hollywood have had communist/marxist leanings for decades. If anyone made a movie about leftist evil, they would be pariahs in the industry and might have a hard time at cocktail parties with the women.
Also, you stated that Stalin was opposed to Hitler. While this is a true statement, remember that Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler in an attempt to gain more territory for his empire. He was a political man rather than an ideological one. The left’s attempt to equate Hitler’s Germany to the political right is not historically accurate or at least is not applicable to the modern American political situation. Hitler’s Germany was a government directed society and economy not to mention that his party was a National Socialist party. The Fascism of Germany and Italy before and during the war years is more comparable to the liberal movement in America today than to the conservative movement. Oh yea, I saw the movie and it was great.