Valkyrie

On December 26th (if the date doesn't get pushed back again. ) a movie entitled Valkyrie comes out, and I have no intention of seeing it.

I'm a judgmental person and maybe it is unfair to give my opinion on things which have yet to come out. Yet the movie has a few glaring problems

1. It's a movie about Germans who actually worked to bring down Hitler. This should be a movie in German staring actual Germans, this is their story and their history. With the mostly American cast speaking in all English. it makes it look like the US swooped in again and saved the day. Which at least in the context of this particular operation to kill Hitler simply was not true. Looking at the cast list. It seems like all of the people in the resistance are being played by Britts or Americans, while all of the SS officers and people who were actually with Hitler are being played by Germans.

2. Tom Cruise is in it. Lets face it the guy seems to be a tad off kilter in the mental department. The last decent movie he stared in (not counting the brilliant cameo in Tropic Thunder) was "Last Samurai". His choices in films since then have not been good ones, nor has he put fourth any stellar performances in a lead role.

3. This is a serious World War II drama, I'm not sure Bryan Singer the director is up to it. To give you an idea his other works include X-Men, X2, and the worst of the bunch Superman returns. If he can't make fricking Superman likable and interesting, how is he going to make an actual hero relate to audiences.

4. while I am betting this if the first of many historical inaccuracies, Tom Cruise has at least one perfectly working hand in the film. In real life Claus Von Strauffenberg had lost one hand, and had only three fingers remaining on his other hand. Now some of my may find this fact inconsequential, however imagine what a complete fucking badass you have to be to go after the biggest most powerful bully in the world when you only have three fingers and one eye.

5. The release date has been pushed back several times already. Maybe this means they fixed a lot of the problems that were in the film. Call me a pessimist but I feel like this may mean there are still problems with the film.

Like any film snob I have no issue with reading subtitles, in fact I greatly prefer it to dubbing or to Americans playing parts meant for people in another country with very American accents. Really number one on my list is the real reason I'm not going to watch. I find it almost insulting to Germany and to American audiences that this movie was done in all English. I mean sure if there was an American Actor that could speak German fluently this wouldn't be a problem.

When I see a historical film I want a sense of realism. Valkyrie has already set itself up so that the experience can not be authentic. I'm sure it has amazing sets, costumes, and even great special effects. Yet if you have a bunch of Americans (and Brits) walking around in German uniforms speaking normally, you have robbed the audience of any authenticity.

Before he was executed Claus Von Strauffenberg's last words were "Es lebe unser heiliges Deutschland!" which translates to "Long Live Our Sacred Germany." Tom Cruise is a pretty good actor, but even he can't make a statement like that powerful in English.

I don't know too much about Claus Von Strauffenberg, but the man was a badass and a true patriot. He was willing to stand up against impossible odds, because he loved his country and he couldn't bear to see what Hitler was doing to it. Even though his plan did not succeed he was still a real hero, and his last words were just greater prof of that.

I'm sorry this movie belongs to Germany. If a big American studio wanted to fund some big budget story about Claus Von Strauffenberg they should have gotten the best German director and the best German actors, and let them tell the story.

I mean imagine the opposite happening. Can you even imagine a story about the American founding fathers being told in German with an all German cast. Patrick Henry's famous and moving line of "Give me Liberty or give me Death" being spoken in German. You can't because it's ridiculous. When will American Film studios learn that some stories are not ours to tell, that the Americans audience does not need to have everything dumbed down for them, and that many people prefer subtitles.