edited by Jonathan Doyle

Mafioso (The Criterion Collection, 3.18.2008) Nino Badalamenti is a supervisor in a car manufacturing plant who hasn't taken a vacation in over two years. On his way out the door to visit his beloved childhood hometown of Sicily -- with his blonde wife and daughters -- Nino is handed a package by his boss and asked to deliver it to a powerful and influential Sicilian gangster named Don Vincenzo. Once in Sicily, Nino has a hoot seeing friends and family, but his wife has trouble fitting in and is unfairly dismissed as a snob by Nino's family. Even more worrisome, Nino finds himself entangled in an intricate web of secret mafioso dealings and is eventually sent on an unexpectedly... elaborate errand. (continued)

Upcoming

July 2

Hancock

July 3

The Whackness

July 4

Diminished Capacity

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson

Holding Trevor

Kabluey

We are Together

July 9

Full Battle Rattle

July 11

A Man Named Pearl

August

Eight Miles High

Garden Party

Harold

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Meet Dave

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

The Stone Angel

July 18

A Very British Gangster

Before I Forget

The Dark Knight

The Doorman

Felon

Lou Reed's Berlin

Transsiberian

July 22

Two Tickets to Paradise

July 23

Boy A

Cruise, Germany, Singer

email this story
read comments (17)
post a comment

Two particular-interest quotes are contained in Michael Ceiply and Mark Landler's N.Y. Times piece (Saturday, 6.30) about the standoff/ contretemps between Tom Cruise and German military officials over their opposition to Cruise playing Col. Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, the German Army officer who led a plot to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944, in Bryan Singer's soon-to-shoot Valkyrie.

Quote #1 is from German journalist Josef Joffe: "Stauffenberg for Germans is like Jefferson and Lincoln, motherhood, and apple pie all rolled into one. Germany is a country of established churches, and so Scientology is viewed as a cult and, worse, totalitarian and exploitative. A professing Scientologist in the role of Stauffenberg is like casting Judas as Jesus. It is secular blasphemy."

Quote #2 is Singer saying "frankly, I was not aware of the issue of Scientology here in Germany." What's the point of saying this, even if it's true? It makes Singer look clueless, which is he's never been and never will be. Official German animus towards Scientology has been a fairly well-reported position for several years. Here's a January 2002 BBC report stating that Cruise "has been lobbying officials in Germany over the country's strong stance against Scientology." It's not credible of Singer or any purportedly aware industry person to claim ignorance of this issue, particularly one who's about to make a film with Cruise in Germany.

Weekend numbers<< previous | next >>No replacable battery?

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 30, 2007 at 03:51 PM

comment #1

cjKennedy says ...

Just curious, what would you have him say? Is he supposed to take a stand one way or the other?

Posted by cjKennedy at June 30, 2007 05:01 PM

comment #2

BurmaShave says ...

He really is kind of a dead ringer. I have a lot of admiration for Von Stauffenberg, but he was by no means purely righteous and perfect. Incompetence on every level played a part in hsi downfall and the failure of the plot. Still, I'm glad he's getting a major movie to honor him. We've had to put up with Brits and others playing our leaders for years, it's just show business. Was there this much belly-aching about Darkman playing Oskar Schindler?

Posted by BurmaShave at June 30, 2007 05:07 PM

comment #3

erniesouchak says ...

Expecting anybody to buy Tom Cruise as anything other than Tom Cruise is absurd, but putting him in a period film as a German is even worse. Think of what an anachronism he was in Last Samurai!

Posted by erniesouchak at June 30, 2007 06:01 PM

comment #4

BurmaShave says ...

Which was one of his finest performances. Have you even heard of a Movie Star before? I don't know why so many people are so down on THE LAST SAMURAI. In fact, I don't think you are, it's just fashionable.

Besides the accent, is there something particularly ethnic about a high class German? Why exactly will Cruise be so hard to believe?

Posted by BurmaShave at June 30, 2007 06:30 PM

comment #5

erniesouchak says ...

Cruise is the consummate "go team!" high-school quarterback. This is why "Jerry Maguire" is his only recent credible performance, and why casting him in anything period does a disservice to the material. Bryan Singer can talk about the verisimilitude he's striving for all he wants; it will go right out the window as soon Cruise enters the frame.

Posted by erniesouchak at June 30, 2007 07:52 PM

comment #6

AH says ...

I disagree. Cruise is a pretty decent actor and could be great in this movie. I thought he was very good in "Interview with a Vampire" and that was a period piece.

Posted by AH at June 30, 2007 07:57 PM

comment #7

Mgmax says ...

I'd be fine with The Last Samurai if his character wasn't cloaked with a Magic Bullet-Repelling Shroud.

Maybe instead of playing von Stauffenberg, he should option The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril.

Posted by Mgmax at June 30, 2007 08:24 PM

comment #8

Nate West says ...

When I look at von Stauffenberg, I see Matthew Broderick.

Posted by Nate West at June 30, 2007 11:17 PM

comment #9

BurmaShave says ...

That's ridiculous. Broderick has actually succeeded in killing.

Posted by BurmaShave at July 1, 2007 12:38 AM

comment #10

americanrat says ...

von Stauffenberg and the rest were motivated a lot more by a desire to see a Reich and a German military that was run effectively and to solidify the Western Front gains the Germans had made than they were motivated by rights of man etc. They weren't much better than the Nazis. It's probably best the plan failed because there's evidence the British would have taken a peace offer and let them keep most of Western Europe, or at least return to the pre-Sept. 1939 borders with no prosecution for their crimes. von Staffenberg and his co-plotters were Nazi filth, just like Hitler and his claque.

Posted by americanrat at July 1, 2007 07:40 AM

comment #11

Mgmax says ...

"von Staffenberg and his co-plotters were Nazi filth, just like Hitler and his claque."

You're right up to that point. Von Stauffenberg et al. were German militarists, like Hitler, but after serving the Nazis for many years they turned on them. Anyway, hardly heroes, unless you belong to a religious cult that teaches that the end and personal power always justify any means.

Posted by Mgmax at July 1, 2007 08:48 AM

comment #12

foxnewsisfake says ...

"That's ridiculous. Broderick has actually succeeded in killing."

Awesome.

Posted by foxnewsisfake at July 1, 2007 10:07 AM

comment #13

lionsfan says ...

According to many historians, most recently Joachim Fest in "Plotting Hitler's Death," most Germans born from 1945 on have little or no familiarity with either the German resistance to Hitler and Naziism in general or with the plot of 20 July. Fest even noted in his book that an annual commemoration held in the courtyard of the very circa-WWII building where Cruise was denied filming privileges in fact has always attracted only a very few "mourners" and survivors of the era. (And obviously less and less of them as the years pass.)

By contrast, Frederick Taylor in his book about the bombing of Dresden on Good Friday in 1945 notes that the annual commemoration there of the events always draws a good crowd, including several hundred of Germany's home-grown neo-Nazis. Perhaps Cruise's movie is thus a "Martha-like" good thing, then, lest any of us forget. Particularly the Germans.

The German resistance, especially the July 20 plotters, were a mixed bag: Christian socialists, Catholic mystics, disillusioned generals, etc. But whatever the wide variety of their personal beliefs and the apparent haziness of their plans if Stauffenberg's briefcase bomb in fact had successfully killed its prime target, it does Mgmax and others like him no credit to disparage them as he does above. They all consciously risked their lives, and most lost them. That they were even able to come together for the attempt to kill Hitler and seize power is to their eternal credit. They remain brave men and women who are too little remembered in a modern Germany where today former members of the Baader-Meinhof gang can even rise to become cabinet ministers in the national government.

Posted by lionsfan at July 1, 2007 05:24 PM

comment #14

LookingGlassSelf says ...

"They remain brave men and women who are too little remembered in a modern Germany where today former members of the Baader-Meinhof gang can even rise to become cabinet ministers in the national government."

Just curious, which former members of the Baader-Meinhof gang rose to become cabinet ministers in Germany's national government? Not sure this is true...

Posted by LookingGlassSelf at July 2, 2007 04:12 AM

comment #15

lionsfan says ...

It is true, LookingGlassSelf. Joschka Fischer was a minister in the last government, then wound up on a fellowship or something at Princeton. He's still here, I believe. Such is the way of former terrorists who have to make a living once they become "adults," I suppose.

Posted by lionsfan at July 2, 2007 11:19 AM

comment #16

LookingGlassSelf says ...

Sorry for my late reply, lionsfan, but you cannot be serious. Joschka Fischer, Germany's former foreign minister, has never ever been a member of the Baader-Meinhof group. At first I thought that in your post you were alluding to former Minister of the Interior, Otto Schily, who actually worked as an defense counsel for members of the Baader-Meinhof group back in the 1970s, but who wasn't a member of the group itself. But Fischer? No, that's definitely not true... Your unfounded claim certainly wrongs Fischer.

Posted by LookingGlassSelf at July 3, 2007 01:01 PM

comment #17

david says ...

Hollywood Elsewhere

Upcoming

Cruise, Germany, Singer

cjKennedy says ...

BurmaShave says ...

erniesouchak says ...

BurmaShave says ...

erniesouchak says ...

AH says ...

Mgmax says ...

Nate West says ...

BurmaShave says ...

americanrat says ...

Mgmax says ...

foxnewsisfake says ...

lionsfan says ...

LookingGlassSelf says ...

lionsfan says ...

LookingGlassSelf says ...

david says ...