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Inglourious Basterds
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This article is about the 2009 film. For the 1978 film, see The Inglorious Bastards.

Inglourious Basterds
Inglourious Basterds poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Quentin Tarantino
Produced by
Lawrence Bender
Written by
Quentin Tarantino
Narrated by
Samuel L. Jackson
Starring
Brad Pitt
Christoph Waltz
Michael Fassbender
Eli Roth
Diane Kruger
Daniel Brühl
Til Schweiger
Mélanie Laurent
August Diehl
Julie Dreyfus
Sylvester Groth
Jacky Ido
Denis Menochet
Mike Myers
Rod Taylor
Martin Wuttke

Cinematography
Robert Richardson
Editing by
Sally Menke
Studio
A Band Apart
Studio Babelsberg
Distributed by
The Weinstein Company (US)
Universal Pictures (International)
Release dates
May 20, 2009 (Cannes)
August 20, 2009 (Germany)
August 21, 2009 (United States)

Running time
152 minutes[1]
Country
United States[2][3]
 Germany[2][3][4]
Language
English
 French
 German
Budget
$75 million[5]
Box office
$321,455,689[6]
Inglourious Basterds is a 2009 German-American black comedy war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth and Diane Kruger. The film tells the fictional alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's political leadership, one planned by a young French Jewish cinema proprietor (Laurent), and the other by a team of Jewish-American soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt). The film's title was inspired by director Enzo G. Castellari's 1978 macaroni combat film, The Inglorious Bastards.
Development began in 1998, when Tarantino wrote the script. He struggled with the ending and chose to hold off filming and moved on to direct the two-part film Kill Bill. After directing Death Proof in 2007 (as part of the double feature Grindhouse), Tarantino returned to work on Inglourious Basterds. The film went into production in October 2008 and was filmed in Germany and France with a $75 million production budget. Inglourious Basterds premiered on May 20, 2009 at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. It was widely released in theaters in the United States and Europe in August 2009 by The Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures.
The film was commercially successful, grossing over $321 million in theaters worldwide, making it Tarantino's highest-grossing film at that point, and second-highest to date, after Django Unchained. It received multiple awards and nominations, including eight Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. For his role as Hans Landa, Waltz won the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actor Award, as well as the BAFTA Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Development
3.2 Casting
3.3 Filming
3.4 Music
4 Release 4.1 Censorship
4.2 Home media
5 Reception 5.1 Box office
5.2 Critical reception
5.3 Accolades
6 In popular culture
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Plot[edit]
In 1941, SD Standartenführer Hans Landa, nicknamed "The Jew Hunter", interrogates French dairy farmer Perrier LaPadite. To save his family, LaPadite confesses to hiding the Jewish Dreyfus family underneath his floor. Landa orders SS soldiers to shoot through the floorboards and kill the family, but allows teenaged Shosanna to escape.
In spring 1944, 1st Special Service Force Lieutenant Aldo Raine recruits eight Jewish-American soldiers for a mission behind enemy lines, telling them they each owe him 100 Nazi scalps and will take no prisoners. Adolf Hitler personally interviews a soldier, Butz, who relates how his squad was ambushed and his sergeant beaten to death with a baseball bat by Staff Sergeant Donny Donowitz, the "Bear Jew", when the sergeant refused to divulge information. Butz survived by providing the information, but Raine carved a swastika into his forehead with a knife.
In June 1944, Shosanna Dreyfus, who has adopted the alias "Emmanuelle Mimieux", runs a cinema in Paris. She meets Fredrick Zoller, a German sniper whose exploits are to be celebrated in a Nazi propaganda film, Stolz der Nation (Nation's Pride), starring as himself. Attracted to Shosanna, Zoller convinces Joseph Goebbels to hold the premiere at her cinema. Shosanna seizes the opportunity, secretly resolving with her projectionist and lover, Marcel, to burn down her cinema and kill the top Nazi leaders at the premiere. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Archie Hicox, a British film critic specialising in German cinema, is recruited for "Operation Kino" by British General Ed Fenech and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Hicox will rendezvous with their agent, German film star Bridget von Hammersmark, and the Basterds, and infiltrate and plant explosives at the premiere.
Hicox; Wilhelm Wicki, an Austrian Jew who left Europe for America after Hitler rose to power, and was subsequently drafted by the United States Army and sent back to Europe; and Hugo Stiglitz, a convicted German sergeant who was freed by and joined the Basterds after killing 13 of his superiors; meet von Hammersmark at a tavern, where Staff Sergeant Wilhelm is celebrating his son's birth. Sturmbannführer Dieter Hellstrom notices Hicox's odd accent. Hicox gives himself away, signalling three drinks but not holding up his fingers in the German fashion. In the ensuing firefight, everyone except Wilhelm and von Hammersmark is killed. While Raine negotiates with Wilhelm, the actress shoots the sergeant. Though his German-speaking men are dead, Raine, upon learning from von Hammersmark that Hitler himself will be attending the premiere, decides to go ahead anyway. He, Donowitz and Ulmer pose as von Hammersmark's Italian escort and cameramen. Later, Landa finds von Hammersmark's shoe and her autographed napkin after investigating the tavern shooting.
At the premiere, Landa, who can speak Italian, is not fooled and sees von Hammersmark privately. He makes her wear the shoe, which fits, and strangles her to death, before ordering Raine and Private Smithson Utivich's capture. Landa has Raine contact his commanding officer with the OSS and brokers a deal: in exchange for not hindering the explosives plan and thus ending the war, he receives immunity, US citizenship, financial security, and the Medal of Honor for himself and the rest of the members of the operation. During the screening, Zoller slips away to the projection room to see Shosanna, who rejects his advances but then has him lock the door. With his back turned, she fatally shoots him, but he manages to turn and fatally shoot her as well. Meanwhile, Ulmer and Donowitz manage to dispatch the soldiers guarding Hitler.
A spliced-in clip of Shosanna's cackling in the cinema informs the audience that they are about to be killed by a Jew. Marcel, having locked the cinema, ignites a pile of extremely flammable nitrate film behind the screen. Ulmer and Donowitz burst into the screening as it burns and riddle Hitler, Goebbels, and the trapped crowd with submachine gun fire, until the bombs go off and destroy the cinema.
Landa and his radio operator drive Raine and Utivich across the American lines, whereupon they surrender. To Landa's horror, Raine shoots the radio operator and has Utivich collect his scalp. Raine is unable to accept the notion that Landa might go unpunished for his career as a Nazi officer, so he carves a swastika into his forehead as a permanent reminder of his crimes. Proudly inspecting his handiwork, he remarks to Utivich that "this just might be my masterpiece".
Cast[edit]
Brad Pitt as Lieutenant Aldo Raine
Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna Dreyfus
Christoph Waltz as SD Standartenführer Hans Landa
Michael Fassbender as Lieutenant Archie Hicox
Eli Roth as Sergeant Donny Donowitz
Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark
Daniel Brühl as Fredrick Zoller
Til Schweiger as Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz
Gedeon Burkhard as Corporal Wilhelm Wicki
Jacky Ido as Marcel
B. J. Novak as Private First Class Smithson Utivich
Omar Doom as Private First Class Omar Ulmer
August Diehl as Major Hellstrom
Denis Menochet as Perrier LaPadite
Léa Seydoux as Charlotte LaPadite
Sylvester Groth as Joseph Goebbels
Martin Wuttke as Adolf Hitler
Mike Myers as General Ed Fenech
Julie Dreyfus as Francesca Mondino
Richard Sammel as Sergeant Rachtman
Alexander Fehling as Master Sergeant Wilhelm
Rod Taylor as Winston Churchill
Christian Berkel as Proprietor Eric
Sönke Möhring as Private Butz
Samm Levine as Private First Class Hirschberg
Paul Rust as Private First Class Andy Kagan
Michael Bacall as Private First Class Michael Zimmerman
Rainer Bock as General Schonherr
Bo Svenson as an American Colonel in Nation's Pride
Enzo G. Castellari as Nazi General at film premiere
Samuel L. Jackson as the narrator (uncredited)
Harvey Keitel as the voice of the OSS Commander (uncredited)
Quentin Tarantino as the first scalped Nazi (uncredited)
Gregory Nicotero as a Gestapo major (uncredited)
Cloris Leachman as Mrs. Himmelstein (cut scenes)
Zoë Bell as Stunt
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Tarantino spent just over a decade writing the film's script because, as he told Charlie Rose in an interview, he became "too precious about the page," meaning the story kept growing and expanding.[7][8] Tarantino viewed the script as his masterpiece in the making, so he felt it had to become the best thing he had ever written.[9] Tarantino described an early premise of the film as his "bunch-of-guys-on-a-mission" film.[10] He said it was "my Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare or Guns of Navarone kind of thing".[11] According to Tarantino, all his films make the audience laugh at things that are not supposed to be funny, but the sense of humor differs in each.[12]



"I'm going to find a place that actually resembles, in one way or another, the Spanish locales they had in spaghetti westerns – a no man's land. With US soldiers and French peasants and the French resistance and German occupation troops, it was kind of a no man's land. That will really be my spaghetti Western but with World War II iconography. But the thing is, I won't be period specific about the movie. I'm not just gonna play a lot of Édith Piaf and Andrews Sisters. I can have rap, and I can do whatever I want. It's about filling in the viscera."[13]
—Quentin Tarantino
By 2002, Tarantino found Inglourious Basterds to be a bigger film than planned and saw that other directors were working on World War II films.[14] At this point, Tarantino had produced three nearly finished scripts, proclaiming that it was "some of the best writing I've ever done. But I couldn't come up with an ending."[15] Consequently, the director held off his planned film and moved on to direct the two-part film Kill Bill (2003–2004).[14] After the completion of Kill Bill, Tarantino went back to his first storyline draft and came up with the idea of turning it into a mini-series. Instead he trimmed the script, using his script for Pulp Fiction as a guide to the right length.[16] He then planned to begin production of Inglourious Basterds in 2005.[17] The revised premise focused on a group of soldiers who escape from their executions and embark on a mission to help the Allies. He described the men as "not your normal hero types that are thrown into a big deal in the Second World War".[18]
In November 2004, Tarantino decided to hold off the film's production and instead took an acting role in Takashi Miike's spaghetti western film Sukiyaki Western Django and intended to make a kung fu film entirely in Mandarin.[19] This project foundered as well, and he ultimately directed a part of the 2007 Grindhouse before returning to work on Inglourious Basterds.[17] The film's title was inspired by the English-language title of director Enzo G. Castellari's 1978 war film, The Inglorious Bastards.[20][21] When asked for an explanation of the film's title's spelling during a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival, Tarantino said, "I'm never going to explain that".[22] When pushed on it, Tarantino would not explain the first u in Inglourious, but said, "The Basterds? That's just the way you say it: Basterds."[21][23] Tarantino later stated in an interview that the misspelled title is "a Basquiat-esque touch."[24] He further commented on Late Show with David Letterman that Inglourious Basterds is a "Quentin Tarantino spelling."[25]
Casting[edit]



 Christoph Waltz at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
Tarantino originally sought Leonardo DiCaprio to be cast as Hans Landa,[26] before deciding to have the character played by an older German actor.[27] The role ultimately went to Austrian Christoph Waltz, who, according to Tarantino, "gave me my movie" as he feared the part was "unplayable."[28] Pitt and Tarantino had wanted to work together for a number of years, but were forced to wait for the right project.[29] When Tarantino was halfway through the film's script, he sensed that Pitt was a strong possibility for the role of Aldo Raine. By the time he had finished writing, Tarantino thought Pitt "would be terrific" and called Pitt's agent to ask if he was available.[29]
Tarantino asked Adam Sandler to play the role of Donny Donowitz, but Sandler declined due to schedule conflicts with the film Funny People.[30] Eli Roth was cast in the role instead. Roth also directed the film-within-the-film, Nation's Pride,[31] which used 300 extras.[32] The director also wanted to cast Simon Pegg in the film as Lt. Archie Hicox, but he was forced to drop out due to scheduling difficulties with Spielberg's Tintin adaptation.[33] Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender began final negotiations to join the cast as Hicox in August 2008.[33] The Office actor and writer, B. J. Novak, was also cast in August 2008 as Private First Class Smithson Utivich, "a New York-born soldier of 'slight build'".[34]
Tarantino talked to actress Nastassja Kinski about playing the role of Bridget von Hammersmark and even flew to Germany to meet her, but a deal could not be reached[35] and Tarantino cast Diane Kruger instead.[30][36] Rod Taylor was effectively retired from acting and no longer had an agent, but came out of retirement when Tarantino offered him the role of Winston Churchill in the film.[37] In preparation for the role, Taylor watched dozens of DVDs with footage of Churchill in order to get the Prime Minister's posture, body language, and voice, including a lisp, correct.[37] Taylor initially recommended British actor Albert Finney for the role during their conversation, but agreed to take the part because of Tarantino's "passion."[37] Mike Myers (as Gen. Ed Fenech), a fan of Tarantino, had inquired about being in the film since Myers' parents had been in the British Armed Forces.[38] In terms of the character's dialect, Myers felt that it was a version of Received Pronunciation meeting the officer class, but mostly an attitude of "I'm fed up with this war and if this dude can end it, great because my country is in ruins."[39]
Director Enzo Castellari also makes a cameo appearance in the film at the movie premiere. He previously cameoed as a German in his own Inglorious Bastards and reprised the same role in this film, but under a different rank and SS organization.[40][41] Bo Svenson, who starred in Castellari's The Inglorious Bastards, also has a small cameo in the film as a US colonel in the Nation's Pride movie.[42] Samuel L. Jackson and Harvey Keitel, who have both previously starred in Tarantino's films, make small voice-only contributions as the narrator and an OSS commander, respectively.[43] Two characters, Mrs. Himmelstein and Madame Ada Mimieux, played by Cloris Leachman and Maggie Cheung respectively, were both cut from the final film due to length reasons.[44][45]
Filming[edit]
Tarantino teamed with The Weinstein Company to prepare what he planned to be his film for production.[46] In July 2008, Tarantino and executive producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein set up an accelerated production schedule to be completed for release at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, where the film would compete for the Palme d'Or.[47][48] The Weinstein Company co-financed the film and distributed it in the United States, and signed a deal with Universal Pictures to finance the rest of the film and distribute it internationally.[49][50] Germany and France were scheduled as filming locations and principal photography started in October 2008 on location in Germany.[51][52][53] Filming was scheduled to begin on October 13, 2008, and shooting started that week.[54][55] Special effects were handled by KNB EFX Group with Greg Nicotero[56] and much of the film was shot and edited in the Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam, Germany[4] and in Bad Schandau, a small spa town near Germany's border with the Czech Republic.[57] Roth claimed that they "almost got incinerated", during the theater fire scene, as they projected the fire would burn at 400 °C (750 °F), but it instead burned at 1200 °C (2000 °F). He claimed the swastika was not supposed to fall either, as it was fastened with steel cables, but the steel softened and snapped.[58] On January 11, 2013, on the BBC's The Graham Norton Show, Tarantino claimed that for the scene where Kruger was strangled, he personally strangled the actress, with his own bare hands, in one take, to aid authenticity.[59]
Following the film's screening at Cannes, Tarantino stated that he would be re-editing the film in June before its ultimate theatrical release, allowing him time to finish assembling several scenes that were not completed in time for the hurried Cannes première.[60]
Music[edit]
Main article: Inglourious Basterds (soundtrack)
Tarantino originally wanted Ennio Morricone to compose the film's soundtrack.[21] Morricone was unable to, because the film's sped-up production schedule conflicted with his scoring of Giuseppe Tornatore's Baarìa.[61] However, Tarantino did use eight tracks composed by Morricone in the film, with four of them included on the CD.[62][63]
The opening theme is taken from the pseudo-folk ballad "The Green Leaves of Summer", which was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin and Paul Francis Webster for the opening of the 1960 film The Alamo.[62][64] The soundtrack uses a variety of music genres, including spaghetti western, R&B and David Bowie's theme from the 1982 film Cat People.[65] This is the first of Tarantino's soundtracks that does not include dialogue excerpts from the film.[66] The soundtrack was released on August 18, 2009.[67]
Release[edit]



Eli Roth, Mélanie Laurent, and producer Lawrence Bender at a premiere for the film in August 2009
When the script's final draft was finished, it was leaked on the Internet and several Tarantino fan sites began posting reviews and excerpts from the script.[68][69]
The film's first full teaser trailer premiered on Entertainment Tonight on February 10, 2009,[70] and was shown in US theaters the following week attached to Friday the 13th.[71] The trailer features excerpts of Lt. Aldo Raine talking to the Basterds, informing them of the plan to ambush and kill, torture, and scalp unwitting Nazi servicemen, intercut with various other scenes from the film.[72] It also features the spaghetti-westernesque terms Once Upon A Time In Nazi Occupied France,[72] which was considered for the film's title,[73] and A Basterd's Work is Never Done, a line not spoken in the final film (the line occurs in the script during the Bear Jew's backstory).[74]
The film was released on August 19, 2009 in the United Kingdom and France,[75] two days earlier than the US release date of August 21, 2009.[76] It was released in Germany on August 20, 2009.[77] Some European cinemas, however, showed previews starting on August 15.[78] In Poland, the artwork on all advertisements and on DVD packaging is unchanged, but the title was translated non-literally to Bękarty Wojny (Bastards of War), so that Nazi iconography could stylize the letter "O".[79]
Censorship[edit]
Universal Pictures censored the film's German publicity website, as the display of Nazi iconography is restricted in Germany. The title has the swastika removed and the steel helmet has a bullet hole instead of the Nazi symbol.[80] The German site's download section was revised to exclude wallpaper downloads that openly feature the swastika.[81] Though the advertisement posters and wallpapers must not show Nazi iconography, this does not apply to "works of art" according to German law, so the film itself is not censored in Germany.[82]
Home media[edit]
The film was released on single-disc DVD and a two-disc special edition DVD and Blu-ray Disc on December 15, 2009, by Universal Studios Home Entertainment in the United States[83] and Australia.[84] It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on December 7, 2009, in the UK.[85] On its first week of release, the film was number two, only behind The Hangover, selling an estimated 1,581,220 DVDs making $28,467,652 in the United States.[86]
The German version is 50 seconds longer than the American version. The scene in the tavern has been extended. Although in other countries, the extended scene was released as a bonus feature, the German theatrical, DVD, and Blu-ray versions are the only ones to include the full scene.[87]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
Opening in 3,165 screens, the film earned $14.3 million on the opening Friday of its North American release,[88] on the way to an opening weekend gross of $38 million, giving Tarantino a personal best weekend opening and the number one spot at the box office, ahead of District 9.[89] The film fell to number two in its second weekend, behind The Final Destination, with earnings of $20 million, and grossed $73.8 million in its first ten days.[90] Inglourious Basterds opened internationally at number one in 22 markets on 2,650 screens making $27.49 million. First place openings included France, taking in $6.09 million on 500 screens. The United Kingdom was not far behind making $5.92 million (£3.8m) on 444 screens. Germany took in $4.20 million on 439 screens and Australia with $2.56 million (A$2.8m) on 266 screens.[91] It has come to gross $120.5 million in the United States and Canada and $200.9 million in other territories, making its worldwide gross $321.4 million. Inglourious Basterds was Tarantino's highest grossing film, both in the U.S. and worldwide until Django Unchained in 2012.[92]
Critical reception[edit]
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of 270 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.7 out of 10.[93] According to the site's critical consensus, "A classic Tarantino genre-blending thrill ride, Inglourious Basterds is violent, unrestrained, and thoroughly entertaining."[94] Metacritic, which assigns a score of 1–100 to individual film reviews, gives the film an averaged rating of 69 based on 36 reviews.[95]



 Cast and crew at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival
The film received mainly positive reviews. Critics' initial reactions at the Cannes Film Festival were mixed. The film received an eight- to eleven-minute standing ovation from critics after its first screening at Cannes,[96][97] although Le Monde, a leading French newspaper, dismissed it, saying "Tarantino gets lost in a fictional World War II".[98] Despite this, Anne Thompson of Variety praised the film, but opined that it was not a masterpiece, claiming, "Inglourious Basterds is great fun to watch, but the movie isn't entirely engaging... You don't jump into the world of the film in a participatory way; you watch it from a distance, appreciating the references and the masterful mise en scène. This is a film that will benefit from a second viewing".[99] Critic James Berardinelli gave the film his first four-star review of 2009, stating, "With Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino has made his best movie since Pulp Fiction," and that it was "one hell of an enjoyable ride."[100] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times also gave the film a four-star review, writing that "Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others and demonstrate once again that he's the real thing, a director of quixotic delights."[101] Author and critic Daniel Mendelsohn was disturbed by the portrayal of Jewish-American soldiers mimicking German atrocities done to European Jews, stating, "In Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino indulges this taste for vengeful violence by—well, by turning Jews into Nazis".[102] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian stated he was "struck... by how exasperatingly awful and transcendentally disappointing it is".[103] While praising Christoph Waltz's performance ("a good actor new to American audiences"), David Denby, of The New Yorker, dismissed the film with the following words: "The film is skillfully made, but it's too silly to be enjoyed, even as a joke. [...] Tarantino has become an embarrassment: his virtuosity as a maker of images has been overwhelmed by his inanity as an idiot de la cinémathèque."[104] Christopher Hitchens likened the experience of watching the film to "sitting in the dark having a great pot of warm piss emptied very slowly over your head."[105]
The film has met some criticism from Jewish press, as well. In Tablet, Liel Liebowitz criticizes the film as lacking moral depth. He argues that the power of film lies in its ability to impart knowledge and subtle understanding, but Inglourious Basterds serves more as an "alternative to reality, a magical and Manichaean world where we needn't worry about the complexities of morality, where violence solves everything, and where the Third Reich is always just a film reel and a lit match away from cartoonish defeat".[106] Anthony Frosh, writer for the online magazine Galus Australis, has criticized the film for failing to develop its characters sufficiently, labeling the film "Enthralling, but lacking in Jewish content".[107]
Accolades[edit]
Main article: List of accolades received by Inglourious Basterds
Christoph Waltz was singled out for Cannes honors, receiving the Best Actor Award at the festival's end.[108] Film critic Devin Faraci of Chud.com stated: "The cry has been raised long before this review, but let me continue it: Christoph Waltz needs not an Oscar nomination but rather an actual Oscar in his hands.... he must have gold".[109] The film received four Golden Globe Award nominations[110] including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Supporting Actor for Waltz, who went on to win the award.[111] The film also received three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and went on to win the awards for Best Cast and Best Supporting Actor, which was awarded to Waltz.[112] The film was nominated for six BAFTA Awards, including Best Director for Tarantino,[113] winning only one award—Best Supporting Actor for Waltz. In February 2010, the film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Waltz, and Best Original Screenplay.[114] Waltz was awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.[115]
In popular culture[edit]
On December 5, 2010, "The Fight Before Christmas", the eighth episode of The Simpsons' twenty-second season, featured an Inglourious Basterds sequence during a World War II flashback.[116]
When the Jewish, 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m), 314-pound American football player Gabe Carimi was drafted in the 2011 NFL Draft's first round by the Chicago Bears, he was nicknamed "The Bear Jew", a reference to the character in Inglourious Basterds.[117][118]
See also[edit]
Vigilante film
References[edit]
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External links[edit]
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Valkyrie (film)
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Valkyrie
On a white background are gray lines showing floor plans of a building. Below the lines are a group of six men wearing German army uniforms and business suits, with one prominently in front of the group. A red line traces through the floor plans and behind the front man. Beside the line is the word "VALKYRIE", and within the line in smaller print is "TOM CRUISE".
Theatrical poster

Directed by
Bryan Singer
Produced by
Christopher McQuarrie
 Bryan Singer
Gilbert Adler
Chris Lee
 Dan Snyder
Written by
Christopher McQuarrie
 Nathan Alexander
Starring
Tom Cruise
Kenneth Branagh
Bill Nighy
Tom Wilkinson
Carice van Houten
Terence Stamp
Music by
John Ottman
Cinematography
Newton Thomas Sigel
Editing by
John Ottman
Studio
United Artists
Bad Hat Harry Productions
Cruise/Wagner Productions
Distributed by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
December 25, 2008

Running time
124 minutes
Country
United States
 Germany[1]
Language
English
Budget
US$75 million (studio report)
 $80 million (outside estimate)[2]
Box office
US$200,276,784[3]
Valkyrie is a 2008 American-German historical thriller film set in Nazi Germany during World War II. The film depicts the 20 July plot in 1944 by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country. Valkyrie was directed by Bryan Singer for the American studio United Artists, and the film stars Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the key plotters. The cast included Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Eddie Izzard, Terence Stamp and Tom Wilkinson.
Cruise's casting caused controversy among German politicians and members of the von Stauffenberg family due to the actor's practice of Scientology, which is viewed with suspicion in Germany. Because of this, the filmmakers initially had difficulty setting up filming locations in Germany, but they were later given access to film in locations, including Berlin's historic Bendlerblock. German newspapers and filmmakers supported the film and its attempt to spread global awareness of von Stauffenberg's plot.
The film changed release dates several times, from as early as June 27, 2008 to as late as February 14, 2009. The changing calendar and poor response to United Artists' initial marketing campaign drew criticism about the studio's viability. After a positive test screening, Valkyrie's release in North America was ultimately changed to December 25, 2008. United Artists renewed its marketing campaign to reduce its focus on Cruise and to highlight Singer's credentials. The film received mixed reviews in the United States and in Germany, where it opened commercially on January 22, 2009.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Development
3.2 Writing
3.3 Filming
3.4 Visual effects
3.5 Editing and scoring
4 German response to production
5 Marketing
6 Release 6.1 Theatrical run
6.2 Anti-Scientology protests
6.3 Home media
7 Reception 7.1 American critics
7.2 German critics
8 Awards and honors
9 Historical accuracy
10 See also
11 References
12 External links

Plot[edit]
During World War II, Wehrmacht Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) is severely wounded during an RAF air raid in Tunisia, losing a hand and an eye, and is evacuated home to Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, Major General Henning von Tresckow (Branagh) attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler by smuggling a bomb aboard the Führer's personal airplane. The bomb, however, is a dud and fails to detonate, and Tresckow flies to Berlin in order to safely retrieve it. After learning that the Gestapo has arrested Major General Hans Oster, he orders General Olbricht (Nighy) to find a replacement. After recruiting Stauffenberg into the German Resistance, Olbricht presents Stauffenberg at a meeting of the secret committee which has coordinated previous attempts on Hitler's life. The members include General Ludwig Beck (Stamp), Dr. Carl Goerdeler (McNally), and Erwin von Witzleben (Schofield). Stauffenberg is stunned to learn that no plans exist on the subject of what is to be done after Hitler's assassination.
During a bombing raid on Berlin, he gets the idea of using Operation Valkyrie, which involves the deployment of the Reserve Army to maintain order in the event of a national emergency. The plotters carefully redraft the plan's orders so that they can dismantle the Nazi regime after assassinating Hitler. Realizing that only General Friedrich Fromm (Wilkinson), the head of the Reserve Army, can initiate Valkyrie, they offer him a position as head of the Wehrmacht in a post-Nazi Germany and request his support, but Fromm declines to be directly involved. With the rewritten Operation Valkyrie orders needing to be signed by Hitler (Bamber), Stauffenberg visits the Führer at his Berghof estate in Bavaria. Fromm's influence allows Stauffenberg to bring the copy directly before Hitler, and in the presence of Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Göring, Wilhelm Keitel and Albert Speer, his inner circle, Hitler praises Stauffenberg's heroism in North Africa and signs the orders without fully examining the modifications, believing Stauffenberg's changes "are for the best".
At Goerdeler's insistence, Stauffenberg is ordered to assassinate both Hitler and SS head Himmler at the Führer's command bunker, the Wolf's Lair. At a final briefing, Colonel Mertz von Quirnheim (Berkel) instructs the committee members in the use of pencil detonators. Stauffenberg also persuades General Fellgiebel (Izzard), who controls all communications at Wolf's Lair, to cut off communications after the bomb blast. On July 15, 1944, Stauffenberg attends a strategy meeting at Wolf's Lair with the bomb in his briefcase, but with Himmler not present at the meeting, Stauffenberg does not get the go-ahead from the committee leaders, and by the time one of them defies the others and tells him to do it anyway, the meeting is over. Meanwhile, the Reserve Army is mobilized by Olbricht, unbeknownst to Fromm, to stand by. With no action taken, Stauffenberg safely extracts himself and the bomb from the bunker, and the Reserve Army is ordered to stand down, believing that the mobilization was training. Back in Berlin, Olbricht and Stauffenberg are threatened by Fromm that if they try to control the reserve army again he will have them arrested; Stauffenberg goes to the committee to protest their indecisiveness and condemns Goerdeler, who has been selected to be chancellor after the coup. When Goerdeler demands that Stauffenberg be relieved, Beck informs him that the SS is searching for him and implores him to leave the country immediately.
On July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg and his adjutant Lieutenant Haeften (Parker) return to Wolf's Lair. To Stauffenberg's dismay, he discovers only after the timer has been activated that the conference is being held in an open-window summer barrack, whereas the plotters had intended to detonate the bomb within the walls of the bunker for maximum damage. While his adjuntant waits with the car, Stauffenberg places the briefcase with the bomb armed at the meeting as close to Hitler as possible. Stauffenberg then leaves the barrack, returning to the car. However, one of the officers at the meeting moves the bomb behind a table leg, thereby protecting Hitler from most of the blast. When the bomb explodes, Stauffenberg is certain that Hitler is dead and flees Wolf's Lair. Before shutting down communications, Fellgiebel calls Mertz about the explosion but cannot clearly convey whether or not the Führer is dead.
As Stauffenberg flies back to Berlin, Olbricht refuses to mobilize the Reserve Army until he knows without a doubt that Hitler is dead (if Hitler isn't dead, Olbricht will be arrested for having the reserve army mobilized without Fromm's permission). Behind Olbricht's back, Mertz forges his signature and issues the orders anyway. With Operation Valkyrie underway, Stauffenberg and his fellow plotters order the arrest of Nazi party leaders and SS officers, convincing lower officers that the Party and the SS are staging a coup. As Army soldiers begin to take control of Berlin's government ministries, including SS headquarters, mid-level officers relaying the orders begin to wonder which side they should be fighting for. Rumors reach Berlin that Hitler survived the blast, but Stauffenberg dismisses them as SS propaganda. Meanwhile, Fromm learns from Field Marshal Keitel that Hitler is still alive. The General refuses to join the plotters, resulting in them detaining him. Major Otto Ernst Remer of the Reserve Army prepares to arrest Goebbels, but is stopped when Goebbels connects him by phone to Hitler.
Immediately recognizing the voice on the other end, Remer realizes that the Reserve Army has been duped—rather than containing a coup, they have unwittingly supported it. SS officers are released and the plotters in turn are besieged inside the Bendlerblock. The headquarters staff flees, but the resistance leaders are arrested. In an ultimately vain effort to save himself, General Fromm convenes an impromptu court martial and sentences the conspirators to death, contravening Hitler's orders that they be kept alive. Given a pistol by Fromm, Beck commits suicide. That night, the ringleaders are then executed by firing squad one by one. When Stauffenberg was about to be shot, in a last gesture of loyalty and defiance, Haeften, places himself in the path of the bullets meant for Stauffenberg. When his turn arrives, Colonel Stauffenberg's last act is to cry "Long live sacred Germany!"
A brief epilogue informs that the conspiracy of July 20, 1944 was the last of fifteen known assassination attempts on Hitler by Germans. It also mentions Hitler's suicide nine months later and that Countess Nina von Stauffenberg and her children survived the war. The dedication at the Memorial to the German Resistance is then superimposed:

You did not bear the shame
You resisted By sacrificing your impassioned lives for
freedom, justice and honor.
Cast[edit]

Collage of two photos that each show a man's profile. The left profile is a dated photo of a man with the visible collar of his army uniform, and the right profile is a modern photo of a man.

 German World War II Colonel Von Stauffenberg (left) and actor Tom Cruise (right). Cruise was attracted to the role based on the resemblance of his profile to the colonel's.[4]Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg: The German army Colonel who was instrumental in the conspiracy to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Bryan Singer saw von Stauffenberg as "very much a humanist", saying, "He understood his role as a colonel, but he also understood that the Nazis were doing terrible, terrible, terrible things." Having directed Superman Returns, Singer compared von Stauffenberg's dual identity as loyal colonel and conspirator to Superman and his civilian identity Clark Kent.[5] Cruise had wanted to work with Singer since they met at the premiere for Mission: Impossible, and the actor was enticed by the script's background, the truth of which struck him as a surprise.[6] The actor described von Stauffenberg's heroism, "I thought of it in terms of what [von] Stauffenberg represents. He was someone who realized that he had to take the steps that ultimately cost him his life... He recognized what was at stake."[7] Cruise felt von Stauffenberg did not think of himself as a hero.[8] The actor prepared for the role for eight months by hiring a researcher, studying history books, and speaking with some of von Stauffenberg's family.[9] Since von Stauffenberg lost his left eye, right hand and two fingers on his left hand in an Allied attack in Tunisia, Cruise affected the same disabilities to practice dressing, moving items and writing.[7] Cruise initially found the eyepatch difficult to work with but acknowledged that von Stauffenberg had to live with this discomfort.[8]
Kenneth Branagh as Major General Henning von Tresckow:[10] Branagh differed physically from the real Tresckow, who was balding, but Singer said, "[I]f you look at Tresckow's energy, he had an honesty that Branagh has."[11]
Bill Nighy as General Friedrich Olbricht:[10] Nighy was cast to give a sympathetic quality, so Olbricht would not be the "fall guy". Nighy wanted to convey Olbricht as divided between complaining about Hitler's regime and actually doing something about it.[8] The actor described his portrayal, "One of the most disconcerting things imaginable is to put on a Nazi uniform. It's so associated with evil that it took me several days to get used to being in costume."[12]
Terence Stamp as Colonel General Ludwig Beck:[10] Singer met Stamp to discuss playing a part in X-Men, having admired him for portraying General Zod in Superman II. Stamp endured the Blitz as a child and aided Singer in staging a scene where the von Stauffenbergs hide from the Allied bombings.[13] The actor described his approach to portraying Beck: "There has to be a kind of non-judgmental discernment, so when I'm playing villains, they don't think they're particularly villains." The actor sought to find "the part of Terence that would be prepared to fall on his sword for certain ideals".[5]
Tom Wilkinson as Colonel General Friedrich Fromm: The head of Germany's Reserve Army. Wilkinson was cast to make the treacherous Fromm sympathetic.[8]
Carice van Houten as Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg: von Stauffenberg's wife. The filmmakers were impressed by her performance in Black Book, and argued she could give a strong performance with minimal dialogue. Screenwriter Nathan Alexander spoke to von Stauffenberg's relatives and noted that, although Nina and Claus never directly spoke about the plot, "in a sense it was all they talked about".[8]
Kevin McNally as Dr. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler: A German politician who intends to become chancellor of Germany after a successful coup.
David Schofield as Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben: A retired general and one of the plotters. Singer and Producer Christopher McQuarrie were impressed by Schofield's professionalism and dedication to show up on set for scenes without his character, and the filmmakers expanded his role as a result.[14]
Christian Berkel as Colonel Albrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim: A plotter with knowledge of explosives.
Jamie Parker as Lieutenant Werner von Haeften: An adjutant to von Stauffenberg who helps the colonel carry out the plot.
Eddie Izzard as General Erich Fellgiebel: A German signals officer and plotter, responsible for communications at Hitler's bunker Wolf's Lair.
David Bamber as Adolf Hitler: The Führer of Germany. During Bamber's audition for the role, Singer was struck by Bamber's eyes and stated that Bamber had a quality that resonated with Hitler.[14]
Thomas Kretschmann as Major Otto Ernst Remer: Commanding officer of Großdeutschland guard battalion. Kretschmann was the original choice to play von Stauffenberg before Singer joined the production, when McQuarrie was intending to direct.[15]
Harvey Friedman as Dr. Joseph Goebbels: Minister of Propaganda and a member of Hitler's inner circle.
Kenneth Cranham portrays Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel: The head of the OKW and a member of Hitler's inner circle.
Matthias Freihof as Heinrich Himmler: The head of the SS and a member of Hitler's inner circle.
Waldemar Kobus as Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorf, chief of the Berlin police who pledges his and men's assistance in carrying out the plot.
Halina Reijn as Margarethe von Oven. Reijn co-starred with fellow Dutchwoman Carice van Houten in Black Book.
Werner Daehn as Major Ernst John von Freyend
Tom Hollander as Colonel Heinz Brandt
Bernard Hill as a General working with Stauffenberg in Tunisia
Ian McNeice as the composite "Pompous General" who attempts to disrupt the coup headquarters. Though the general is not named in the film, McQuarrie and Alexander said the character was based on General Joachim von Kortzfleisch, who tried to disrupt the coup in the same fashion.
Gerhard Haase-Hindenberg as Hermann Göring
Anton Algrang as Albert Speer
Helmut Stauss as Dr. Roland Freisler
Matthew Burton as Lieutenant-General Adolf Heusinger
Philipp von Schulthess as Major General Henning von Tresckow's aide: Von Schulthess is the grandson of Claus von Stauffenberg.[16]
Patrick Wilson was originally cast in Valkyrie, but he dropped out due to scheduling conflicts and other unspecified reasons.[17] Stephen Fry was also offered a role in the film but was unable to participate.[18]
Some of the non-German actors initially experimented with German accents, but Singer discarded the idea, instead instructing them to adopt neutral accents that "[wouldn't] distract from the story".[9] Singer added he was not making a docu-drama and wanted to make the story engaging.[8]
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
In 2002, Christopher McQuarrie visited Berlin while researching another project and visited the memorial to von Stauffenberg at the Bendlerblock. Researching the July 20 plot, he was moved and fascinated by the fact that the conspirators were fully aware of what would happen if they failed their assassination attempt, and he wanted to make their story more well-known.[19] He approached Nathan Alexander to co-write the film, and Alexander began researching the project.[15] McQuarrie sought to model the story after the 2001 TV film Conspiracy, which depicted the Wannsee Conference at which the Nazis planned the Final Solution.[19] He also sought to direct the film, until he realized that adequate financing would only be secured with Bryan Singer directing.[15]
After Singer completed the three major productions X-Men (2000), X2 (2003) and Superman Returns (2006), he sought a smaller project before embarking upon the eventually aborted sequel to Superman Returns.[9][20] Singer and McQuarrie had often made World War II films in their backyards while growing up in New Jersey, and Singer had later dealt with Nazi subject matter in Apt Pupil and X-Men.[21] Singer first learned of the plot in the early 1980s when his mother visited Bonn and met Freya von Moltke, widow of Helmuth von Moltke, a founder of the Kreisau Circle resistance group.[22] After learning of McQuarrie and Alexander's screenplay and signing on to direct, Singer read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer to gain deeper understanding of Nazi Germany's political landscape, and also met with one of Hitler's bodyguards, Rochus Misch,[23] who was the last person to leave the bunker where Hitler committed suicide. The creative team acknowledged the ambiguity over the enigmatic von Stauffenberg's true motivation, but Singer and McQuarrie judged him to be a man of ethics just from what he did.[8] Though McQuarrie sought for Valkyrie to be similar to Conspiracy, Singer had bigger ambitions for the film, wanting it to be more than "old men in rooms, talking". Singer looked back on his decision, saying, "The true story had all the makings of a classic assassination thriller... I knew if I could keep the audience with [von] Stauffenberg, with his mission, they would go with the flow and be less inclined to start hypothesising on things from history."[19]
McQuarrie suggested they bring the project to United Artists partners Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise, who immediately agreed to finance the film in March 2007.[24] Singer invited Tom Cruise to take the lead role, which Cruise accepted.[25] Cruise had been provided a picture of von Stauffenberg, in which the actor noticed a similarity in his profile with the German colonel, drawing him to the role.[4] The director and the screenwriter initially anticipated Valkyrie as a "small" film with a budget of under US$20 million and to be completed within several months,[26][27] but Cruise's interest in playing von Stauffenberg made Singer realize his involvement could broaden the film's publicity and therefore its budget.[11] The film's budget was then raised to $60 million.[28] The director considered calling the film Operation Valkyrie, not wanting to use a generic action film title. The film's English-language title was ultimately titled Valkyrie because Singer felt that the film was about more than the operation and liked its connection to Wagner's music.[29]

View of a courtyard from one of its sides; the courtyard is laid with brick and spotted with small trees. The courtyard is surrounded by white and gray buildings that range from two stories to six stories.

 Bendlerblock, where the conspirators were executed in real life, was originally denied as a filming location for Valkyrie
Germany's Finance Ministry had originally denied the producers the right to film at Bendlerblock, explaining that the site should be treated as a "place of remembrance and mourning" which would "lose dignity if we were to exploit it as a film set". The producers were also denied a request to film at a Berlin police station by the department, citing adverse impact to the facility.[30] The German government eventually had a change of heart concerning the Bendlerblock site and gave permission for filmmakers to film there.[31] A United Artists spokesman said that they were "very grateful" for the decision, saying that the site "[had] always been important to us symbolically, creatively and for the sake of historical authenticity" and that the company had been in continuous talks with the German government in order to clear up any misconceptions about the nature of the film.[32] The Memorial to the German Resistance also helped filmmakers by permitting them access to their materials and documents.[33] German military pageantry was shaped by referring to the recorded material and input from military advisers.[6]
Writing[edit]
McQuarrie and Alexander researched first-hand accounts, photos, newsreels and texts. They also examined Gestapo and SS records, as the organizations had been meticulous in reconstructing the events of the conspiracy in its aftermath. A timeline of events was created, from which McQuarrie and Alexander shaped the script. After production began in Berlin, the writers were able to visit locations and meet with relatives of the conspirators; these meetings informed changes made to the script during filming.[15]
The initial scenes of von Stauffenberg in Tunisia were written to provide historical context to the rest of the film. The scenes were written with the intention of communicating the complexity of the situation—including references to the Holocaust—without being too obvious. The writers also wanted to evoke the spirit of the resistance and convey the ongoing disgust of the German officers. McQuarrie and Alexander found the most difficult task was in conveying the motives of the conspirators; von Stauffenberg especially remained an enigma, though the writers believed he and the other resistance members to be propelled by their moral outrage. McQuarrie and Alexander attempted to include a scene of von Stauffenberg's witnessing an atrocity, but because he was a supply officer he had little exposure to many of those that occurred. Though he witnessed some—such as the starvation of the Russians—they believed it difficult to dramatize von Stauffenberg's being compelled to action by "field reports". They also had difficulties with Hitler's portrayal; in researching his speeches, they struggled to find one in which he made overtly villainous statements.[15]
Filming[edit]
Filming began on July 18, 2007 in Berlin.[34] Production of Valkyrie was then estimated to have a budget of US$80 million, with two-thirds to be spent in Germany.[35] The German Federal Film Fund issued €4.8 million[36] (US$6.64 million) to United Artists to assist with production.[35] The filmmakers received permission to film at Tempelhof International Airport's Columbia Haus, a former Nazi jail for political prisoners. Production also involved World War II planes with swastikas painted on the sides, practicing in the airspace above Brandenburg.[37] Around 70 sets were built for the film.[9] The filmmakers also shot on location at the former Reich Air Ministry Building and the exterior of the house at which von Stauffenberg stayed with his brother.[8][38]
A replica set of Hitler's Eastern Front Headquarters Wolf's Lair was constructed 60 kilometers south of Berlin, though the headquarters' actual location was in modern-day Poland.[37] It took twelve weeks to build.[8] Filming also took place in some of the houses that were used to hide the bombs in 1944.[39] The interior of Hitler's Bavarian residence Berghof was also replicated using film shot by Hitler's consort Eva Braun and designing models of furniture possessed by secretive collectors.[40] The production also made use of surviving Nazi relics, including furniture used by the Reich Ministry and objects that once adorned Hitler's desk.[9] Nazi symbols, the display of which is heavily restricted in Germany, were also used at several locations, and while the filmmakers gave forewarnings to local residents,[34] a passerby witnessing the use of swastikas during filming in Berlin filed an official complaint with the city. Similar charges have also been filed against the owners of sites set up to show Nazi displays for the film's production.[41] Filming also took place at Babelsberg Studios.[42] During filming on August 19, 2007, eleven people were hurt when the side panel of a truck they were riding broke, with one person requiring hospitalization.[43] They demanded $11 million in compensation, rejecting a settlement offered by the studio.[44]
Before filming the scene of von Stauffenberg's execution at Bendlerblock, Tom Cruise led the cast and crew in holding a moment of silence,[45] "out of respect for the place and out of respect for the life achievement of these people who were executed there," according to actor Christian Berkel.[46] After filming of the scene was completed, the footage was sent to be developed for the post-production process at a processing plant in Germany. The wrong chemical was accidentally used in development, damaging the film and requiring the crew to seek permission from the government to re-shoot the scenes. Permission was granted and a spokesman for the film indicated the schedule and budget had not been affected.[47][48]
Singer and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel chose different styles for the separate halves of the film. Elegant camerawork such as cranes were used as the plot builds to the attempt on Hitler's life, and the second half is frantic with handheld cinematography as the plotters are hunted down. The colors in the film also become more intense as the story continues. Sigel focused on red, the color of the Nazi flag, which he felt represented the violence of their ideology. Singer looked towards thrillers of the 1940s and home movies shot by Eva Braun for inspiration. Shooting scenes at night was difficult because presenting historical accuracy of the era required blackouts. Sigel noted in real life, car headlights were used for the firing squad to aim at and execute the plotters in the Bendlerblock.[8] Singer chose to shoot in 1:85 aspect ratio, and since filming took place in Germany, the director used Arriflex cameras with Zeiss lenses.[6]
The Tunisia battle sequence that opened the film was the last major sequence filmed. The filmmakers wanted to avoid the appearance that von Stauffenberg wanted to kill Hitler because of the injuries he suffered in the battle. They began a rough cut in October 2007, and between then and June 2008, there were several test screenings without the battle sequence. By June 2008, the filmmakers felt that they knew how to adequately frame the characters when filming the battle sequence.[49] Singer scouted Jordan and Spain for locations, but the candidates did not meet the aesthetic and economic criteria.[6] The Cougar Buttes desert in California was ultimately chosen to represent Tunisia.[50] Since the production budget was adjusted to provide visual effects to make von Stauffenberg's injuries realistic, not enough was left for solely computer-generated fighter planes. Singer instead used two P-40 Warhawks in the battle sequence.[40] The budget increased in the course of production due to the filming in Germany, the rebuilding of sets, and lost shooting days, but German tax rebates tempered the growth.[28] The studio reported its final production budget to be $75 million, but competing studios believed it to be closer to $90 million.[51]
Visual effects[edit]
The film's visual effects were created by Sony Pictures Imageworks, who collaborated with Bryan Singer on Superman Returns. The VFX company's two key goals were to accurately portray von Stauffenberg's injuries and to create a 1943 period look to Berlin.[52] With many explosions and stunts seen in the film performed practically, the majority of the 800 computer-generated effects shots were used to portray von Stauffenberg's injuries.[11] A digital version of Cruise's hand was designed, and VFX employees rotoscoped the hand in every movement it could make so the missing fingers were erased in the process. With many close-ups of von Stauffenberg's hand with missing fingers, the injuries were textured to look like actual scars, particularly based on surgical procedures from 1943. Cruise asked for advice on how to best move his hands so visual effects would be easier to apply, but some challenges, such as von Stauffenberg getting dressed on his own, were inescapable. According to VFX supervisor Rich Hoover, "We know from historical accounts that von Stauffenberg didn't stick his hands in his pockets to try and hide his injuries."[52]
For the battle sequence in North Africa, two actual Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks in Desert Air Force paint schemes were used, accompanied by cloned images of them or by computer-generated planes. In scenes showing squadrons of soldiers, digital extras were not used; instead, photography of real squadrons was cloned. Sony Pictures Imageworks also digitally expanded details on stage locations and at practical locations. The exterior of Hitler's Bavarian residence Berghof was digitally created, since little was left of the original structure, and the creation was superimposed on a shot of a ski area in Austria. In Berlin itself, city officials helped reduce the need for visual effects by removing power poles and modern lighting over the weekend when filming took place and restoring the equipment by the start of the new week.[52]
Editing and scoring[edit]
As with his previous collaborations with Bryan Singer on The Usual Suspects, Superman Returns and X2, editor and composer John Ottman edited the film without a temp track, noting if the film was working well without music, it was becoming a strong product.[53] Since Valkyrie drew its inspirations from previous World War II films like The Great Escape (1963), Where Eagles Dare (1968), Patton (1970), and Midway (1976), filmmakers initially had a cut where title cards introduced characters and their roles. When the cut was test screened with an American audience, the title cards were removed due to complaints that there were too many characters to follow.[15]
Ottman said the challenge on Valkyrie was to create tension from dialogue scenes, and he often reshaped scenes to do this: moments rather than whole scenes were cut from the film.[27] Being historically accurate meant Ottman was more restricted in reorganizing scenes, but he was able to choose what lines and close-ups he could focus on.[54] Ottman said the scene he was most saddened to delete was a scene where von Stauffenberg dances with his wife because he had been looking forward to scoring it.[27]
Ottman originally planned to compose a minimal score to Valkyrie, but found that despite the film's dialogue-heavy nature, the film needed music to create a thriller atmosphere. Ottman described the new approach, "It's very much like Usual Suspects—in order to keep the tension going in a scene where there's really a lot of dialogue, we had to rely on a lot of score. But the score is done in a very sort of pulsating, subliminal way. It's not an expository score, it's more like a running pulse going through the movie."[55] Singer applied an imaginary metronome, "which only began clicking" when he watched scenes where the pace was becoming faster. He had a specific theme he wanted for the film, which was more modern than the "The Winds of War"-type score he expected Ottman to do.[54] Another challenge in composing thriller music was that the score needed to "slowly lapse" into the tragedy of the film's ending.[56] The finished score has some percussion instruments and few brass, but no snare drums or trumpets, which were the conventions Singer and Ottman avoided.[54]
Ottman had to compose music for the North African battle before the scene was shot, because booking space to record film music is difficult. Although he found that composing music based on the script results in overlong pieces, he felt the music worked out fine for the sequence. The film's end credits piece, "They'll Remember You", is an original composition, but the lyrics were based on the poem "Wanderer's Nightsong" by German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.[53] An end piece entitled "Long Live Sacred Germany" was inspired by Adagio for Strings, in the sense it would not feel like film music tailored to every moment in the scene, but still fit with what was going on. Ottman described the original version of the track as a "three minute drone that I slowed down with these two Tuvan throat singers, the whole thing was this horribly dark, morbid piece [which] left you cold." Ottman composed a metallic motif for Hitler, which was formed by low strings and a piano cluster.[54]
German response to production[edit]



Stauffenberg played an important role in the military resistance against the Nazi regime and in the [German military's] self-perception [...] A sincere and respectable depiction of the events of the 20th of July and of Stauffenberg is therefore very much in Germany's interest. Tom Cruise, with his Scientology background, is not the right person for this.
German Defense Ministry Spokesperson Harald Kammerbauer, June 2007.[41]
In June 2007, prior to production, a German Defence Ministry spokesperson said that filming of Valkyrie would not be allowed at the country's military sites if protagonist Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was portrayed by Tom Cruise, due to the actor's adherence to Scientology, which is regarded as a dangerous cult by the German authorities. The spokesperson further indicated that the ministry had not at that time received official filming requests from Valkyrie's producers.[57] Colonel Stauffenberg's eldest child, retired Bundeswehr general Berthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, also voiced concerns over Cruise's portrayal of his father, saying that he would not oppose the film's production, but hoped that Cruise would drop the role. "I fear that only terrible kitsch will come out of the project. It's bound to be rubbish," he said. "Cruise should keep his hands off my father."[58] Later in the month, the ministry reversed its stance and welcomed production of Valkyrie.
The initial controversy reportedly stemmed from German member of parliament Antje Blumenthal, an authority on cults for the Christian Democratic Union and well-known opponent of Scientology, who had claimed that the German Defense Minister had assured her that the film would not be shot in the country.[59] In addition, Cruise's affiliation with Scientology was also criticized by junior politicians such as Rudolf Köberle, the state secretary for interior issues in the state of Baden-Württemberg.[60] Thomas Gandow, a spokesperson for the German Protestant Church, said Cruise's involvement in the film would "have the same propaganda advantages for Scientology as the 1936 Olympics had for the Nazis" and compared the actor to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.[61]



Some of the family have spoken out because they don't think it will do the story justice and others don't think the casting is ideal, but I totally disagree, especially after I met Tom and saw how he is approaching the role with such professionalism. I think most of the family are curious to see the finished film.
Philipp von Schulthess, grandson of Colonel von Stauffenberg, September 2007.[62]
The film subsequently found local support in Germany. Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck saw that Cruise's involvement would promote awareness of a neglected story,[30] and veteran German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl also gave his support to the production.[37] A grandson of Colonel von Stauffenberg, who appeared in the film as an assistant, hailed Cruise's professionalism and indicated that most of his family were curious to see the finished product.[62] In September 2007, when the Defense Ministry initially denied permission for filming at the Bendlerblock memorial, support for the film came in from German newspaper columnists and filmmakers, including director Wolfgang Petersen[31] and Frank Schirrmacher, journalist and co-publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Schirrmacher visited the set and agreed that the film would advance global awareness of the German Resistance. Ultimately granting access to the Bendlerblock after reviewing the script, the Defense Ministry said it showed that "barbarism didn't triumph but led to the founding of a democratic Germany". Ursula Caberta, who is in charge of a German government office which monitors Scientology, was disappointed in the ministry's decision, saying, "Tom Cruise [is] a figurehead of an anti-constitutional organization, and he should be treated that way."[41]
A spokesperson for Scientology in Berlin, Sabine Weber, said in August 2007 that she was "shocked" by German politicians' criticisms, adding that it was a "call to discrimination" against someone based on their religious beliefs.[63] In the same month, Cruise suggested to his critics that they see the film before denouncing it.[64] In October 2007, fellow Valkyrie actor Kenneth Branagh said that the issue had been "largely exaggerated" and that the German official who initially incited the complaints contacted the production one week into filming to apologize, after reading the script and realizing he had misinterpreted the film's plot.[39]
In November 2007, the head of the German Resistance Memorial Centre warned against any potential "myth formation" around von Stauffenberg as a result of the film, urging that any understanding of the Colonel must also be informed by the fact that he had been loyal to the Nazi cause for most of his military career.[65] In the same month Cruise was given a Bambi courage award, presented by German media company Hubert Burda Media, "for tackling a story that had never been covered by Hollywood before".[66]
Marketing[edit]
Valkyrie was intended to be a high-profile film that would jump-start United Artists, the host studio partly owned by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner.[51] Pressure was placed on Valkyrie to do well since an earlier United Artists film featuring Cruise, Lions for Lambs, performed poorly in the box office, and the studio's planned production of Oliver Stone's Pinkville was canceled.[67] The film changed release dates multiple times.[51] It was originally slated to be released on August 8, 2008,[68] then moved up earlier to June 27, 2008.[69] The film was then held off to October 3, 2008 to avoid competition from WALL-E and Wanted,[70] and to enable the late filming of the North African battle sequence.[28] The October date was also originally chosen to increase the film's chances of awards success.[71] In April 2008, the release date was pushed back to February 13, 2009, with the studio citing the early fall schedule as too crowded with Academy Award prospects.[72] Valkyrie would have taken advantage of the lucrative President's Day weekend, after The Wolfman and The Pink Panther 2 were moved from this date.[73]
In July 2008, United Artists president of worldwide marketing Dennis Rice was replaced by Michael Vollman, who was tasked to develop a marketing strategy for the "troubled" Valkyrie,[74] which had been "battered by constant media sniping".[75] Under Vollman, by August 2008,[76] the release date was changed to December 26, 2008 with reports citing commercial reasons for the move after a successful test screening.[77] (The film was ultimately released on Christmas Day, December 25, 2008.)[78] The release date was before the end of December, which "crucially" helped the film with a home distribution deal with the subscription channel Showtime.[28] In the same month of August, Paula Wagner left her position with the studio during the film's post-production.[79] The changing release date for Valkyrie drew criticism about the viability of United Artists, and the studio aimed to combat the criticism leading up to the film's eventual release.[72] In addition, the first theatrical trailer, released early in 2008, received "mixed buzz" over Tom Cruise's portraying von Stauffenberg with an American accent.[80] The trade paper Variety described the trailer as "dour and ... like it was selling a talky stage play with a cast of old British actors".[81] Images of Tom Cruise as Colonel von Stauffenberg that surfaced during filming were widely ridiculed.[51] Terry Press, a marketing consultant with the studio, said that Valkyrie had been wrongly labeled as "the Tom Cruise eye-patch movie".[76]
As the December release date approached, United Artists launched a campaign to reform public perception of the film, downplaying the role of Tom Cruise as a German war hero and instead pitching Valkyrie as "a character-driven suspense thriller".[51] The new campaign also played up the reputation of director Bryan Singer, who had directed the thrillers The Usual Suspects (1995) and Apt Pupil (1998).[76] Terry Press urged foregoing an awards campaign for the film; Cruise agreed with the consultant, while Singer was disappointed about the decision.[28] Instead, the studio focused on audience appeal in a competitive time frame in late December.[51] A second theatrical trailer and a new poster were unveiled in October 2008 by United Artists to renew Valkyrie's viability with audiences and accolades. The poster was designed to have flashy graphics and to emulate the posters from the war films The Great Escape (1963) and The Dirty Dozen (1967) in having a team as a central visual.[81] The team element was based on market research from the studio's focus groups who indicated that they liked Cruise as "a character leading a group of people toward solving a problem".[76] The new trailer accentuated action, and was widely considered an improvement over the first trailer. An internal MGM memo reported the reception of the trailer by online communities to be "significantly favorable" compared to the previous trailer.[81] The studio sought two demographic quadrants: males over 35 years old as well as younger males.[28] Since United Artists reported that the film cost $75 million to make and that $60 million was spent on marketing, the studio faced high financial stakes. The film also tested the determination of its distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the mettle of Cruise as a superstar.[51]
Release[edit]
Theatrical run[edit]
Prior to Valkyrie's December 2008 release, concern was raised about how the film would be received in the holiday season due to its Nazi subject matter, along with related films The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Reader, Defiance and Good. Advertising Age wrote during the economic crisis of 2008, "The depressing state of the economy and an alarmingly low level of understanding of the Holocaust among American youth point to a tough road for such serious fare."[82]
Valkyrie opened on Christmas Day, December 25, 2008, in 2,711 theaters in the United States and Canada. The film grossed an estimated $8.5 million for the opening day.[83] In the four day holiday weekend, Valkyrie grossed an estimated $30 million, ranking fourth at the box office with $7,942 per theater.[84] Pamela McClintock of Variety cited the weekend performance as "a victory for United Artists and MGM";[85] Gitesh Pandya of Rotten Tomatoes said the haul represented a "big hit" for the studio. Studio research revealed that audiences averaged 55% male and 66% over 25.[84] Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers, said that the weekend gross "totally robs the nay-sayers of their ability to deem it a flop", believing that Cruise's comic performance in the previous summer's Tropic Thunder helped audiences embrace the star again. Dergarabedian also ascribed the better-than-expected performance to the studio's marketing of Valkyrie as a thriller film.[86] Since Cruise was collecting a salary of $20 million against 20% of the backend (revenue gathered after the completion of a film) and MGM/UA investment was capped at $60 million, United Artists sold the film to several foreign territories to make money back.[28]
The European premiere was held at the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin on January 20, 2009.[87] Valkyrie commercially opened in over a dozen territories outside the United States and Canada on the weekend of January 23, 2009,[88][89] including a premiere in Germany on January 22.[90] The film ranked first in the international box office, grossing over $13 million. It placed first in Germany, Australia, and the Netherlands and placed second in the United Kingdom, Austria and South Korea. Valkyrie's highest-grossing territory was Germany, where it earned $3.7 million from 689 locations, averaging $5,311 per screen.[89] The German opening was considered "a chart-topping yet unspectacular start", barely edging out Twilight, which opened three weeks before.[91] BBC News reported that the premiere of the film has renewed the topic of the German Resistance among the German populace.[92]
The film opened in 13 additional territories on the weekend of January 30, including Russia and Spain.[88] With 3,600 screenings in 26 markets, the film grossed $18.6 million to maintain its top placement at the international box office for a second weekend in a row. Spain was its highest-grossing territory with $2.8 million, followed by Germany with $2.3 million, the United Kingdom with $2 million, and $1.9 million in Italy.[93] As of April 13, 2009, the film has grossed $83,079,000 in the United States and Canada and an estimated $117,198,951 in other territories for a worldwide gross of $200,276,784.[3]
Anti-Scientology protests[edit]

On the crowded sidewalk of a street at night, a person in a red jacket attempts to hold up a sign, and a woman in a black jacket and wearing a gray scarf and hat reaches up to grab the sign.

 A masked protester with a sign saying "Tom Cruise Cult Hero"[94] at the London premiere is confronted by an unidentified woman who attempts to forcibly wrestle the sign from her grasp.
When Valkyrie premiered in New York City on December 15, 2008, it was shown in a private screening room at the Time Warner Center, rather than at a Lincoln Square theater.[95][96][97] The venue was chosen in part to minimize the exposure to Scientology protesters gathered at the Time Warner Center.[98][99] Protesters also appeared at the December 18 Los Angeles screening, where Cruise entered through a tunnel.[99] While the US "red carpet" was held in private, Cruise interacted with fans in South Korea and Europe. There were small anti-Scientology protests at the European premiere in Berlin, where Cruise signed one protester's Guy Fawkes mask.[100][101] Anti-Scientology protests also occurred at the London premiere,[94][102] and Amsterdam[103] where Scientologists in the crowd engaged the protesters.[94][103] The NTV news report about the January 26 Moscow premiere noted that journalists had to sign a document promising not to ask questions about Scientology, and their questions would be censored; to this, the reporter remarked, "You can't help getting reminded of those historic times depicted in Operation Valkyrie."[104]
In Germany, authorities and politicians expressed concern that if the film was successful, it would boost Scientology in the country. German politician Michael Brand encouraged his deputies to boycott Valkyrie, saying that Scientology pursued "totalitarian goals". Germany's Agency for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), which monitors the presence of Scientology in the country, expressed concern about the film's impact. An anonymous BfV official said, "These Scientologists have two goals in Germany... to get their message to children, and make their organization respectable. The film does both: it has put a top Scientologist at the center of a national debate about German history."[105]
In January 2009, Cruise appeared in the highly popular German-Swiss-Austrian TV show, Wetten, dass. Cruise had already left the show, when German comedian Michael Mittermeier said: "In an interview, Tom Cruise claimed that he would have killed Hitler, too. To me, it would be sufficient if he had killed the Führer of Scientology."[106] Prior to the show, members of the Christian Democratic Junge Union protested against the broadcaster for being uncritical about Scientology.[107]
Home media[edit]
Valkyrie was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 19, 2009, in three configurations: a single DVD edition, a two-DVD set, and a Blu-ray version.[108] Valkyrie opened at #2 on the DVD sales chart, selling 844,264 units translating to revenue of $14,816,833. According to the latest figures, 1,631,011 units have been sold, bringing in $27,042,657 in revenue.[109]
Reception[edit]
The movie website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 61% of critics gave the film positive write-ups based upon a sample of 191, with an average score of 6.1/10.[110] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 56 based on 36 reviews.[111] In the United States, the film received mixed reviews from critics.[111][112] In Germany, there were different reports about how Valkyrie was received. The New York Times wrote, "It has been greeted with a measured and hospitable reception in Germany, where it was once viewed with suspicion."[112] The trade paper Variety reported that despite the controversy over Cruise's ties to Scientology, "[I]nitial reviews have been positive, with many observers now hailing Cruise and predicting the pic will even improve the country’s image abroad."[113] Der Spiegel said that the film and its supporting actors were praised, but that Cruise was panned by German critics for "a surprisingly low-key performance that fails to convey the charisma with which Stauffenberg inspired fellow plotters".[114] The AFP also said that the German critics "savaged Tom Cruise's portrayal" of von Stauffenberg, yet "relished a homegrown hero getting the Hollywood treatment."[115]
American critics[edit]
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times thought that Cruise gave "a fine, typically energetic performance in a film that requires nothing more of him than a profile and vigor" but that von Stauffenberg was too complex a character to adequately portray in a film designed as a thriller. Dargis also wrote of the director's excess, "Though Mr. Singer’s old-fashioned movie habits, his attention to the gloss, gleam and glamour of the image, can be agreeably pleasurable, he tends to gild every lily," citing as an example the "spooky music" and "low camera angles" in the meeting between Hitler and von Stauffenberg.[116] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times also found Cruise "perfectly satisfactory, if not electrifying, in the leading role", believing that the portrayal fit the "veterans of officer rank" that would not panic under fire; Ebert recognizes that "Singer... works heroically to introduce us to the major figures in the plot, to tell them apart, to explain their roles and to suggest their differences."[117]
Ty Burr of The Boston Globe described the film: "It's a smooth, compelling, almost suspenseful... and slightly hollow Hollywood period piece—a World War II action-drama in which an intriguing (but not electrifying) star performance is buttressed by stellar support." Burr analyzed Cruise's performance: "...his Claus von Stauffenberg is an honorable conception that's ultimately too thin to fully rise up from the pages of history. This story deserves to be told, but for reasons best known to himself, the star has latched onto a strictly Nietzschean interpretation that he rides into the ground."[118] Claudia Puig of USA Today thought of Cruise as "unconvincing and stiff as the disenchanted" von Stauffenberg. She felt that the film started slowly and that "even during scenes of intense action, the visually slick production is only minimally engrossing". She concluded of the film's overall pace, "The action becomes more engrossing during the film's second half, but one expects more depth and nuance, given its pedigree."[119] Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote, "[Cruise] carries the movie, although, once you dig beneath the uniform, there isn’t much for him to get a handle on; the fascination with Stauffenberg resides in what he did, not in who he was." Lane thought that there was "too much" character acting of the British veteran actors and felt of the casting of Nighy, Stamp, and Wilkinson, "These men are meant to be battle-toughened Nazi officers, but what we get is an array of discreetly amusing studies in mild neurosis."[120]
Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote that Valkyrie "has visual splendor galore, but is a cold work lacking in the requisite tension and suspense". McCarthy considered Cruise as "a bit stiff but still adequate" as von Stauffenberg. The critic believed that McQuarrie's script was well-carpentered but felt that compressing and streamlining the events to make a known failed plot more thrilling lacked a "sufficient sizzle into the dialogue or individuality into the characters". McCarthy missed "many of the interesting personal and political nuances pertaining to these men" that were not detailed. He thought that the production design by Lilly Kilvert and Patrick Lumb stood out, that Newton Thomas Sigel's cinematography had a "restrained elegance", and that John Ottman performed well in his dual role as editor and composer.[121]
German critics[edit]
Despite differences over the quality of the film, critics were in agreement that the film had drawn attention to von Stauffenberg's cause.[87] It was applauded "both as a history lesson and as a film". Tobias Kniebe of the Süddeutsche Zeitung described the film as "maybe not the masterpiece we might have dreamed of ... but not much less", a sentiment shared by many German critics.[90] The public-service German television channel ZDF called Valkyrie "neither scandalously bad nor the event of the century... Neither is it the action thriller we feared, but it is a well-made and serious film." The newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported that any fear that the "myth of the German resistance would be put through a Hollywood filter has turned out to be wrong and prejudicial."[112]
Other critics thought that Tom Cruise did not "make the grade" as a German war hero. The film critic for Der Tagesspiegel wrote, "[Cruise's] image as an actor has been finally ruined by Valkyrie... [the film] doesn't dare to be popcorn cinema and at the same time lacks any conceptual brilliance." Hanns-Georg Rodek of Die Welt reported of Cruise's performance, "He comes over best as an American hero, someone who battles for respect with aggression and energy. But Stauffenberg was a German hero, with aristocratic bearing, and Cruise cannot carry that off."[122] The Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said Cruise's performance was "credible", and reserved praise for the authenticity of the dubbed German-language version of the film over the original.[87]
Awards and honors[edit]
Valkyrie was nominated by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for seven Saturn Awards: Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film, Best Director for Bryan Singer, Best Actor for Tom Cruise, Best Supporting Actor for Bill Nighy, Best Supporting Actress for Carice van Houten, Best Music for John Ottman and Best Costume for Joanna Johnston.[123]
Historical accuracy[edit]
The Gestapo investigated the July 20 plot thoroughly, so filmmakers had access to much documentation as they integrated the historical account with "Hollywood factors" in producing Valkyrie.[29] Peter Hoffmann, professor of history at McGill University and a leading authority on the German Resistance, was a consultant for the filmmakers. Hoffmann spoke of the film's accuracy, "[Valkyrie] gives a fundamentally accurate portrait of Stauffenberg and the conspirators. There are details which must be counted as liberties. But, fundamentally, the film is decent, respectful and represents the spirit of the conspiracy."[124] The Scotsman reported of the film's accuracy, "Valkyrie... sticks pretty closely to the story of the failed conspiracy to topple the Nazi regime... it implies that the plot came closer to success than it really did. But the basic facts are all present and correct."[125]
While von Stauffenberg listens to Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" in the film, in reality the colonel hated Wagner. In addition, von Stauffenberg's elder brother Berthold was also omitted from the film.[126] Bryan Singer purposely left out some of von Stauffenberg's "macho" moments in writing the character, such as the colonel's refusal of morphine to avoid addiction. He explained the removals, "There were things I actually left out because I knew people would think we were making them up... imagine Tom Cruise saying 'No morphine!' People would think it's a contrivance."[127] In the film, von Haeften steps out in front of von Stauffenberg at the firing range, but when filmmakers attempted to reconstruct the scene based on eyewitness testimony and photographs, they discovered that the shots that killed von Haeften would also have killed von Stauffenberg, who was actually shot shortly after. Another alteration was to the portrayal of Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, played in the film by Kevin McNally. Goerdeler was written in the film to be antagonistic, dramatically representing the friction and conflict that existed within the conspiracy, though filmmakers considered him a "much more moral character" in reality.[15]
One significant historical alternation, made to avoid confusion with the audience and also to "set the stage" at the Wolf's Lair, was changing the location of the first aborted assassination attempt to kill Hitler on July 11.[128] Historically, Stauffenberg first attempted to use his briefcase bomb at Berchtesgaden; in the film, this attempt is set inside Hitler's concrete bunker at the Wolf's Lair while the Berchtesgaden affair is downgraded to a brief scene in which Hitler meets with Stauffenberg to approve a revised plan for Operation Valkyrie (in reality, the Valkyrie updates occurred over a period of several weeks at meetings between Hitler and General Olbricht).[129] Producer Christopher McQuarrie later stated that the shift of the first assassination attempt to the Wolf's Lair was in order to show the audience the inside of the concrete command bunker, with the intent being to emphasize that Hitler most certainly would have been killed had the July 20th attempt not been moved to the outdoor conference hut.[130]
British novelist Justin Cartwright, who wrote the book The Song Before It Is Sung about one of the plot's conspirators, wrote, "The film is true to most of the facts of the plot, but fails to convey any sense of the catastrophic moral and political vortex into which Germans were being drawn." Though not depicted, but briefly mentioned in the film, von Stauffenberg was persuaded to become involved in the plot by his uncle, Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband, who was disenchanted with the Nazis. The film also did not explore von Stauffenberg's philosophy and background, which Cartwright felt fit the German tradition of Dichter und Helden ("poets and heroes"). Cartwright described how von Stauffenberg was an appropriate leader for the plot: "He was the man who unmistakably wore the mantle of a near-mystic German past, a warrior Germany, a noble Germany, a poetic Germany, a Germany of myth and longing." The novelist felt that Cruise's portrayal was more akin to one as a "troublesome cop". Cartwright also noted that the film did not raise the question of what kind of Germany von Stauffenberg had in mind if the plot succeeded.[131]
See also[edit]
Films and television based on the 20 July plot of 1944
List of American films of 2008


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 Flag of the United States.svgUnited States portal
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External links[edit]
Official website
Valkyrie at the Internet Movie Database
Valkyrie at Rotten Tomatoes
Valkyrie at Metacritic
Valkyrie at Box Office Mojo


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Categories: 2008 films
English-language films
American war films
German films
2000s war films
American political thriller films
World War II films based on actual events
Films about the German Resistance
Adolf Hitler in fiction
Films set in the 1940s
Films set in Berlin
Films set in Germany
Films directed by Bryan Singer
Screenplays by Christopher McQuarrie
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
United Artists films
Babelsberg Studio films
Works about coups d'état








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