Operation Valkyrie - The Stauffenberg Assassination
Operation Valkyrie - The Stauffenberg Assassination (original title: Valkyrie ; former working title: Rubicon ) is a movie made from 2007 to 2008 by director Bryan Singer and co-producer Christopher McQuarrie .
action
The story of a military resistance based on historical facts tells the unsuccessful attempt to kill Adolf Hitler , the leader of National Socialist Germany , and to carry out a coup d'état for moral and political reasons .
The film shows the development of the Wehrmacht officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg from being a soldier at the front in Africa to his execution after the failed assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 and other co-conspirators against Adolf Hitler. The motives of the conspirators, who mostly come from the officer corps, are shown as well as the difficulties involved in the practical implementation of the planned assassination attempt and the subsequent " Operation Valkyrie ".
At the end of the film you can read:
“The July 20 assassination attempt was the last of 15 known attacks aimed at killing Adolf Hitler. […] Nine months later, in embattled Berlin, Hitler committed suicide. […] Nina von Stauffenberg and her children survived the war. She died on April 2, 2006. "
Then the inscription on the memorial will be shown at the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin:
"You do not bear the shame, you defended yourselves, you gave the great ever-waking sign of repentance, sacrificing your hot life for freedom, justice and honor."
background
production
The film goes back to an idea by Christopher McQuarrie, who visited the Bendler Block and the German Resistance Memorial Center while visiting Berlin and was immediately fascinated by this story - largely unknown in the United States. Bryan Singer, with whom McQuarrie had previously directed The Usual Suspects , took on the direction. The script was written by Christopher McQuarrie with Nathan Alexander . The film company United Artists was responsible for executing the production . Originally only a small financial outlay was planned, but the entry of Tom Cruise as the lead actor, who was also a co-owner of United Artists, resulted in greater financial opportunities. This also made more extensive filming possible, for example several weeks of outdoor shoots and recordings abroad. The film was shot almost exclusively in Germany, with the complex and action-packed opening sequence set in Tunisia only being re-shot after the shooting in California. The total costs amount to more than 60 million euros. The German Film Funding Fund (DFFF) contributed 4.8 million euros to the total costs. The film is distributed by MGM in the USA and by 20th Century Fox in all other countries .
Filming
In Germany, the film was shot in Brandenburg , in the Babelsberg film studio and in Berlin on original locations. Hitler's Führerbunker , Wolfsschanze , was recreated in the Brandenburg Schenkenländchen . The former NVA airfield near Klein Köris / Löpten , where the filming took place in July 2007, served as the landing site for Wolfsschanze . In Berlin, on the grounds of Tempelhof Airport , the exhibition halls at the radio tower , at the main customs office in Berlin, at the US headquarters in Berlin-Dahlem in the Clayalle and at original locations such as the Bendlerblock , the place where Count von Stauffenberg and three of his co-conspirators were shot in the first Minutes of July 21, 1944, shot.
The permission to film one day and three night scenes in the Bendler Block, which today houses the German Resistance Memorial , was initially refused by the responsible Ministry of Finance in June 2007 because the Ministry of Defense , which uses the building today, is threatening the dignity of the place saw. In September 2007, however , the shooting in the Bendlerblock was approved subject to conditions. Some scenes were shot in Beelitz-Heilstätten . Count von Stauffenberg's grandson, the Swiss actor Philipp von Schulthess , plays in a small role Fabian von Schlabrendorff , Henning von Tresckow's adjutant.
After completing the main shooting in Germany, Bryan Singer decided to produce a scene that initially did not appear in the script, namely the Allied air raid in Tunisia , in which Stauffenberg was severely injured in 1943. This scene, which is supposed to prove that Stauffenberg was against Hitler before he was wounded and not out of bitterness afterwards, was filmed in early 2008 in Cougar Buttes in Southern California's Lucerne Valley . This is also the opening scene of the film. A similar scene was staged in the German film Stauffenberg from 2004.
Incidents
In contrast to Singer's predecessor Superman Returns , which was shot exclusively digitally (with a Panavision Genesis camera ), the cameraman Newton Thomas Sigel worked with analogue film material for Walküre . Due to a laboratory breakdown in the Arnold & Richter Cine Technik copy plant , a large part of the scenes filmed in the Bendlerblock from September 21 to 23 was lost. The film scenes were filmed on October 13th and 14th. For this, the film set had to be restored, which took twice as long as when it was first set up. As a result of this incident, the stepping-in insurance company Fireman's Fund has sued Arri for reimbursement of 300,000 euros.
While filming at the Federal Ministry of Finance on Wilhelmstrasse and Leipziger Strasse, extras fell from a truck onto the street. The injured hired a Berlin law firm to represent their rights vis-à-vis production.
In the Californian desert, a tank started moving uncontrollably and threatened to run over the sound and camera equipment. However, it could be stopped in time.
Public reception
The film was already in the focus of media and politics at the beginning of the shooting on the German original locations, since the main actor Tom Cruise is an avowed and high-ranking member (" Operating Thetan VII") of the controversial Scientology sect. In addition, initially there was fear of an inappropriate interpretation of the assassination attempt by Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944. United Artists themselves announced the film as a thriller - a mixture of Mission: Impossible and Broken Chains . The eldest son of Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg, Berthold Graf von Stauffenberg , retired major general. D., spoke out against the casting of his father by Cruise. The department of sectarian and ideological issues of the Protestant Church in Berlin-Brandenburg compared the propaganda effect of the cast of Count Schenk von Stauffenberg with the Scientologist Cruise with the far-reaching propaganda effect of the Olympic Games in Germany in 1936 for the positive self-portrayal of the Hitler dictatorship. The casting of the second main role of the resistance fighter Albrecht von Mertz with the highly respected actor Christian Berkel , son of a Jew, created positive connotations in the audience reception.
music
Among other things, the following titles are used in the film:
- They'll remember you . The song was adapted from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Wanderer's Night Song from 1776. In the version used in the film, it was written by John Ottman and Lior Rosner and sung by the Rundfunkchor Berlin . Sylke Schwab acted as the mezzo-soprano, the conductor was Günter Joseck.
- The Ride of the Valkyries was written by Richard Wagner and played by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the film, the record with the ride of the Valkyries is running during the bombing of the Stauffenberg country estate.
- The German-Austrian composer Peter Kreuder and the German lyricist Günther Schwenn wrote for a night of bliss .
- The distant melody was written and played by Lior Rosner.
- The Badenweiler March was written by Georg Fürst in 1914 . The march is considered Adolf Hitler's favorite march . During the time of National Socialism , the piece was used as its performance march; The original title Badonviller March was therefore replaced by the German sounding Badenweiler March .
synchronization
The German dubbing was based on a dubbing book by Alexander Löwe and directed by Frank Schaff on behalf of Interopa Film GmbH in Berlin .
Backdrops and props
Some of the backdrops and furnishings, which were strictly based on historical models, including the replica of the meeting barracks at the Wolfsschanze headquarters, were acquired by the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden in 2007 . They were shown to the public during the film's theatrical release - albeit only to a small extent, as the museum was rebuilt and expanded.
premiere
After the premiere was postponed several times, the world premiere took place on December 15, 2008 in New York. The film was launched in US cinemas on December 25, 2008. The European cinema premiere was on January 20, 2009 in Berlin. The film was first shown on German free TV on November 1, 2011 at 8:15 p.m. on ZDF .
DVD release
The Blu-ray and DVD versions of the film have been available in stores since July 20, 2009. This was the 65th anniversary of the attack.
Gross profit
As of April 2009, worldwide box office earnings from theatrical productions are over 200 million US dollars (over 139 million euros ). Of this amount, over 83 million US dollars (over 57 million euros) in Germany, over 11 million US dollars (just under 8 million euros), in Austria over 1.3 million US dollars (over 930,000 euros) and grossed over 1.2 million US dollars (over 850,000 euros) in Switzerland.
Historical inaccuracies
- The historian Sven Felix Kellerhoff criticized the fact that the key scene of the film - the signing of the Valkyrie plan by Hitler at the Berghof - was invented. He also described the fickle portrayal of the co-conspirators General Friedrich Olbricht and General Erich Fellgiebel as "defamation".
- The yellow ID cards worn by the conspirators in the film never existed.
- The Bluff Stauffenberg leaving the Wolf's Lair was incorrect historically: In the film Stauffenberg pretends to call Keitel while actually using Leonhardt of Möllendorff, the adjutant of the "Wolf's Lair" -Kommandanten, telephoned.
- The conflict between Colonel-General Friedrich Fromm and Major Otto Ernst Remer , portrayed in the film, is also fictitious , in which Remer demands from Fromm to hand over the assassins alive to him.
- One of the numerous other inaccuracies is that soldiers perform the Hitler salute, which Colonel General Friedrich Fromm calls in a scene in the film by Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg . In fact, it was only introduced into the Wehrmacht after the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 . Until then, the military salute was greeted.
- In the film, Stauffenberg starts in a Ju 52 at Tempelhof Airport . In fact, he took off in a He 111 at the Rangsdorf airfield .
- The failed assassination attempt on Hitler von Smolensk on April 13, 1943 is misrepresented: In the film, Major General Henning von Tresckow and his adjutant Fabian von Schlabrendorff prepare two Cointreau bottles as bombs, Tresckow hands them over to the staff officer Colonel Heinz Brandt , who is with Hitler belonged to. Since the bomb did not explode on Hitler's return flight, Tresckow flies to Berlin the next day to take the package back. In Schlabrendorff's memoirs there is no mention of two Cointreau bottles. Rather, they were rounded British mines that were packaged in such a way that they gave the impression that they were two bottles. Nor was it Tresckow, but Schlabrendorff himself who handed the package over to Brandt and picked it up again there. (Fabian von Schlabrendorff: Officers against Hitler . Zurich 1951, pp. 120–122.) This account is also supported by the Tresckow biographer Bodo Scheurig ( Henning von Tresckow. Eine Biographie . Frankfurt / M. 1980, pp. 144 f.).
- Tresckow was still a colonel in April 1943 and not yet a major general.
- Claus von Stauffenberg is depicted as a colonel throughout the film, but was only promoted to colonel on July 1, 1944, which is why inaccuracies occur here (for example, he is shown as a colonel during his time in Africa (1943), although he was then a lieutenant colonel).
- During a briefing, the conspirators refer to Paris and Prague as an occupied city as well as Vienna . This is wrong because the former state of Austria, divided into Gaue , was administratively part of the German Reich and was therefore not an occupied territory. In addition, it cannot be assumed that, in the event of a successful takeover, the conspirators had in mind to reverse the annexation of Austria . Carl Friedrich Goerdeler , who was to be the new Chancellor of the Reich , not only had Austria and the Sudeten regions in the Reich in mind, but also the return of Alsace-Lorraine and North Schleswig to it.
criticism
The film received mixed to positive reviews. The film review portal Rotten Tomatoes gives 62% positive reviews for the film and it has a metascore of 56 out of 100 at Metacritic .
“Judging by what the film was accused of and accused of, as well as how thoroughly everything could have gone wrong, one can almost speak of a triumph. In any case, it is the most exciting, most realistic and most complex feature film about July 20th - even if the bar was certainly not unattainably high after three German attempts from 1955 to 2004. "
“He manages to make you sit breathlessly on the edge of a chair for two hours, even though you know it was unsuccessful. Operation Valkyrie is - it is hard to believe - the most exciting thriller of recent times. Gray people stand in gray décor and talk a lot - and yet this is great cinema. "
“[...] many circumstances are unspeakably wrong, some examples: Stauffenberg was not the substitute for General Oster, he did not work out the Valkyrie plans and did not get Adolf Hitler's signed approval for the Valkyrie plans. Nor did he let Hitler instruct him in the mystification of the Germanic hero myth of the Valkyries. […] Finally, the Goerdeler image of the film is hurtful and irresponsible, just as the characterization of General Olbricht is downright degrading. [...] Trying to put something right in a thriller would be petty, downright high school, because of course a feature film can exaggerate some things in a fantastic way. He is allowed to concentrate different people - historians should then [...] not characterize the film as 'true and accurate' and thus claim an authenticity that not even the filmmakers claim. "
“Of course, 'Operation Valkyrie' does not stop at telling the story of July 20th as a Western in Nazi uniforms. It offers a political model: power is not a state, but a machine. That's why the Nazis are neither demons nor caricatures here: They are machinists of a power machine that urgently needs to be shut down. "
"Bryan Singer and his excellent authors tell a thriller that was exciting over long stretches and never so Americanized, so trivialized that the German alarm would have to be called out."
Awards
- Bambi 2007
- November 29, 2007 Düsseldorf: Courage Bambi for Tom Cruise - Frank Schirrmacher laudatory speech
- Saturn Award 2008
- Nomination in the category Best Action / Adventure / Thriller Film for Operation Walküre - The Stauffenberg Assassination
- Nomination for Best Actor for Tom Cruise
- Nomination for Best Costume for Joanna Johnston
- Nomination for Best Director for Bryan Singer
- Nomination in the category Best Music for John Ottman
- Nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Bill Nighy
- Nomination in the category Best Supporting Actress for Carice van Houten
The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.
literature
- Drehli Robnik: Aesthetics of History and Affect Politics . Stauffenberg and July 20 in the film 1948–2008. Turia + Kant, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-85132-557-7 .
Web links
- Valkyrie - The Stauffenberg assassination in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Valkyrie - The Stauffenberg assassination at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Operation Walküre - The Stauffenberg assassination at crew united
- Thriller “Operation Walküre” - a story for beginners , review of the film by Spiegel Online
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Operation Walküre - The Stauffenberg assassination . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2009 (PDF; test number: 116 612 K).
- ^ Age rating for Operation Walküre - The Stauffenberg Assassination . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ Mike Sampson: Valkyrie. ( Memento from December 20, 2008 on the Internet Archive ) The Joblo Movie Network, December 25, 2008.
- ↑ a b Press release by the Federal Government: Minister of State for Culture Bernd Neumann: Film "Operation Walküre" documents the growing importance of Germany as a film location , January 19, 2009.
- ^ Franziska Von Mutius: Berlin bestselling author plays Göring in the Cruise film. Die Welt , August 8, 2007.
- ↑ Jürgen Heimann: Flying Star. Donaukurier , January 19, 2009.
- ^ History - Teupitz Waters (TpG). Waterways and Shipping Office Berlin, July 25, 2008.
- ^ Andreas Conrad: Operation Walküre: Stauffenbergs Berlin. Der Tagesspiegel , December 17, 2008.
- ↑ Minister Jung opposes Tom Cruise. ( Memento of October 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Netzeitung , June 22, 2007.
- ↑ Michael Sauerbier: Tom Cruise is allowed to shoot in the Bendlerblock. Image online , September 13, 2007.
- ↑ rbb -online: Cruise is allowed to shoot in the Bendlerblock , September 14, 2007.
- ↑ tagesschau.de, message from September 14, 2007, 1:44 p.m. (tagesschau.de archive)
- ↑ Bryan Singer's Valkyrie to Shoot in Southern California, IESB, February 1, 2008 ( Memento January 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Jan Schulz-Ojala: Film breakdown in the Bendlerblock: Why Tom Cruise has to re-shoot. Der Tagesspiegel , October 5, 2007.
- ↑ Was the Tom Cruise film "Walküre" sabotaged? , Die Welt, November 29, 2011.
- ↑ Extras demand millions from Tom Cruise , Der Tagesspiegel , August 25, 2008.
- ↑ Bryan Singer - Did Hitler's Ghost Cause Tank Trouble On Valkyrie Set? Contactmusic, December 15, 2008.
- ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung : Newspaper article , August 9, 2007.
- ↑ Quote from Berthold Graf von Stauffenberg: “Scientology is a totalitarian ideology. It is simply macabre when an avowed Scientologist like Mr. Cruise is supposed to play the victim of a totalitarian regime. ”Quoted in Andrew Morton: Tom Cruise. Droemer, Munich 2008, pp. 408-409.
- ↑ Thomas Gandow, sect representative of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg: "This film will have the same propaganda effect for Scientology as the 1936 Olympic Games did for the Nazis." Quoted in Andrew Morton: Tom Cruise. Droemer, Munich 2008, p. 409.
- ^ Operation Valkyrie - The Stauffenberg assassination in the German synchronous files . Retrieved January 20, 2010.
- ↑ Tom Cruise and "Valkyrie" are ready for a museum. Welt Online, November 12, 2007.
- ^ Filmdienst.de , and ZDF
- ↑ Valkyrie. Box Office Mojo.
- ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: "Operation Walküre" is poorly invented. Die Welt, January 23, 2009.
- ↑ Tagesspiegel: From Rangsdorf to Wolfsschanze
- ↑ Operation Valkyrie - The Stauffenberg assassination attempt at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ↑ Operation Walküre - The Stauffenberg Assassination at Metacritic (English)
- ↑ Tobias Kniebe: Tom talks German (film review). Süddeutsche Online, December 15, 2008. Accessed December 16, 2008.
- ↑ Michael Althen: Arrest the usual suspect! (Movie review). FAZ Online, January 21, 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2009.
- ↑ Peter Steinbach : Historian Steinbach: The unspeakable mistakes in the film "Operation Valkyrie". Hamburger Abendblatt , January 22, 2009. Retrieved January 23, 2009.
- ^ Georg Seeßlen : Walkürenritt, Western Style. taz , January 21, 2009.
- ^ Henryk Goldberg : Operation Valkyrie: This One. Thüringer Allgemeine , March 2009, on: Getidan - Authors on Art and Life.
- ↑ Frank Schirrmacher: A man of courage. In: FAZ.net . November 30, 2007, accessed October 13, 2018 .