Valkyrie(s)
Jul. 20th, 2007 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakToday's the anniversary of the July 20th plot to kill Hitler in 1944. these days talked about again because Bryan Singer cast Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg in his film about the event, Valkyrie, which he has just started to shoot and promptly got an illustration of the complete loathing Scientology is regarded with here in Germany. As one of Stauffenberg's sons put, casting a prominent propagandist for a totalitatarian brainwashing sect as someone who lost his life trying to get rid of Hitler is in bad taste. (This being said, I thought the refusal to grant permission to film at some of the locations was a bad idea as well, because it made gave Scientology the chance to paint themselves as discriminated martyrs again.) Anyway, this is of course not the first fictional presentation of the July 20th plot, called "Operation Valkyrie" by the conspirators; there have been several movies here in Germany, which usually get summed up, a little unkindly, under "worthy". There has always been some unease about the conspirators, though the reasons have changed. Early on, directly after the war, there was still some "treason or no treason, sworn oath versus tyrannicide" debate; these days, it's more "why did they wait that long?" and "several of them, including Stauffenberg, were pro-Hitler in 1933, so how can we honor them as heroes?"
(Things are a little bit different in my hometown, Bamberg, due to the very personal connection of the Stauffenberg family to it; they're basically locals, Stauffenberg's widow Nina died only last year in nearby Kirchlauter at age 92. So, around here, people feel protective of Stauffenberg if anything, and it's going to be interesting to see what happens when/if there is some location shooting as well.)
My favourite fictional use of July 20th, 1944, isn't any of the films, and it's not Stauffenberg-centric; it's the Highlander episode, Valkyrie, from that show's fifth (and probably best) season. You have to suspend some disbelief as Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod speaks truly atrocious German in the flashbacks, as well as one key character having a gun when she really shouldn't (one of the reasons why Stauffenberg was the only one who could carry out the assassination attempt by 1944 was that you did not get to be armed Hitler's presence), but never mind that, because the story is that good, layered and touching. Our immortal of the week is Ingrid, played by Musea Vandemar, who was involved in the July 20th plot, had a chance to kill Hitler, couldn't bring herself to fire, and hasn't forgiven herself ever since. Her method of atonment is killing racist demagogues of rising influence where she finds them. It's a variation of the old "would you have killed Hitler if you had met him in the 1920s and had known..." question, with the added problem that Ingrid, of course, can't know the people she kills will ever rise to genocidal level; she can only judge them by what the damage she sees already.
But does she have the right to judge them at all? That's of course the question the hero of the show asks, who is friends with Ingrid and stuck with the judging gig himself when it comes to other immortals going on a rampage. Valkyrie is a story without villains (Hitler and various racist demagogues aside), because Ingrid, in flashback and present, is drawn sympathetically, you understand her motivation... but you also understand Duncan's point that what she does is still murder, and as he tries to persuade her to stop throughout the episode, you hope he succeeds. The detective pursuing Ingrid is another great one-shot character, melancholy and wise, both understanding Ingrid and determined to put her behind bars (not knowing what she is, of course). Last but not least, this is an episode with everyone's favourite HL guest star, Methos, in it, full of cynical one liners as ever. (What baffles me is that Methos little speech near the end is sometimes cited as his enlightening black-and-white seeing Duncan about shades of grey; actually, Methos isn't presenting a shades of grey position at all in this episode, but is as black and white as they come. He very pragmatically tells Duncan to kill Ingrid from the get go; it's Duncan who tries everything not to.) What finally makes a difference is Ingrid being willing to blow up a hall full of people along with her current target, but again, there is an ambiguity about her action; you can argue that she's arrived at a point where she wants to stop but doesn't know how to anymore, so manouevres Duncan in a position to be her executioner. The scene where she dies, with both of them having tears in their eyes, is one of the saddest in the show.
In the end, you're left with the memory of a discussion Ingrid and Duncan have in one of the flashbacks, talking about the Valkyrie plot, with Ingrid confessing she never killed a mortal before, and pointing out Hitler won't be the only one who dies if the bomb explodes as planned; so will everyone else currently in the bunker, and do they, too, deserve to die? And the juxtaposition to Ingrid decades later, asking why hate mongerers like character X deserve to live. It's to the show's credit that it doesn't try to give a pat answer to either question.
(Things are a little bit different in my hometown, Bamberg, due to the very personal connection of the Stauffenberg family to it; they're basically locals, Stauffenberg's widow Nina died only last year in nearby Kirchlauter at age 92. So, around here, people feel protective of Stauffenberg if anything, and it's going to be interesting to see what happens when/if there is some location shooting as well.)
My favourite fictional use of July 20th, 1944, isn't any of the films, and it's not Stauffenberg-centric; it's the Highlander episode, Valkyrie, from that show's fifth (and probably best) season. You have to suspend some disbelief as Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod speaks truly atrocious German in the flashbacks, as well as one key character having a gun when she really shouldn't (one of the reasons why Stauffenberg was the only one who could carry out the assassination attempt by 1944 was that you did not get to be armed Hitler's presence), but never mind that, because the story is that good, layered and touching. Our immortal of the week is Ingrid, played by Musea Vandemar, who was involved in the July 20th plot, had a chance to kill Hitler, couldn't bring herself to fire, and hasn't forgiven herself ever since. Her method of atonment is killing racist demagogues of rising influence where she finds them. It's a variation of the old "would you have killed Hitler if you had met him in the 1920s and had known..." question, with the added problem that Ingrid, of course, can't know the people she kills will ever rise to genocidal level; she can only judge them by what the damage she sees already.
But does she have the right to judge them at all? That's of course the question the hero of the show asks, who is friends with Ingrid and stuck with the judging gig himself when it comes to other immortals going on a rampage. Valkyrie is a story without villains (Hitler and various racist demagogues aside), because Ingrid, in flashback and present, is drawn sympathetically, you understand her motivation... but you also understand Duncan's point that what she does is still murder, and as he tries to persuade her to stop throughout the episode, you hope he succeeds. The detective pursuing Ingrid is another great one-shot character, melancholy and wise, both understanding Ingrid and determined to put her behind bars (not knowing what she is, of course). Last but not least, this is an episode with everyone's favourite HL guest star, Methos, in it, full of cynical one liners as ever. (What baffles me is that Methos little speech near the end is sometimes cited as his enlightening black-and-white seeing Duncan about shades of grey; actually, Methos isn't presenting a shades of grey position at all in this episode, but is as black and white as they come. He very pragmatically tells Duncan to kill Ingrid from the get go; it's Duncan who tries everything not to.) What finally makes a difference is Ingrid being willing to blow up a hall full of people along with her current target, but again, there is an ambiguity about her action; you can argue that she's arrived at a point where she wants to stop but doesn't know how to anymore, so manouevres Duncan in a position to be her executioner. The scene where she dies, with both of them having tears in their eyes, is one of the saddest in the show.
In the end, you're left with the memory of a discussion Ingrid and Duncan have in one of the flashbacks, talking about the Valkyrie plot, with Ingrid confessing she never killed a mortal before, and pointing out Hitler won't be the only one who dies if the bomb explodes as planned; so will everyone else currently in the bunker, and do they, too, deserve to die? And the juxtaposition to Ingrid decades later, asking why hate mongerers like character X deserve to live. It's to the show's credit that it doesn't try to give a pat answer to either question.
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 02:36 pm (UTC)Leaving aside the entire political aspect of Tom Cruise's membership in the
brainwashing cultScientology movement - I just ... WHAT? TOM CRUISE AS STAUFFENBERG? WHAT? (My choice would be Sebastian Koch, and if they wanted a non-German actor, I can think of a hundred offhand that would be better than TOM EFFING CRUISE!)no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 03:38 pm (UTC)You're not the only one to have that idea. :-)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388437/
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 03:47 pm (UTC)Mind you, I can see why Cruise wanted the part - he really needs a quality project to become even semi-serious again as an actor after all the crap he pulled in recent years - but why Singer cast him, I really don't know...
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 03:04 pm (UTC)Tom Cruise playing Stauffenberg is just ludicrous. I mean, yes of course freedom of religion, but I have the freedom to avoid anything he's in. Which is irritating, because I want to see Valkyrie, and I want to avoid sending any money to Tom Cruise.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 04:52 pm (UTC)I've been thinking of you this week, as I read a thriller set in Munich and Garmisch in the 1980s. In which our beautiful American heroine is an art historian who works for the director of the National Museum in Munich, Dr. Anton Schmidt, a jolly old man who seems much more harmless than he is. When someone sends them an unmarked envelope containing a black and white picture of Frau Schliemann wearing the gold of Troy, it first seems like a crank. Until she realizes that the woman is not Frau Schliemann, but another woman with modern dress and hair, wearing the gold. Enter a dashing English jewel thief, a mysterious scholar from East Berlin (who does not turn out to be the villain), and a cast of competing art historians ready to tear Bavaria apart on the trail of the gold. Needless to say, I kept thinking of you! I suspect you would fare far better in a ski chase than I!
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 05:57 pm (UTC)Sounds like an interesting thriller - what's it called?
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 03:52 pm (UTC)What baffles me is that Methos little speech near the end is sometimes cited as his enlightening black-and-white seeing Duncan about shades of grey;
Of all the places to tag Duncan with that label... this episode really, truly isn't it. Though I always remained a bit baffled by that scene as a whole; I never saw Methos as the voice of wisdom to stupid/naive Duncan, but here he seemed exceptionally full of it, and yet his take on the situation was left standing pretty much unopposed.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 05:01 pm (UTC)I've always interpreted it as Methos telling Duncan that he will have to live with both the choice he's made about what to do and with any possible consequences.
Shame about Tom Cruise. He can be a good actor but I now can't stand him and won't willingly go and see any film he's in. Bizarre casting choice in any event.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 06:48 pm (UTC)My theory is that both Duncan and Methos want to assume that other Immortals are basically like them, at least until proven otherwise. So Duncan assumes that others have a strong moral core and are trying to do the right thing, and Methos assumes that they're all sociopathic killers.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 08:03 pm (UTC)This makes complete sense.
*adopts theory*
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 06:53 pm (UTC)You always bring the neat international perspective. That wasn't meant to sound hopelessly patronising or Canada-centric. I realise it DID sound that way, but I'm finding it difficult to phrase it in a non-condescending way. Possibly because I haven't slept in 30 hours (really).
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 08:05 pm (UTC)