Friday, December 26, 2008

"Nazis. I hate these guys."


So it's a Gimbel family tradition to see a movie on Christmas Eve. I love this tradition, so Edward and I have kept this as our tradition. However this year we were not interested in any movies that were out on Christmas Eve, so we opted for Boxing Day instead. Our movie for this year was Valkyrie. First off, this movie was fantastic. Edward and I were sobbing at the end, and grateful for a darkened movie theatre so we could emerge with dignity. There are so many reasons I love this film. The cinematography was excellent. The casting was fantastic. But what I was incredibly impressed with was the heightened intensity of the climax. The movie's subject was the July 20, 1944 plot of German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and set up of a cout de' etat. As an audience, whether anyone knew of this plot or not, we all know the outcome of this movie. Even so, whilst watching this movie I was overly anxious, knowing that the plotters would likely be killed and subconsciously hoping that the movie would turn into fiction so their plot could succeed. I was pleased to find after some post-movie online research (i.e. Wickipedia), that the only historical inaccuracy was that the original plan for Operation Valkyrie was proposed by General Friedrich Olbricht and not Colonel Count Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise). I strongly recommend this movie to everyone. It's about time a "mainstream" movie came out featuring Nazis not as the cardboard cutouts you might see in an Indiana Jones movie. At least Indiana Jones pumps up the campyness and cartoonifies it's characters, being very self-aware, whereas other WWII era movies show all the Nazi soldiers as heartless evil-doers bent on the destruction of humankind. I think we Americans forget that there was a lot of Nazi resistance and our one dimensional portrayal of the German's at the time is shortsighted.

Hooray for this movie. Go see it.

10 comments:

Vodka Mom said...

my daughter saw Marley and Me and LOVED IT. I want to see MILK. (ANd now, Valkyrie)

Merry, merry Christmas!!!

a gimbel said...

yet another good tom cruise movie. I thought you two said those didn't exist

Karl

Meridth McKean Gimbel said...

Merry Christmas to you too Vodka Mom :)

Karl- I actually like Tom Cruise. I think he's a very good actor whom people don't like because he jumped on Oprah's coach that one time and for the fact that he's a crazy scientologist. But really all celebrities are crazy or jerks. There's something in the water I think.

andrea gale said...

can't wait to see this one. note to self: do not wear mascara. I dig your movie reviews.

Meridth McKean Gimbel said...

Sweet! :)

emilychristine said...

There is a great History Channel special Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler, you should check it out! If you liked Wiki-ing about it, I think you'd really like the special, it was very good- made me want to see the Cruise version!

Meridth McKean Gimbel said...

Thanks Emily! I will definitely check that out. I heart the History Channel in a big way!

Will said...

I was meaning to tell you to say Congrats to your little sis for me.
I have the same issue with the stereotyping of Russians.
Anyway, I'm sure that Tom Cruise' character WOULD have presented the idea, but he wasn't done saying his name & introducing himself .. .

Jeanette said...

Helloooooo! Hey guys we looked you up because we were having a conversation the other day about the people we feel guilty for having lost touch with. Jeremy said "Ed" and I was like: well we should remedy this situation because Jeremy found your blog once a year and a half ago and we did have that 5 minute conversation on cell phones a year ago on new years' eve. Which wasn't a long enough conversation bytheway to mention we were expecting #2. (He's 10 months old now.) We'd love to catch up. Jeremy is starting his last semester of his masters--hooray! Then we are headed back west. We'd love to catch up. jeremy_t_merrill at yahoo. Love you guys. PS Meridth we loved looking at your work on your other blog!

Meridth McKean Gimbel said...

My how negligent I am.

Will- Thanks on behalf of Adri and I agree!

Jeanette- I just about wet myself when I saw your picture. I checked out your blog and you guys are cute cute cute. We pretty much feel the same...guilty. We are so happy you found us!!