'Vailkyrie' to "Heil Razzies"?

[louisev]

'Vailkyrie' to "Heil Razzies"?

http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_goldderby/2008/11/tom-cruise-news.html

Looks like the Razzies are confident in their prophesy that "Valkyrie" will land in their next derby, which commences on Jan. 21 when noms are unveiled. Last year the Razzie ceremony ended with big photos on stage of films they expect to see next year. Tom Cruise in that eyepatch got the biggest play — and the most howls, guffaws and applause from the audience.

Now check out the far left column of their website and follow the link to Courtney Hazlett's "'Scoop" column at MSNBC.com. She gives her tattle report on a screening of "Valkyrie," which notes, "A scene where Cruise's character, Claus Von Stauffenberg, is forced to give the infamous 'Heil Hitler' salute. 'It's an unsettling scene but you almost start to laugh,' a source says. 'His character is resisting it but you never forget it’s Tom Cruise saying 'Heil Hitler.' It's funny and shocking at the same time . . . .

"The film just isn't a thriller at all," said one 'Valkyrie' viewer. 'It's a bunch of white guys in Nazi uniforms. It's too bad. And Tom doesn't speak with a German accent — though they did add a voiceover of him speaking German to the beginning of the film. Still, it's as if he could say "I complete you" at any time. This is not his Oscar moment."

[delalluvia]

Yeah, in the preview I saw, Cruise's lack of accent bothered me, but at the same time, it's one of those weird Hollywood things.

Why would a German speaking to other Germans have an accent?  A character only has an accent if they are speaking to others in a different language.

When Brits are playing say, all Italians, in some historic epic, its OK for them to keep their accents because that's how they sound and we don't really know how people from another historic period sounded.

e.g. in the series Rome, of the 5 main characters, the actors were - 3 Brits, 1 Scottish and 1 Irish.  They all used English accents.

But if in this situation another character in the same movie is from  - say someplace in India or Asia - I would expect that character to have an accent because the conceit is, this other character is not speaking his native tongue, hence the accent.

In Valkyrie Cruise's character is a German speaking to other Germans.  Why would he have an accent?  It's actually bizarre that the other characters have accents.

I have high hopes for the movie, still.  I like the premise.

[Mikaela]

Tell you what, there is nothing that annoys many of us non-English speakers more than Hollywood WWII related films where the "Germans" speak English/American with a Very Heavy German accent when in real life they would have been speaking German.

Either have them speak German outright (It's fully possible to learn the lines!) or else speak plain English, - ditch any very obviously recognizable accents like strong Irish, Scottish, Australian, etc. but otherwise don't use that theatrical German accent! Germans didn't sound like Varieté charicatures when speaking amongst themselves, even during the war. Neither should the Hollywood actors.

I applaud the decision that Cruise doesn't speak with an accent.

I saw this news over at some other site where those that commented about the film proved they didn't have a clue about Count von Stauffenberg and who he was or what he did or what the film's plot is based on -  some thought he was a spy working undercover in Nazi Germany.... so it seems to me this film will tell a tale that needs to be told.

I'm not happy about Tom Cruise in the lead, though - I can't abide Tom Cruise and he doesn't disappear into his roles at all. Nevertheless if the movie ends up garnering razzies and laughs, it's doing a group of brave men a disservice and that's sad.

[delalluvia]

Tell you what, there is nothing that annoys many of us non-English speakers more than Hollywood WWII related films where the "Germans" speak English/American with a Very Heavy German accent when in real life they would have been speaking German.

Either have them speak German outright (It's fully possible to learn the lines!) or else speak plain English, - ditch any very obviously recognizable accents like strong Irish, Scottish, Australian, etc. but otherwise don't use that theatrical German accent! Germans didn't sound like Varieté charicatures when speaking amongst themselves, even during the war. Neither should the Hollywood actors.

I applaud the decision that Cruise doesn't speak with an accent.

Absolutely.  It's very strange.  In the movie Red October all the Russian characters are speaking Russian until about 20 minutes into the movie when they all switch to Russian accented English - except for Sean Connery who still has his Russian/Scottish/English accent.

I saw this news over at some other site where those that commented about the film proved they didn't have a clue about Count von Stauffenberg and who he was or what he did or what the film's plot is based on -  some thought he was a spy working undercover in Nazi Germany.... so it seems to me this film will tell a tale that needs to be told.

I'm not happy about Tom Cruise in the lead, though - I can't abide Tom Cruise and he doesn't disappear into his roles at all. Nevertheless if the movie ends up garnering razzies and laughs, it's doing a group of brave men a disservice and that's sad.

Agree.

[delalluvia]

Here we go.  AP hated it.

Turns out Cruise is both the central figure in "Valkyrie" and its weakest link. He's distractingly bad in this, the iconography of his celebrity so strongly overshadowing his performance. He's just too powerfully contemporary. With his hard, flat American accent, he stands out in every single scene...He's outclassed and outmatched by every member of the strong supporting cast, any of whom would have been more believable as Stauffenberg...


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081222/ap_en_ot/film_review_valkyrie_1

[delalluvia]

I'm not happy about Tom Cruise in the lead, though - I can't abide Tom Cruise and he doesn't disappear into his roles at all. Nevertheless if the movie ends up garnering razzies and laughs, it's doing a group of brave men a disservice and that's sad.

I hope it gathers no Razzies.  I saw no reason for anyone to give this movie a Razzie.  To do so would deal the brave men and women represented in this movie who gave their literal all to try to end the horror insult to injury and the movie is definitely nowhere near as bad as some have made it out to be and indeed the movie is very good.

[serious crayons]

I thought the movie was decent, and so was Tom. I wouldn't expect him to get an Oscar, or even a nomination. But he gave a good performance.

(Maybe not as good as his performance in Tropic Thunder, though.  )

Tom is kind of a goofball in RL, but I can forget that when watching him in a movie.

[delalluvia]

No Razzies for Tom or the movie, thank all the gods, but no Academy nominations either. 

Movie is going over well in Germany.

Berlin smash hit

The audience at the Berlin premiere on Tuesday night seemed impressed with the final result, giving the cast and filmmakers a three-minute standing ovation.

"It was almost too long!" said co-star Bill Nighy. "They wouldn't sit down. It was a great moment. It's a big German story and for an American and British cast to take it back there and it to be not just well-received but magnificently well-received is beautiful."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_7844000/7844126.stm


The German actors in Valkryrie were also in attendance: Carice van Houten (32), Christian Berkel (51) and Thomas Kretschmann (46). Kretschmann spoke about his most exciting day on set: “I had to be on time on the first day of filming, so Tom sent a helicopter to fly me from Tempelhof to the location – even though I am scared of flying. It was simply incredible.”

http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/celebrity-gossip/2009/01/21/tom-cruise-charms-fans/at-european-film-premiere-of-valkyrie-in-berlin.html

[serious crayons]

Tom Cruise really seems on a mission to improve his image, and it's working. That was nice of him to distribute hot drinks and hand warmers to the crowd.

[Marge_Innavera]

Tell you what, there is nothing that annoys many of us non-English speakers more than Hollywood WWII related films where the "Germans" speak English/American with a Very Heavy German accent when in real life they would have been speaking German.

Either have them speak German outright (It's fully possible to learn the lines!) or else speak plain English, - ditch any very obviously recognizable accents like strong Irish, Scottish, Australian, etc. but otherwise don't use that theatrical German accent! Germans didn't sound like Varieté charicatures when speaking amongst themselves, even during the war. Neither should the Hollywood actors.

That's been a convention in American movies for quite some time -- non-English speaking characters speaking English with an accent to indicate that in 'real life' they'd be speaking in their native language. Not defending it, just pointing out that it's not specific to this movie.

Sorry to hear it was such a bomb, considering the subject matter. Maybe someone will make a quality movie about that eventually.