just saw VALKYRIE...

[yurbud]

Poll question: just saw VALKYRIE...

I thought it was suspenseful, and well-done. After the first few minutes, Tom Cruise was believable in the part.

There were a couple of truly great things about the movie.

One was that soldiers and citizens saw and acted on ahigher principle than blind obedience. We could have used more of that at the highest levels of government the last eight years.

Another was that the course of history never seems obvious when it's happening. We think of Hitler as almost a mythically evil character now, who somehow hypnotized an entire country. In fact, as anywhere else, there were political counter-currents, and if a few events had gone differently, if a few people had acted sooner (or later) he would have ended up a second rate fascist who was mostly a threat to his own people like Franco, Mussolini, or Pinochet. Or in the case of this Valkyrie plot, at least a couple of million lives might have been saved and the Cold War map would have looked very different.

The downside of the movie was how strong the inertia was toward the status quo even though it kept on an obvious course to disaster. While Hitler's inner circle seemed to be aware how close they were to being overthrown (Goebbels had a cyanide capsule in his mouth ready to bite when the army came to arrest him), it just took a few words in Hitler's own voice to retake charge. The arresting officer, who could have gone either way, fell back into line with Hitler. Had he ignored the call and arrested or simply shot Goebbels, the coup would have succeeded.


If you saw Valkyrie, what did you think?

[azmouse]

1. I haven't seen the movie but I love your poll choices.

:rofl:

[yurbud]

2. so you're either Amish or Bush...

[azmouse]

4. I didn't vote.

Sorry. :shrug:

[yurbud]

7. your a swing voter--you must be courted. Would you like flower, candy, earmarks, hookers?

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. I'm George W. Bush, and I resent this attempt to figger out which DU'er I am.

Wait...who do I unpost this?

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. Actually, I wouldn't watch a Tom Cruise film because I can't stand the sight of him.

Same with Julia Roberts.

Well, I did watch "War of the Worlds" because it was pretty good, and his role as an incompetent father facing that fact wasn't all bad, but everything around him was what made the film good to very good. Some great cinematography.

[Zavulon]

6. I can't get past his couch incident.

He's a fucking nutbag and that's all I see when I see him.

[TK421]

8. The couch incident is what most people will always remember about him

I wonder if he, himself realizes how damaging that was to his reputation as an otherwise sane person?

It shocked the hell out of me...that is for certain..

[yurbud]

9. he is the only star of his stature to lose a studio deal because his public image hurt films

That is quite an accomplishment without being accused of any felony.