I planned to spend most of the flight to Washington today working, which I did. However two things disturbed me. Firstly I got very indignant at the film Valkyrie supposedly telling the story of the 20th July plot against Hitler in 1944. Now I have no great liking for Tom Cruise in the first place, but this is a truly appalling film. Cruise's character Claus von Stauffenberg was an important part of the plot, but not the all singing and dancing, do everything, only truly noble person around crap that is portrayed in the film. If you want a great narrative of the event then read Hans Hellmut Kirst's The 20th of July which at least attempts historical accuracy. His Gunner Asch novels are also outstanding if you haven't read them. The second interruption was the admiration the 17"MacBook Pro attracted from other passengers and stewardesses all wanting a closer look.
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Comments (3)
And, as any Mac owner would instantly agree, it's a safe bet that the interruptions from the MacBook admirers was the more welcome of the two.
Posted by Steve Holt | April 26, 2009 3:24 AM
Posted on April 26, 2009 03:24
Completely agree: the man is just awful. I NEVER watch any of his films, I wish he'd go hide under some couch instead of jumping up and down on one. I haven't seen this film but have blogged before about what I see as a crop of new films that offer up a sympathetic portrayal of Nazis. Not sure if this is one of them. Thx for the tip off, wouldn't have gone to see it anyway - now I have further reasons not to.
Kim
Posted by kim sbarcea | April 26, 2009 9:02 AM
Posted on April 26, 2009 09:02
Yes - a similar thing happened to me when I took my iPod on a plane a few years ago. The stewardesses were fascinated and took it in turns to come and have a look and gave lots of "ooohs" and "aaahs" when they saw it and held it. As more and more passengers queued to see it it, hte pilot had to make announcement for the passengers to sit down as the plane was becoming unbalanced. Eventually he came down and had a look to see what the fuss was all about - and got so entranced that we went off course. Fortunately, it just so happened that in First Class, Tom Cruise was there and he stepped in to rescue the situation using the skills he learned on Top Gun.
Posted by David Cronshaw | April 27, 2009 2:22 PM
Posted on April 27, 2009 14:22