Stroke of Genius, or Fowl Play?

In a previous post I wrote that I would be doing encapsulated reviews of the films likely to be nominated for Academy Awards (and at the same time offer my picks for the Free-Lancer awards). Thus far I have managed to cover two films, but trust me, the rest may or may not be coming down the pike. One film I did not mention in that post however, was Valkyrie, and not for the reasons you might think. Valkyrie does not suck, and is in fact one of the better movies released last year; much better than Doubt, Revolutionary Road, Last Chance Harvey, or Milk.
Yet, those aforementioned (mostly politically motivated) releases will no doubt garner recognition from the academy in some form, if the Globes are to be any indication. Yet Valkyrie will go unmentioned, almost exclusively (I believe) due to overwhelming prejudice against Cruise and against the cut and dry morality (good vs. evil) of the films central storyline. For a good review on that topic check THIS ONE over at Big Hollywood written up by California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.

I personally enjoyed Valkyrie immensely when I saw it opening weekend (one of the very few films I have paid money to see since Australia) and thought that Tom Cruise did a fine job as von Stauffenberg. A lot of (ignorant) people in the media and elsewhere whined about his accent (or lack thereof) and how they couldn't get over Tom Cruise's real life persona enough to buy the character. Well, those people likely went into the film wanting to hate it, because Cruise threw himself into the performance and only twice did I even pause to think "hey, Tom Cruise" instead of "hey, von Stauffenberg." The accent/language issue was handled beautifully in the film by starting us out in German with subtitles then slowly moving into English as if to imply that we (the viewers) are hearing German as though it were our own language. To enforce this, all the print in the film is left written in the German language and not subtitled. I consider this an inspired decision, but I love Enemy at the Gates and don't have the slightest problem with all of the Russians characters speaking British accented English.

The plot of the film is of course known (unless you don't know your history) but director Singer manages to keep the tension building throughout the entire film regardless with skillful editing that reinforces a superb script by writer McQuarrie. Also, the historical detail in the film is exquisite to the point that very little CG seems to have been used to include all the aircraft seen in the film being real (likely replicas, but real nevertheless.) However, the real treat of the film was the cast that surrounds Cruise--all British character actors of renown to include Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, and Tom Wilkinson (who won the Golden globe this year for best supporting actor in a TV miniseries for his portrayal of Ben Franklin in "John Adams".) At least three of the actors appeared together in the 2nd and 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean films (Cutner, Davy Jones, and Gibbs)....as a side note.

Anyway, all that was jibber-jabber was my way of leading up to this awesome Donald Duck cartoon from 1943 (h/t Cracked.)

That song is totally stuck in my head now. You're welcome.