Valkyrie

Friday my wife and I visited friends for dinner.  Good food and good talk.  And, a beautiful back garden, very nicely pruned.

After a great dinner we watched a video, the Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie.  The subject of the movie was the 20 July 1944 Assassination attempt against the German Führer, Adolph Hitler.

Frankly, it is not a movie I would have picked to see.  I am not impressed with Tom Cruise.  I don't think of him as a serious person and this is a very serious subject.  Further, I had already formed an opinion of the events, from history courses I have taken and from having read the Hans Hellmut Kirst♠ book, The 20th of July.  (I have read about a half dozen books by the author and I like his style.)

But, mostly, I have avoided the movie because I did not believe Hollywood would be able to treat this very serious subject in a serious manner.

All that said, I was pleasantly surprised at the movie.  While I understand all the criticism♥, I think that given the time limits of a movie, and the general lack of familiarity by the movie-going-public with the subject, it does a good job.

This subject is not just important, but it is as timely as the current situation in Honduras.♦  The twin questions it raises are when does a government need to be replaced and what are the limits on what individuals can do when they believe the government is out of control?♣

One of the questions to ask ourselves is what would Germany have been like if the plot had succeeded?  Of course the Allies, and especially the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, would have had a controlling vote on the path forward.  Given the path of Germany after World War One, the Allies would not have been willing to stand down in place.  On the other hand, the conspirators, even if given a free hand, were not believers in "Jeffersonian Democracy."♔  But, they did reject Hitler and the various evil actions of the SS, the SD and the Gestapo.

I think that this event is important to Post-War Germany.  Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg has become a symbol of the fact that Germans did recognize that Germany was on the wrong path.  The German military's "War College," the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr, is located in Hamburg.  The street in front of the compound is named for Count von Stauffenberg.♕ 

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Surprisingly, his Wikipedia entry does not include this book.
♥  Here is a Wikipedia review of the movie reviews.
♦  Here is the version posted in The Boston Globe a couple of days ago.  On the other hand, the use of the term "coup" suggests a situation that does not exist in Honduras.  In Honduras the Legislature, the Supreme Court and the Attorney General all agreed the President was violating the Constitution and the Supreme Court ordered the Army to Arrest then President Zelaya.  In the words of NightWatch,

Zelaya's attempt to disregard the Honduran constitution and change it after the fact are the reasons for his ouster. US and other outside support for restoring Zelaya to office is the reason he has not faded into oblivion as a failed, anti-US, leftist, would-be despot.

♣  As one person said:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.  Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.  But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

♔  Here is a review of the movie by someone who has thought about what success of the plot might have meant.  Yes, I know that The Manchester Guardian is a left-wing newspaper.
♕  Personal observation of the blogger.