Saw it last night and have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I've read some mixed reviews of it and heard reports from friends that some folks (mostly kids) were walking out in the middle.

I thought it was very good. I am pretty familiar with the von Stauffenberg plot and thought the movie was historically accurate, gripping and very well done.

Tom Cruise was very good in my opinion and I was very impressed with his German in the beginning...very credible. Also, the cast was fantastic, especially when considering that they obviously made a point to include a who's who of Germany's finest actors.

Thumbs up.

I liked it a lot too. The supporting cast was predictably sound, particularly Nighy and Wilkinson, but Cruise was a very pleasant surprise.

I thought the supporting cast was great. Terrence Stamp, Branagh and Eddie Izzard were good too. And as I mentioned, casting Kretschmann and Berkel in major roles gave the film tremendous credibility imo.

The weak link imo was Bamber in the role of Hitler. The whole Hitler thing was played too "he's creepy, quiet, unstable, etc" Granted he was all of those things, but even if by that point he was detched, he likely would have seemed a little more lucid. JMO.

I will also say that this was a pretty decent film. I thought Tom Wilkinson as General Fromm was the best out of all the actors. I have never liked Tom Cruise as an actor, but he did well enough as Stauffenberg.

I was also impressed by the attention to detail that the costumers had, as well as the set designers. It must've been a real pain in the ass to convince the German government to make actual German buildings look like Nazi era German buildings, again.

I also thought it was nice of the directors and his producers not to treat the moviegoing public like idiots and use goofy German accents where they didn't belong, instead allowing each actor to use his own voice. Because seriously, what's the point of using terrible german accents unless you're actually speaking german? (ala using actual aramaic and hebrew dialogue in the Passion of the Christ). The transition from German to English at the beginning was a nice touch for a change.

I give it a 3 out of 5.

I'm not so sure about that. Keep in mind that this was a Hitler who knew that the Allied forces were closing in on him after landing in Normandy and working their way through Europe towards Berlin.

The same Hitler that was highly medicated at the time by his doctors as treatment for his alleged Parkinson's Disease.

The same evil sonofabitch that history remembers, but not exactly entirely lucid at the time. He was basically on the verge of dying from a nervous breakdown. It was a pretty accurate portrayal of a Hitler at the end of his proverbial rope, even if he still didn't die until a little less than a year later.

Keep in mind that the reason he and his generals were even meeting that day at the Wolf's Lair was to plan an outline for the defense of the country from both fronts.

I agree, but I thought they could've found a role for none other than Roy Batty himself, Mr. Rutger Hauer, as I thought his character in the "Fatherland" movie was great.

I'm familiar with the reports of Hitler's mental state/demeanor at that point in the war. And the portrayal in the movie is consistent with that, but it is my opinion that it is more of a caricature in the film, than the more likely scenario. In fact, if you read about it, many have reported that he vacillated between the more detached Hitler and more bombastic one. In fact, according to most accounts, the "defeated" Hitler really emerges more prominently immediately after the von Stauffenberg plot.

We're probably splitting hairs here since he is not the focus of the film and only appears in a few scenes, but to me it seemed to be a rather one-sided view and I would have appreciated seeing greater range in the spirit of being historically accurate.

As evidenced by the slew of award nominations for this masterpiece.


:blink:


My favorite: "Tom Cruise was very good."


L Ron Hubbard will be very pleased.

i liked it, but i thought that it was going to be a bit more comprehensive, and a bit more cinematographic.

it's a good watch, but if i would have known that it doesn't need to be seen on the big screen, i would have just waited for it to come out on dvd and watch it on the bigscreen.

So you've seen it? And Academy Award nominations are the metric for motion picture success? Again, little friend, if you're someone who fancies himself a financial analyst then you probably know that popularity contests probably aren't the best success metric for efficacy or artistic expression.

Certainly an in the bag film about homsexuality and homosexual rights will gain all sorts of kudos from a politicized, left-leaning, agenda-driven organization but true art and historical representations of well-known stories aren't likely to get same. You being cut from the same cloth assures you can't see any other viable outcome.

For such a contrarian, you sure love to go with the establishment when it's been completely hijacked.

Glad to hear they overcame the language/accent issue. Based on the previews I was pretty turned off by the prospect of a movie about Germans where Tom Cruise sounds American.

As evidenced by the slew of award nominations for this masterpiece.


NSFC. :nope:

Golden Globes. :nope:

We heard that one. Did you see it or not?

Award nominations are the only way to evaluate filsm because they are inherently fair and not agenda-driven, ever. Ask Sean Penn.

Finally saw it. Potentially a great movie except for Tom Cruise and the botched accents. Tom Cruise is not a convincing German in the least. And the Britishy sounding fake German accents of the rest of the cast was distracting. This movie and Defiance could be improved if daniel craig and tom cruise traded roles.

On the space monkey scale of cinema excellence this gets a 5 out of 10

:lol: Thank you so much for this lengthy crap, Fat Roger Ebert.

Thank you for replying 8 months later, Gullible Gal.

SpaceMonkey brought your thread back, Bottomless Pit. :D

You commented on it 8 months later, Carrie Buck.

He didn't attempt a German accent, so...

Yes, I did, Manuel Uribe. :D

Because you have nothing better to do with your time than get in a snit about 8 month old comments about a movie, Joy Behar.

Unlike you, who signs on to a message board hoping to impress strangers by being fat Roger Ebert and a cyber lawyer... right, Daniel Lambert? :D

I'm sorry that 98% of the population forming words into sentences to articulate thoughts make you feel insecure, USTA Wannabe.

Damn, 8 months.......I'm more behind than I realized.

The point remains, the rest of the cast did the lame britishy fake german accent thing. Tom Cruise just looked like a non-german midget.

everybody's brought up old movie threads based on when they saw it...

:lol: fat roger ebert

maybe if ebert were a hermit pedophile

Yes... you're so amazing at forming sentences. That's it, TitsMcGee. :D

...and USTA is awesome, fatty :P

seriously, what is your problem?

must EVERY thread be a slam?

we all do it, but you have a knack for doing it ALL THE TIME.

get a grip lady.

Sorry, Grampa... from now on I'll take your mature lead, ok? :D

http://z3.invisionfree.com/Political_Death...dpost&p=3887057

http://z3.invisionfree.com/Political_Death...dpost&p=3886425

i said we all do it ---

you, however do it ALL THE TIME.

there is a difference. no surprise you fail
to see it