Valkyrie (1 Viewer)

I plan on seeing it with a couple of my cousins. Its good to hear that it sounds like a good flick since we are all history buffs and weren't really sure about Tom Cruise in a WWII setting.
 
Ericka and I just returned from seeing this. This film is very, very good and I would recommend it to any military history enthusiast. Great details, uniforms, believable sets and CGI.
Ken
 
I saw it too. Overall very good, kind of takes a little suspense away when you know that Hitler lived. To bad it didn't work out, Its almost amazing how everything that could have gone wrong did.
 
My question is could it have really worked though:confused:, I was thinking no, because the Allies at Casablanca in '42 had already decided that they would except nothing but full victory, and the German Reserve Army seems it wouldn't stand a chance against the crack units of the S.S.

Vick
 
Many Germans believed there was a possibility that they could align themselves with the US and Britain to fight the Russians. The notion being that the ultimate struggle was between the west and the bolsheviks. In retrospect it sounds crazy, but Himmler negotiated with the allies up until the end thinking he could save himself. For some like Wernher von Braun it did work out that way.
 
Saw the movie today...very well done. Tom Cruise continues to prove himself to be a great actor.
For further reading on Von Braun and other Germans useful to the US after WWII, I suggest "Operation Paperclip".
 
Good to see most of you guys liked the movie. Not on Down Under yet.
Saw a documentary called Killing Hitler on the TV and it said there were 47 attempts !!
Apart from Valkyrie the closest ones were :
In late 1939 a bomb went of in a place Hitler had given a speech in. If speech had been longer as expected he would have been killed.
A Colonel put a bomb on a Luftwaffe plane Hitler was flying on from Smolensk. Did not go off.
Same bomb from plane then was going to be used by another COL who had it in his pocket and was going to suicide next to Hitler. He was to be showing Hitler some captured Russian items but Hitler departed very quickly and may have sensed something. Would have been the first suicide bombing.
At the end Speer considered gassing him in the Bunker but could not finally go ahead with it.
Said the British considered a sniper attempt in the Wolf's Lair but considered the alternative of a possible a trio of Bormann, Goebells and Himmler might not be much better. As we all know Hitler made some bad mistakes that helped the Allies.
Hitler certainly had some lucky escapes.
I am looking forward to it and even the wife wants to see it !!
Regards
Brett
 
The attempt on his life in November 1939 may have been staged, or rather, it was known beforehand. The assassin, Georg Elser, may have been an unwilling dupe of the Gestapo, who had learned of his desire to kill Hitler, when Elser was imprisoned in Dachau in the late 30s.

From records captured at the end of the war, it looks like the Gestapo used Elser in their larger effort to smoke out men in the Abwehr who were suspected of communicating with the British, through contacts in the then-neutral Netherlands.

There are records that show that Elser was given his release from arrest, and that materials to make the bomb were supplied to him.

He was a trade unionist and Communist, a cabinet-maker by trade and a tinkerer, but by most accounts, not too bright, so the Gestapo considered him the perfect tool.

It is not documented explicitly whether Hitler himself knew about the bomb, but it was noted that he and the other top party officials often stayed long after the speeches were done, to reminisce about the old days-the occasion was the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. But on that night, his speech ended unusually early, and the bigwigs also left.

Two British officers who had been in contact with German officers in the Netherlands were kidnapped there and spirited off to Germany, where they were accused of abetting the plot. If I am not mistaken, they were murdered in prison.

Elser was arrested, tried and convicted, but remarkably, kept alive until April 1945, when he was murdered on the orders of the Gestapo.

William L. Shirer gives an account of that particular plot in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; he found the details during his research into the mounds of paper left behind when the Reich collapsed.
 
Brad,
Thanks for the extra info. The documentary was a bit "rushed" and did not mention the other angles you noted.
Regards
Brett
 
Just saw Valkyrie. I like Cruise and military history films however I'm not an expert on this topic, but I enjoyed the movie. It was suspenseful even though I knew the outcome. I was impressed by the authentic military hardware from that era. I was surprised to learn that their were many attempts that failed in trying to assasinate Hitler. I'd recommend this film.
 
Right, as Brett noted, there were some attempts that came close, but failed for whatever reason.

BTW, I still find Shirer's book to be the definitive work on the Reich, well worth reading. I wore out a paperback copy that an uncle gave me, covers taped and re-taped to it, until I found an old hardcover addition at a flea market. I still read it around once a year.

Prost!
Brad
 
Although William Shirer's book is not a bad one and a good introduction, it is by no means the definitive work on Nazi Germany as it is by a journalist and it is a little outdated.

One of the better analyses of the rise and fall is Richard Evans' trilogy: The Coming of the Third Reich; Third Reich in Power; and The Third Reich at War (to be published in March). Evans has an excellent bilbliography in the Coming of the Third Reich.
 
jazzeum said:
Although William Shirer's book is not a bad one and a good introduction, it is by no means the definitive work on Nazi Germany as it is by a journalist and it is a little outdated.

One of the better analyses of the rise and fall is Richard Evans' trilogy: The Coming of the Third Reich; Third Reich in Power; and The Third Reich at War (to be published in March). Evans has an excellent bilbliography in the Coming of the Third Reich.
Click to expand...

I concede that it is dated, in that it was written in the 50's, and that it is not the definitive work on the Third Reich. I'll have to read Evans' books, to see whether they deserve that title. However, I disagree with the implication that because Shirer was a journalist, his work was any less thorough or otherwise less valuable than that of an academic. He had access to a literal ton of captured documentary material, which he reviewed and analyzed, as well as access to many of the participants on both sides who had survived the war.

Prost!
Brad
 
Went today with papa beat to see this movie; I really enjoyed it, very well done, fast paced and I thought Cruise played a very good part, as did papa bear.

Equipment and uniforms were excellent, particulary the opening scene in Tunisia, with Mark III's, IV's, hanomags, 222 a/c's, kubelwagons, opel blitz trucks, pak 40's, etc, a very good scene...............
 
Saw it today. Overall I thought it was pretty good with the exception of some of Tom Cruises acting. I noticed that a couple actors from Fallen were in the movie which was a good thing. Whats the story with the explosives? Were only half of the expected quanity really used?
 
Accents?

I'm concerned it may be like Alexander where many of the ancient Greeks had Irish accents and even a Scottish one thrown in.

Only Angelina Jolie bothered to put on a decent accent.

Or perhaps like The Hunt for Red October where Sean Connery played a Russian sub commander. :rolleyes:

Did Cruise's American accent spoil it for anyone?
 
William L Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Reich is an invaluable piece of reading as he had experience living and working in Germany as Hitler rose to power, and was in Poland (if i'm not mistaken) as the Whermacht and the Luftwaffe started pounding forward.

Yes, with time, and as more information become declassifed, some infos become less accurate. the newer books can now probably bring up more facts.

But to get a feel of Germany, pre and post Nazi indoctorination, what the common people think during that time, this book is a treasure.
 
Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich unfortunately, is a fraud as the published manuscript is not the original version.
The German publisher altered the original manuscript as he felt that certain infos and opinions are too sensitive to be revealed at that time.
Many writers who knew this fact had urged Speer's estate to release the original for publication, but had been refused till now.
 
Re: Accents?

The General said:
Did Cruise's American accent spoil it for anyone?
Click to expand...
I've just got back from seeing it and so I can answer my own question.

I prefer older war movies where they at least pretend to sound German like the actors on "Hogan's Heroes".

The American and British accents spoiled the movie for me. :(

This is how it sounded to me........

First German General: "Let's like, you know, like, kill that Hitler dude, like you know."

Second German General: "I say ol' chap, might cause a spot of bother but it's a smashing idea."

There are so many English speaking German actors who could have played those roles and sounded German whilst doing it.
 
One thing that The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan had in common?..... the Nazi's spoke German. ;)
 
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