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In a 12.27 interview with CulturePulp's Mike Russell, Valkyrie screenwriter Chris McQuarrie tries to pooh-pooh the matter of the film's inconsistent, all-over-the-map accents. McQuarrie reports that he, director Bryan Singer and star-producer Tom Cruise "talked about it" and decided against having the characters speak German-accented English because it would sound distracting.
(l. to r.) Valkyrie director Bryan Singer, screenwriter Chris McQuarrie, star-producer Tom Cruise.
The solution, says McQuarrie, was everyone saying "why can't we all just be human beings in this movie and not worry about that?" And have everyone speak English in different accents? Cruise using his American-hardball inflections, the British actors speaking like Oxford University Nazis, and the German actors applying their Teutonic strudel sauce? I don't think so, Chris!
All the Valkyrie boys needed to do was decide on a uniform accent system and stick to it -- simple. Even the much-ridiculed Marlon Brando/Young Lions/German-accent English route would have been okay if everyone had simply done this and stuck to it. As Russell points out, there's no pure approach if you're shooting an English-language version of a story about native Germans. You're obviously cheating from the get-go. The important thing is to have everyone cheat in the same way.
I listed some examples in a Valykrie riff that I ran on 12.16. In Vicente Amorim's Good , set in Germany of the 1930s and early '40s, everyone speaks in educated British accents -- and it works fine. In Edward Dmytryk's The Young Lions (1958), the German characters all speak English in German accents -- and it's more or less okay. In Spartacus, all the elite Romans (except for John Gavin's Julius Ceasar) speak with British accents, and all the slave warriors speak Americanese. In Oliver Stone's Alexander, the Macedonian soldiers speak with Irish accents -- and it pretty much works.
But the catch-as-catch-can accents in Valkyrie are hugely distracting. And I'm not the only one who's said this. "Most of the crucial rebellious officers are played by British actors, while some of the Nazi diehards are played by Germans, which wouldn't be worth mentioning if this cacophony of accents weren't so distracting," wrote N.Y. Times critic Manohla Dargis. "Distracting" again!
Earlier in the interview McQuarrie and Russell talk about all the journalist-columnist-internet chatter about Valkyrie that happened through some of '07 and all through '08. And McQuarrie says, "What's interesting is that you're one of maybe four people who ever asked me [about the release-date changes]...no one called to get a quote from us."
Well, I tried to reach Singer (we know each other and he trusts me as far as it goes) about a Valkyrie matter, but the numbers and e-mail addresses I had didn't work, and I knew I wouldn't get this info from the turf-conscious marketing people at MGM so I let it go. I know a journalist who's friendly with McQuarrie and has his info, but when I tried to reach McQuarrie back in the Alexander days I was more or less told that he couldn't be bothered to reply.
This plus a couple of other experiences have persuaded me that McQuarrie is a guy who thinks he's awfully hot shit and that he's living on too elevated a plane to talk with journalists except when promoting a movie. Many filmmakers have a more open or trusting attitude, some are like McQuarrie and some are even less approachable.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 28, 2008 at 9:18 AM
comment #1
BurmaShave
says ...
Viggo Mortensen as Von Stauffenberg would have solved everything.
Posted by BurmaShave
at December 28, 2008 11:50 AM
comment #2
Chicago48
says ...
To Burmashave: I thought Ralph Fiennes....
Sitting through the movie, I had no problem with the actors speaking in English....what peeved me was the ENGLISH actors who were GERMANS....when did Hollywood start casting BRITISH actors as Germans?
Posted by Chicago48
at December 28, 2008 12:24 PM
comment #3
NDH
says ...
Fiennes and Mortensen don't look at all like Von Stauffenberg, whereas Cruise is a dead ringer. I may be in the minority, but I prefer it when an actor LOOKS more like the real thing, as opposed to SOUNDING more like the real thing. I had no problem with the multitude of accents, at least not enough for them to distract me from the drama of the film. In fact, the only actor who "fakes" his accent in the movie is the one who has to, and that's British actor David Bamber who plays Hitler.
Posted by NDH
at December 28, 2008 12:32 PM
comment #4
George Prager
says ...
Having everyone imitate Ricardo Montalban would have solved everything.
Posted by George Prager
at December 28, 2008 12:46 PM
comment #5
scooterzz
says ...
this sound byte might be of interest:
http://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/2008/12/18/bill-nighy-no-german-accents/
nighy says that if they were making a film set in france, they wouldn't be expected to have french accents.....and he's right...it would be a collection of pepe lepew impersonators....but, for some reason, german accents are expected (and accepted)........
Posted by scooterzz
at December 28, 2008 1:06 PM
comment #6
crsryan
says ...
I interviewed McQuarrie last week and brought this up and he wasn't shy about talking about it. Here's the relevant Q&A.
RS:I heard that you and [Valkyrie director] Bryan Singer also toyed around on set with having all these actors put on German accents and then you ended up dropping that idea.
CM:No, we never did. We discussed that very early on and we were pretty adamant about that from the beginning. We looked at films like Dr. Zhivago and Amadeus, Paths of Glory, The Sound of Music, Conspiracy, Night of the Generals, all movies that handled a similar problem by just not dealing with the accents and they feel a whole lot more grown up and more sophisticated.
Posted by crsryan
at December 28, 2008 1:13 PM
comment #7
George Prager
says ...
You're all forgetting the most important thing about this movie. It is a "suspence thriller." Just pretend that they aren't Nazis. Think of them as the creepy drug dealing Vietnam vets like the guys in the first Lethal Weapon movie and Tom Cruise is Gary Busey and Hitler is Tom Atkins, and he is one phone call away from taking a bullet (and ruining a perfectly good quart of egg nog.).
Posted by George Prager
at December 28, 2008 1:19 PM
comment #8
T. Holly
says ...
Chris has great hair! If that's Tom out of character, I'm feeling this comment by Timothy Nutmeg:
The fundamental flaw in Valkyrie which nobody is bringing up is this: Tom Cruise buys into the 'superhuman' status of Von Stauffenberg the Hero, and neglects the fact that he was a human being (an admittedly brave an intriguing one) with self-interested motives and flaws. This makes for an uninteresting film. The real kicker, though, is that Tom Cruise, through Scientology 'auditing', has 'discovered' that he is the reincarnation of Von Stauffenberg (the fictional hero, not the real human being). This fact attests both to the insanity of his religious beliefs and to Cruise's narcissistic, self-important ego. This, more than anything, is what people mean when they accuse it or being 'revisionist.' And this is precisely why the film is a failure.
Posted by T. Holly
at December 28, 2008 1:23 PM
comment #9
The Winchester
says ...
As long as it's not another K19, I'll be fine with whatever they do.
Posted by The Winchester
at December 28, 2008 1:28 PM
comment #10
George Prager
says ...
They should CGI George Maharis' face, circa 1966 onto Cruise's and do a rerelease.
Posted by George Prager
at December 28, 2008 1:32 PM
comment #11
alynch
says ...
I think accents are an overvalued aspect in film. My attitude has always been, once you decide to have them speak English, then who cares. If the film works, then the film works, regardless. It's not at all distracting watching Kirk Douglas's American accent exchange with Adolph Menjou in Paths of Glory.
Posted by alynch
at December 28, 2008 1:33 PM
comment #12
deadre
says ...
you're playing a German, you have a German accent. End of story.......
Posted by deadre
at December 28, 2008 1:51 PM
comment #13
Renfield
says ...
Don't let this whole pointless bitch-fest about the accents in the film stop you from seeing it. The whole thing has been blown completely out of proportion.
A group of friends and I went to check it out over the weekend, being aware of the accent complaints, and all walked out agreeing that, except for noticing it in the very beginning, the film quickly pulled all of us in to the point where we never thought of it again.
It is a VERY solid, tight suspense film that is, unfortunately, getting the shaft from people who can't seem to leave the baggage at the door.
Posted by Renfield
at December 28, 2008 1:59 PM
comment #14
corey3rd
says ...
Has he watched Paths of Glory with the French dub? It's a much better film when everyone sounds like they look.
Posted by corey3rd
at December 28, 2008 2:04 PM
comment #15
arturobandini2
says ...
I long for the day when all movies are shot in whatever vernacular is germane to the situation ... which will happen when Americans learn to deal with subtitles, I guess. (Slumdog Millionaire got it half right, but why have Indian street orphans speaking fluent English at all?) It's an annoying double standard that non-American actors are expected to speak English in our films, but American actors almost never speak foreign languages, even in an overseas setting or when playing other nationalities. French director Olivier Assayas is to be commended for allowing multinational dialogue to slip in and out of his movies so naturally.
Posted by arturobandini2
at December 28, 2008 2:14 PM
comment #16
actionman
says ...
could care less about the accents in a movie like this. all I care about is if it's a tightly plotted thriller, which is what the ads lead me to believe that it is. I will find out on Wednesday.
off topic, but saw Doubt today....great performances...one of the more thought provoking films of the year.
Posted by actionman
at December 28, 2008 2:45 PM
comment #17
rgmax99
says ...
Who. Gives. A. Shit?
I'm with Nighy and Paths of Glory fans on this one. And I haven't even seen the flick.
Posted by rgmax99
at December 28, 2008 3:23 PM
comment #18
BurmaShave
says ...
"deadre Author Profile Page says ...
you're playing a German, you have a German accent. End of story......."
This makes absolutely zero sense, unless they're actually speaking German.
Posted by BurmaShave
at December 28, 2008 3:48 PM
comment #19
lawnorder
says ...
I thought the film was excellent. The accents didn't bother me at all. Cruise has been unfairly maligned in the press. He gives a very solid performance and I completely bought him in the role. All the supporting actors are top notch, with props to Wilkinson and Nighy. Singer's direction is superb. He really knows his shit and how to tell a story. I was surprised that he was shooting in a 1.85 aspect ratio, though. But everything works - and a major shout-out to John Ottman's score. One of the best he's ever done.
Posted by lawnorder
at December 28, 2008 3:58 PM
comment #20
George Prager
says ...
it makes perfect sense. Say you're a German filmmaker and you're making a German language film set in New Jersey. All the characters should be speaking German with a Jersey accent.
Posted by George Prager
at December 28, 2008 4:01 PM
comment #21
adorian
says ...
Zsa Zsa Gabor's accent in Queen of Outer Space! I've heard queens from outer space, and they do not speak with THAT accent!
I'm hoping Meryl Streep will do the remake, and we'll experience true authenticity of outer space accents.
Posted by adorian
at December 28, 2008 4:14 PM
comment #22
Chicago48
says ...
Wow! From $17Mil to $100Mil?
http://culturepulp.typepad.com/culturepulp/2008/12/the-culturepulp-qa-christopher-mcquarrie.html
Posted by Chicago48
at December 28, 2008 4:43 PM
comment #23
DeafBrownTrashPunk
says ...
the accents don't bother me much since I'm Deaf.
Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk
at December 28, 2008 5:11 PM
comment #24
ZayTonday
says ...
If Tom Cruise really thought that he was Von Stauffenberg reincarnated he would have tried to kill David Miscavige and his Scientology cronies by now
Posted by ZayTonday
at December 28, 2008 5:51 PM
comment #25
BurmaShave
says ...
George Prager Author Profile Page says ...
it makes perfect sense. Say you're a German filmmaker and you're making a German language film set in New Jersey. All the characters should be speaking German with a Jersey accent.
I really want to to be serious about that. Also to be clear I was basing my Viggo statement strictly on my impression from the GOOD trailers. His Mid-Atlantic/British accent in it is actually quite striking.
Posted by BurmaShave
at December 28, 2008 9:40 PM
comment #26
plastiqueelephant
says ...
arturobandini2: just for the record, most times i get swarmed by indian street kids in mumbai where i'm currently working on a project they speak pretty fluent english. the kids in the top begging gangs who have prime real estate are very bright sparks (and funny too). seriously, put them in an american school and they'd end up in amherst before writing for SNlL.
Posted by plastiqueelephant
at December 29, 2008 6:53 AM
comment #27
Al-Aurens
says ...
Not really accent related, but it trips me out. Watching Germans play Spaniards and speaking German was rough for me watching Aguirre. People around the world see Americans do it all the time, so I need to just get with the program.
Watching Anna Karenina and having everyone speak with English accents really took me out of the movie (Sean Bean, Keira Knightly version).
Posted by Al-Aurens
at December 29, 2008 8:34 AM
comment #28
ZayTonday
says ...
Too bad Good's tagline is grammatically incorrect which invalidates the film entirely.
Posted by ZayTonday
at December 29, 2008 10:29 AM
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