'Vailkyrie' to "Heil Razzies"?

[Shasta542]

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.

Didn't he try to film this movie in Germany and was denied? If so, they did give him a good welcome when showing the film.

[delalluvia]

Didn't he try to film this movie in Germany and was denied? If so, they did give him a good welcome when showing the film.

They reconsidered after the producer/director et al convinced them that it was going to be made with as much respect as possible.  And they did indeed allow him to shoot in original sites.  The History Channel has been running a special on the event and interspersed in the history part are scenes of the actual film shooting - they had a moment of silence at the execution site and read a letter from one of the conspirators to his family, showed the memorial services held each year at the site, spoke to the conspirators descendants, and explained how the conspirator's families were considered 'traitors' for a long time after the war and it's only been recently that they've been given the honors they deserved.  It was really intersting.

The movie is doing very respectable box office.  Already made back its budget and is just now going overseas and with the DVD sales in front of it as well.  It's not a flop by any measure.

[HerrKaiser]

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

A bomb? You're a tough judge. Fact is that Valkyrie has done quite well in terms of gross revenues (well abovea any films released since Jan 1), audience numbers, and critical reviews.

I thought the film was great. The best aspect was NOT being hollywoodized in terms of historical accuracy. The details were not tweaked or falsified to add typical Hollywood spices of sex, love, and other crowd -pleasing tidbits.

Cruise did an excellent job as Stauffenberg; his similar appearance was actually striking. He and the Hollywood AA voters are at odds and it is no surprise that he did not get a nomination, although I felt his performance was as good and interesting as most nominated. The film theme is also not a theme that Hollywood particularly likes--good Germans existing in the ranks of the Third Reich.