2008. Dir: Bryan Singer. Starring: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson and Carice van Houten. ●●●●○
If you are going to watch Valkyrie I implore you to leave all your baggage at the door. Whatever preconceived notions you may have about the film they will not help your enjoyment in any way. Whatever your thoughts about Mr. Cruise or Mr. Singer or any other people involved in the making of this film they are irrelevant.
Instead you should go into the cinema with a clear mind and a fair capacity to enjoy this "b"-movie thriller and you will enjoy yourselves.
That is is a "b"-movie is perhaps open to interpretation. It's cast list may include the most famous man on the planet and a classy set of british vets but ultimately the film is about the most famous failed assassination attempt in history.
We begin by meeting Colonel Claus von Stauffenburg (Cruise) in North Africa, his battalion being slowly beaten back by the advancing brits. Von Stauffenburg writes in his diary - a fascinating segue from written and spoken German to english - of his lack of faith in the Nazi party and his attempts to recruit other senior officers to help him let high command know the party must be stopped. It's a ridiculous scene, because only a fool would write what he was saying, but it helps to introduce his high moral standards before he's shot to pieces (losing an eye, a hand and 2 other fingers).
We then move to Germany where Major-General Henning von Tresckow (Branagh) is stowing a bomb on the Fuhrer's plane. This fails to go off and some of the conspirators, though not the ones whose faces we know, are summarily rounded up.
Amazingly Satuffenburg is recruited to the staff of General Friedrich Olbricht (Nighy) a key member of the plot, and a new plan is put together.
The rest of the film follows the design, preparation and implementation of the assassination attempt. It's a utterly simple plan - blow up Hitler and use the reserve army to take Berlin and thus control the Reich. Then use the momentum to put a moderate in power and ultimately end the war. The fact that we know the plot failed does little to reduce the tension built up during the film.
That tension is mainly created by the sparse and pointed script from Christopher MacQuarrie and Nathan Alexander, and also aided by an energetic score from John Ottman. Although there is a downside to this; the mood was built up and up throughout the film with never any sense of levity. I know it's a serious topic but every line seemed to be written, or at least performed, as if it were life or death. Thus making it impossible to really get to grips with these brave men.
Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise - but at least he's not doing a bad Tom Cruise impression (see Mission Impossible III). Perhaps he might have appeared to be a better actor if he didn't surround himself by masters. Bill Nighy as his cowardly co-conspirator and Tom Wilkinson as the oily Fromm, waiting to see how the coin will land before calling it, both turn in superb performances which if the film had had an effective campaign may have got some award traction going.
Stylistically the film was nothing special, other than a nice shot of a record, and perhaps this represent a bit of a step back for Singer. That's a shame as I like his sensibilities. His next film on imdb looks to be You want me to Kill him about 2 boys who strike up a friendship on the internet that leads to murderous results. This may be an interesting mix between Heavenly Creatures and Elephant, and it's certainly the sort of film I'd like to See Singer concentrate on.
Saturday, 31 January 2009
Valkyrie
Friday, 23 January 2009
Out this Week (23/01/2009)
An embarrasment of riches this week with three films nominated for Academy Awards yesterday, and a Tom Cruise film. Not to mention the highly praised Van Damme film. All the nominated films tie with 8 points, but if I had to choose it would be Rachel Getting Married, as it comes highly recommended by people I actually trust out there.
Better Things
Things are tough for the kids growing up in Middle England. A sort of Kidulthood set in the country. My Dad lives in the Cotswolds, I'm not sure he's safe now.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Frost/Nixon
Intriguing chronicle of the infamous Richard Nixon interviews by David Frost in the late Seventies. Adapted from a play. Received a best picture nom.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●○○
JCVD
Jean-Claude Van Damme plays an alternative version of himself in this meta thriller where not only is he losing all the good roles but he's holed up in a bank robbery but expected to act like a hero.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Milk
Biopic of the first openly gay man elected to office in the U.S., although I for one have absolutely no idea what a "supervisor" is. One to see with a group of gay friends (I'm going tomorrow).
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●○○
Raaz: The Mystery Continues
Bollywood mystery film. Deals with the evils within the human psyche by presenting age old myths in modern settings.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Rachel Getting Married
Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is getting married, sister (Anne Hathaway) returns from rehab to spoil everything. Many home truths are said and skeletons slip out of the closets in this fine drama from Jonathon Demme.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●○○
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
The third installment in the "UNDERWORLD" trilogy is a prequel that traces the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires known as Death Dealers and their onetime slaves, the Lycans. Does anyone need to see this?
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Valkyrie
Tom Cruise wants to kill Hitler, with a school of British phesps backing him up. Expect thrills, spills and ACTING.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
Friday, 29 August 2008
Trailers - Valkyrie
With all the toing anf froing the release dates for Valkyrie have been doing it's easy to forget this is directed by the brilliant Bryan Singer and features an all star British supporting cast (as well as the Cruisemeister).
I'm a forgiving man so I'll certainly be first in the queue to see it.
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Tom Cruise
Happy Birthday to
Tom Cruise
46 today
Tom is often unfairly maligned (although he does ask for it), but here at Runs Like a Gay we're still massive fans. He's had a run of hits like no other actor, and occasionally acts well in them. I'm looking forward to his cameo in Tropic Thunder and in spite of the delays I'm still thinking Valkyrie will be an excellent film.
And for those of you who, like me, found your whole life made more sense after wacthing this, here is the volleyball scene from Top Gun (hopefully...).
