LOL - I've never seen Tom look so, um, er, "spiffy"

[CatWoman]

:)

[supernova]

1. His posture screams "Drag Queen"

not "Military Officer"


:rofl:

[cwydro]

2. He needs to work on his German

military bearing. That ain't workin' for me. That guy he is playing was from an old old aristocratic military family. Tom hasn't got it, imo.

[DS1]

3. It's more like Prince Charles than any German I've seen

[underpants]

5. psst they are German

http://ask.yahoo.com/20000907.html

[DS1]

8. Mr. Tampon doesn't count

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/n_9525/

[cwydro]

6. YES!

:rofl:

Though I think even he has better military bearing.

[supernova]

7. I agree w/ you

I'm met those men, those old-money European families. Full-tilt starch in uniform and bearing... and that's just for starters. Tom's not gettin' it... not by a long shot.

If that's what he's like in the movie, the Germans and Austrians will rightly laugh him out of the theatre. :rofl:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

He's always got such fabulous outfits.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=D801gTRpoZ0

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. Finally

A role that suits him.

Love the Ju-52 in the background, though. :thumbsup:

[TheBaldyMan]

9. who is he meant to be? n/t

[Adsos Letter]

11. I believe he is meant to be...

a German officer and war hero by the name of vonStauffenberg. He was one of a group of officers who attempted to kill Hitler while Hitler was in a meeting at Wolf's Lair, his headquarters for the Eastern front.

Stauffenberg set a bomb-containing attache case (which is probably what Cruise is holding in the pic) next to his feet at the conference table and then left to answer a pre-arranged phone call. Bomb blew up but Hitler survived due to cover from the heavy oak conference table.

All of the conspirators were either shot or hanged and many of their family members also.

Cruise actually bears some resemblance to Stauffenberg...

[DS1]

12. Interesting. In an old Apple game called Return to Castle Wolfenstein

you have to blow up Hitler with a briefcase bomb.

I had no idea it was based on real events.

[Adsos Letter]

14. I don't know about the game...

but there were several attempts on Hitler's life during the war, especially as it progressed and became more and more obvious to the military that Germany was going to suffer a total defeat (and have to face the wrath of the Russians, who lost approx. 20 million people during the war).

The story about this attempt is well documented and involved a concurrent coup attempt in Berlin.

Hitler was protected by the heavy oak table and the fact that, because of the oppressive July heat, the conference room windows were open thus allowing the blast to be less contained than it would otherwise have been.

Hitler's flame-out dive into deepest paranoia followed this event.

There are several good books out there on this incident.

[supernova]

15. Oh yeah, that pic of

Hitler doing a little jig outdoors? That was a little celebratory victory dance in response.

edit: I feel very dirty now for having to do a Hitler image search. :P x( Going to shower.

[Adsos Letter]

17. I think that celebratory victory dance shot...

had something to do with the fall of France...the destruction of the "surrender car" at Compiegne (sp?) if I remember right...

[Aristus]

36. One of the most famous urban legends of the 20th Century: Hitler's "Victory Jig":

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hitlerdance.html

I knew this when I was a kid...people still believe this?

[Adsos Letter]

39. You're right...I had forgotten about the film loop...

[CatWoman]

13. .....

http://www.dw-world.de/image/0,,2420622_1,00.jpg

http://www.dw-world.de/image/0,,2619577_1,00.jpg

That's his son, Berthold Stauffenberg on the extreme right.

[Adsos Letter]

16. great job CatWoman!!!

I would say the typecasting was pretty good, looks-wise. I seem to recall that von Stauffenberg was a tall guy though, and Cruise is a smaller guy.

:D

[TheBaldyMan]

18. ah haha haha ha von - effing - Stauffenberg !

Tom isn't exactly Aryan is he?

Who's playing Hitler, Leonard diCaprio ?

[Adsos Letter]

19. Neither was von Stauffenberg... n/t

[TheBaldyMan]

20. he was a kraut aristo though, I think that he may have been a little taller than Tom

[Adsos Letter]

21. I think he was well over 6'...and yes, from a Prussian family I think...

...hence the "von"...

[TheBaldyMan]

22. maybe they have him stand on a bier crate.

[Adsos Letter]

23. I dunno...but they do need to strack-up that uniform some...

[supernova]

24. "von" simply means

"from"

So von Stauffenberg means "from Stuaffenberg" It's a holdover from the Mideval period when people's surnames derived from the towns and provinces where they lived.

[Adsos Letter]

25. Interesting! He was, however, from an aristocratic line...

[supernova]

26. Didn't say he wasn't

Just that when you break them down aristocratic names really aren't that elaborate.

And I reiterate, if this is little Tommy in character, he looks anything BUT the part of an old-money aristocratic born to the schloss military officer.

[Adsos Letter]

28. yeah...that uniform needs to be tailored and heavy starch...

and...I don't see any Iron Cross ribbon and I beleive he had one with oakleaf cluster...could be wrong, just going from hazy memory. maybe thy didn't wear it on a field uniform...I dunno...

[supernova]

30. Probably only on cerimonial occasions

would they wear medals.

Plus his posture is all wrong. His tummy is pooched out. His shoulders are too laid back. Expression not stern enough.

[Adsos Letter]

31. agreed...not enough arrogance/entitlement showing...

I think yhe Wehrmacht had a simple small red/whie/black ribbon which sort of wrapped around the jacket button-seam in front in lieu of the full-dress medal...

Now I gotta' go look it up... :D

[Aristus]

37. The red, black and white ribbon worn through the lapel buttonhole was for the Iron Cross, 2nd Class.

Not the Knight's Cross or the Iron Cross, 1st Class. Many officers have been photographed wearing the medal for the 1st Class along with the ribbon for the 2nd Class. They were two different awards.

[Adsos Letter]

40. Thanks for clearing that up...

:D

[sarge43]

35. He had at least one, awarded in '40

That's a class A, more formal than a field or fatigue uniform, less formal than dress. The Iron Cross would be worn on it, left breast pocket as memory serves. That looks like a prelude scene to Shauffenberg arriving at the Wolf's Lair with his surprise package for Adolph. If so, he wouldn't have looked that sloppy. He was third generation career soldier and God only knows how many generations aristocrat.

[Aristus]

38. Plus his belt is wrong; I'm pretty sure his belt should have the silver, closed-face

"Gott Mit Uns" buckle instead of that open-faced buckle he has.

[Adsos Letter]

41. Thankyou for educating us...

...but you don't sound like a "cranky old bat"...:D

[TheBaldyMan]

27. some aristo families take the name of their fiefdom,

some of the really posh ones have double vons

[supernova]

29. True,

I should have said, were you live and in this case, govern.

[Adsos Letter]

32. Yeah...I think he might actually have been...

Count Klaus von Stauffenberg...it's been too long since I studied that stuff to be making too many sweeping statements...

:D

[xchrom]

10. colonel klink -- is that you?

[Bombero1956]

33. Hard to tell

if they've gotten and accurate portrayal of Von Stauffenberg. Can't see his right hand and only see 2 fingers on his left hand. Probably don't have the height correct either.

while he was scouting out a new command area, his vehicle was strafed on 7 April 1943 by British fighter-bombers and he was severely wounded. He spent three months in hospital in Munich, where he was treated by Ferdinand Sauerbruch. Stauffenberg lost his left eye, his right hand, and the fourth and fifth fingers of his left hand. He jokingly remarked to friends never to have really known what to do with so many fingers when he still had ten of them.

[Magrittes Pipe]

34. Finally! That remake of "Cabaret" we've been awaiting all these years!

:thumbsup: