My Two Cents on Three Movies From the Winter (now out on DVD)

I recently watched The Spirit, Defiance and Valkyrie. I feel moved to speak on them, as people sometimes watch movies they didn't (or shouldn't) when they're new on DVD.

The Spirit
In a word: a cartoon. It's odd, but Frank Miller writes gritty and bloody comics where bones get crunched and people die off left and right. But his movie seems less bloody than Watchmen was. Heck, it was less graphic than Defiance. In the first five minutes, a man's head is torn off his body (ironically, Frank Miller in a cameo role) but we see only glimpses of it, enough for the viewer to understand that the head has vacated the shoulders, but not really enough to be "Oh my god! That guy lost his head!" And it seems pretty bloodless. This is followed by a prolonged fight between Samuel L. Jackon's character (the Octopus, never really explained) and Gabriel Macht's character (the Spirit, explained) in which they inflict grievous bodily harm upon each other without being hurt. Accompanied by cartoon sound effects.

Actually, that's how I'd describe the movie, bloodless. Another good description would be "Gabriel Macht and a Number of Attractive Hollywood Actresses (ft. Samuel L. Jackson)." Because, really, like the comic characters they're meant to portray, they're pretty two dimensional. Don't get me wrong, I love Will Eisner, but The Spirit was a Sunday insert that ran from 1940-52 and enjoyed the "privileges" that the era afforded to comics of the time (i.e. racist caricatures). So there's actually no characters at all, but characterizations. They're centered around their eccentricities.

One final note; Frank Miller has an absurdist streak. Especially with the Octopus. You'll see Samuel L. Jackson wearing a kimono and later an SS uniform. If you just go with it, and don't search for a deeper meaning, you'll be fine.


Defiance
I'll admit, sometimes the lines are pretty blunt with the moral lessons. There's a point (note that it comes after he's killed a bunch of collaborators) where Daniel Craig's character states that they should not become animals just because they're being hunted like animals. Nonetheless, they resort to some pretty savage actions, including fighting over food and bludgeoning a captured German to death. Of course, they are facing extermination, so... Interestingly enough, the film often doesn't comment afterwards on these moments, especially since there are a number of poignant points to make (revenge isn't fulfilling/revenge is fulfilling; armed conflict has it's purpose/armed conflict serves no purpose). Instead, it saves moral judgement for the character's lines.

This helps illustrate the issue with this movie. It wants to be an objective reporter, simply relaying events and letting us feel empathy for the characters on the strength of their portrayals. But then they writers have gone and played with facts. The eager eyed teenage brother was actually the second eldest (33), but instead they went for a stereotypical "even in war, the young find love" story. Oh, and they fight a whole platoon of Germans along with a Panther tank and then it ends. Worth your time? Sure, if there's nothing better on TV.


Valkyrie
I agree with the German critics who said that Tom Cruise wasn't charismatic enough as Von Stauffenberg. Apparently, in the real German Resistance, he was an electrifying force that inspired his comrades into action. Throughout most of Valkyrie though, he's just bumming them out. Every time another person orders him to do something, he refuses to do it unless they do it his way, or he states that it can't be done. Kenneth Brannagh is in it, and Brannagh is generally solid in all his work, so I would've liked to see more of him. Instead, he's in it for an early attempt to kill Hitler and later for his suicide (I'd say spoiler alert, but hey, it's HISTORY). Otherwise, he probably didn't deserve second billing.

You can tell that this is the product of the writers' intent conflicting with the director's intent. The writers wanted a talkie. Singer wanted a thriller. They created a hybrid beast that isn't surprising or action-oriented enough to be a thriller, likely because the viewer knows (or at least, I hope they do) that the plot is doomed to fail, yet isn't cerebral enough to be the talkie the writers wanted. What you get instead is the main characters in buildings with cutscenes to places where stuff is going on. Oh, and the accents are ridiculous. Characters (apparently due to country of origin of the actor) talk in a variety. British, American, German, they're all in there. And it's just distracting. Really, just make them all speak the same. Or at least write in a line like "He's Bavarian" or something to explain it away.

You could manage to watch this movie once in your life. You won't be moved, or impressed, but hey, you won't feel let down. It's not a masterpiece, but it's not bad.