Valkyrie-Excellent!

[all1knew]

If you were assigned to a General staff you were allowed to wear the stripe.

and I believe they were more of a pink in color and not red to signify staff.

William Kramer

[Michael Root]

That I don't know, maybe. Knapp in the book Soldat gives a pretty good description of wearing the stripe during the last days in Berlin. My copy is about 1000 miles away at the moment so I can't confirm the color.

I remember reading a few accounts of surrendering junior officers getting treated like Generals for a short period cause of the stripe... probably more than a few Russians were dissapointed to find they only had a Hauptmann at the end of their bayonet.

[Michael Root]

One thing I have to ask... why the Cruise bashing? I actually think he's an entertaining actor. He's done about 30+ movies and I can only think of about 3 that were true clunkers. That's a pretty good track record.

And the height thing?

A FYI most actors are small, not everyone is Clint Eastwood.
Hoffman, Pacino, Deniro, Gibson, Swayze, etc... none of these guys are big.
Too short to play a German officer in WW2, huh? How tall do you think some of these guys were? Look at Rommel he was like 5'6"... not to mention his wife was butt ugly.

Not the greatest movie, but OK nonetheless. And yes it wasn't as great as The Untergang but that's what makes Untergang so special.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rbj1alnmWc

[Albrecht]

One thing I have to ask... why the Cruise bashing?

Many people are critical of this man because he allegedly belongs to this organization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology

[SurvivingPanzer]

I thought it was okay, not to own but a rental.

[DonC]

and I believe they were more of a pink in color and not red to signify staff.

William Kramer

General Staff officers wore carmne waffenfarbe (carminesrot) General Officers wore bright red (hochrot), the same as Artillery. Subtle difference, but they got thaat right in the film.

Don

Don

[Darrell]

One thing I have to ask... why the Cruise bashing? I actually think he's an entertaining actor. He's done about 30+ movies and I can only think of about 3 that were true clunkers. That's a pretty good track record.

And the height thing?

A FYI most actors are small, not everyone is Clint Eastwood.
Hoffman, Pacino, Deniro, Gibson, Swayze, etc... none of these guys are big.
Too short to play a German officer in WW2, huh? How tall do you think some of these guys were? Look at Rommel he was like 5'6"... not to mention his wife was butt ugly.

Not the greatest movie, but OK nonetheless. And yes it wasn't as great as The Untergang but that's what makes Untergang so special.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rbj1alnmWc

Michael ... many never even saw the movie yet have pre-judged notions and expectations. You can lead a horse to water ... but ....

[djpool]

I'm a Tom Cruise fan myself. For Hollywood profits are the bottom line. So hes still a big draw.

Worldwide profits for Valkyrie$200,276,784

Untergang/Downfall
Worldwide: $92,180,910

US profits were only:

$5,509,040


WR Jim


[quote=Michael Root;3341537]One thing I have to ask... why the Cruise bashing? I actually think he's an entertaining actor. He's done about 30+ movies and I can only think of about 3 that were true clunkers. That's a pretty good track record.

[Darrell]

I'm a Tom Cruise fan myself. For Hollywood profits are the bottom line. So hes still a big draw.

Worldwide profits for Valkyrie$200,276,784

Untergang/Downfall
Worldwide: $92,180,910

US profits were only:

$5,509,040


WR Jim

Yeah but Jim ... it's those damn Amerikaners who make typical American Englisch rubbish .. what do they know?

[djpool]

Untergang and Das Boot are both excellent movies. Unfortunately having U.S. movies about Germany produced in their original language isn't going to happen. Its not profitable. Das Boot only made $11.5 Million here in the US.

As far as rubbish goes:Saving Private Ryan, Cross of Iron and Band of Brothers aren't too shabby. Of course Saving Pvt Ryan was a monster hit as far as profits go: $481,840,909 Slightly over half from forign sales. I'm fairly certain that it was dubbed into many languages including German. Still a great movie in any language.

Hollywood makes movies that appeal to the General public most of whom don't have a clue about uniforms etc. They care about the story and actors. Valkyrie was a good movie that both my wife and I could sit down together and watch.

WR Jim

Yeah but Jim ... it's those damn Amerikaners who make typical American Englisch rubbish .. what do they know?

[Rudolph]

Valkyrie

For those who did not read my the below excerpt of my Interview:

I am quoting from my interview on http://www.feldgrau.com/interview6.html

CHAPTER V - "Let Stauffenberg Pass"
On July 20, 1944, when the conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler at his military headquarters in Rastenburg, East Prussia, I happened to be in a Feld Lazarett (military field hospital) recuperating from my wounds. Most of my information comes from a friend of mine, Heinz Hühnemann, who was stationed at one of the security gates when the explosion occurred. His post was in Sperrkreis I (Security Ring I), which was closer to Hitler's than the one we normally guarded (Sperrkreis II). He told me that at about one o'clock in the afternoon a terrific explosion went off and a general alarm was sounded. When the explosion occurred, as when anything unexplained happened, there was a general alarm and an immediate doubling of the guard. Since there were only two guard shifts, that meant that all of the guards were placed on duty. Not long after that, Colonel Count von Stauffenberg [17] approached his gate in a vehicle. Of course, as was the custom, Hühnemann saluted the Colonel and inquired what his business might be. Moreover, the alert was in progress, the Corporal had to say, "I am sorry, Herr Oberst (Colonel), Headquarters is closed. There is a general alarm!" "I know that," Stauffenberg replied, "but I have important business in Berlin, you must let me pass!" [18] Rejecting his plea, in a military manner of course, Hühnemann stated, "I am not allowed to let anyone pass - those are the orders from High Command." Stauffenberg, he said, was very nervous and again demanded that he be allowed to pass, but
Hühnemann simply replied, "In order to let you pass, Herr Oberst, I have to call the Kommandantur
(Commandant's Office) for permission." "Do so!", Stauffenberg said. The corporal lifted the receiver in his guard hut and was instantly connected to the Kommandantur. He told the party on the other end of the line that Herr Oberst von Stauffenberg requested permission to pass through his gate. There was a momentary silence and then an instruction for the corporal to hold on. After an additional ten or twenty seconds elapsed, the voice came back on the line and said, "Let Colonel von Stauffenberg pass!" At the time, the talk at the Führer Headquarters was that the Kommandantur quickly decided that Stauffenberg's hasty departure might be somehow connected with the recent explosion. If this was the case, it was reasoned, it would be wiser to allow Stauffenberg to proceed unimpeded to his final destination and, in all probability, lead the to the conspirators. Anyway, the Colonel left and drove to the underground headquarters airfield. The saying those days was that the Gestapo and other security elements of the Reich were instructed to follow Stauffenberg wherever he went and to report his every action. Apparently, Stauffenberg was authorized to depart in his aircraft and, supposedly, reconnaissance planes followed him to Berlin. Therefore, since all of Stauffenberg's movements were known to the Abwehrdienst (counterespionage service), it was Stauffenberg's fault for the breakup of the conspiracy. [19]

Following his failed attempt to assassinate "our" Führer, Stauffenberg was considered a no-good traitor. We viewed him as not only a coward (as he departed the scene right away and gave thus his co-conspirators away), but also one who tried to give away our government and nation. We were under the impression that his immediate flight for Berlin was based on greed - he wanted a piece of the pie before the pie was consumed! To us, it was rather stupid of Stauffenberg to leave the Führer Hauptquartier (Headquarters) right after the explosion occurred. Had he really been sincere about his motives, then why didn't he stay? Had he risked the danger of remaining behind, he could have become either a live hero in the new Germany or a true martyr for the resistance movement. In the end, however, he was labeled as a dead, evil failure.

On the other hand, Major Remer was painted as the man who had saved Germany from certain destruction.
Major Otto Ernst Remer was the Commander of the Berlin Guard Battalion "Großdeutschland" during the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt, and also we were not aware what exactly he had done, we were told that he had kept his "cool" head, and deserved his promotion to Colonel for he was "the only one in the whole Army who prevented a catastrophy in Germany!" [20] Thus, we thought highly of him and were proud when, later, he became the commander of our Kampfgruppe - the one which bore his name. What's more, we always bragged about having the youngest General (to which he was promoted soon after the Battle of the Bulge) in the German Army leading us - he was, I believe, but 29 years old at the time.

After this attempt was made on Hitler's life, Reichsführer S.S. Heinrich Himmler [21], who always felt that his troops should be the sole guardians of the Führer, called in his men and assigned one of them to each one of us.
Himmler had always contended that his S.S. troops were more patriotic, better trained and more reliable than we; but Hitler invariably refused Himmler's proposal. When Hitler learned about Himmler's action, the story goes that he called the Reichsführer to his bunker, flew into one of his rages, and ordered the S.S. troops withdrawn immediately. According to our Company Commander, Hitler was supposed to have said, "I do not want your troops, I can depend on my boys!"

Rudi (Rudolph) Salvermoser

[lieproo]

VERY INTERESTING HISTORY RODOLPH , THANKS FOR POSTING

[all1knew]

Rudolph,

Thank you for posting that.

William Kramer

[colt45s]

SAW THE PHONE AT A FLEA mKT. FOR $500, DIDN;T KNOW WHAT IT WAS TILL i SAW IT ON THE DESK, they did research!

[sdesember]

I'd recommend getting the German dubbed version, the DVD, which will come out in about a week's time (20.07). I saw it in German and it's not that bad as I'd think the German dubbed version, at least, gave some authenticity to the movie rather than to the one in English.