The movie
Valkyrie is due for release in 2008. It's about the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. The main character is
Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the leading players in the plot. (The plot also included Dietrich Bonhoeffer*.) Who gets to play the martyred Von Stauffenberg? That chump Tom Cruise. Yes, you read that correctly. How is one to take the movie seriously with him in the lead?
This reminds me of a story I heard in my theology of Bonhoeffer class.
Dr. Burtness , a Bonhoeffer scholar, told us that David Soul, yes that one from
Starsky & Hutch, wanted to make a movie about Bonhoeffer. And who did he want to play Bonhoeffer? Himself. Oh good lord.
*
Bonhoeffer was already in prison in
July 1944. After the failed plot the Nazis discovered his involvement. He ended up at Flossenbuerg where he was executed, by Hitler’s specific order, on April 9, 1945. It was just three weeks before Flossenbuerg was liberated. His brother and two brothers-in-law were also executed for their parts in the conspiracy.
5 comments:
To me Tom Cruise isn't an actor and I can hardly imagine that this project is going to work. But I will be happy if he prooves the opposite.
Your comment made me laugh! I have a very cynical view of this project. If I saw the movie I bet I'd keeping thinking, "There's that media whore that was jumping on Oprah's couch!"
Hey, thanks for the short history lesson. I always wanted to know more about Bonhoeffer's involvement in the plot. Hope the movie does justice, despite your disdain for Cruise in the lead role.
To be fair, David Soul has a long connection to the WWII-era Confessing Church and has a vaguely Bonhoeffer-like visage. He's certainly no Joseph Fiennes as Martin Luther...
Just for the sake of accuracy, Flossenburg was liberated 2 weeks (not 3) after Bonhoeffer's execution. The date was April 23. Participating in the liberation was the 90th Infantry Division of the US Third Army. That includes my father. The 90th Division flag is on display at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.
Post a Comment