Movie reviews

It was his idea to use Hitler’s own Operation Valkyrie — a plan for the takeover of Germany by the reserve army in case of a coup – against him.

Singer,who co-wrote the screenplay,builds the drama and the tension well. Hitler’s fear is omnipresent,from the eyes of his officials sitting in on meetings with him at his private residence or ‘The Wolf’s Lair’ to those plotting far away against him in the security of their own rooms. Even as he lays down the outlines of his plot—very succinctly captured — the biggest battle for Stauffenberg is conquering that fear,putting the possibility in the minds of wavering politicians and fellow comrades that it could be done. Singer and the art director also perfectly capture the sequence of events in a coup before the age of the mobile,how communications,what gets through the battlelines and what gets carefully buried,can well determine who is left holding the fort at the end. Split-second decisions,a hand that shook when the phone rang,a cap left behind in hurry,a few misplaced bags when all looked the same,temperature fluctuations that went unaccounted for,can well change the course of history.

However,that’s what Valkyrie stops at,being a thriller. While Singer gives each of his characters a purpose,he fails to impute them a motive. Given all that they could lose against all that they could hope to achieve,it would have required real courage for Stauffenberg and the others to go down the path of no return – or “cross the Rubicon”,as he says. We get a glimpse of their fear,but no insight into what makes them so courageous.

Instead of individual portraits,however brief,Singer paints them all with a very wide brush of “true patriots”,who believe that Hitler is as bad for Germany as he is for the rest of the world. Cruise,given his star power,is the only one whose family is mentioned. Even his adjutant,a hero in his own right portrayed with rare temperance by Jamie Parker,suddenly appears without even a brief footnote. A nameless woman typist in the Home Ministry is another striking example.

The war that those brave,“good” Germans fought was of ideas,of standing up for what is right when it’s easier to succumb – a war that remains as relevant in our times. To reduce it to a group of bravehearts against a bad guy is the easy way out.

While it may tell you all about Stauffenberg,Valkyrie threatens to not really be the story of the German who stood up to Hitler. It is Tom Cruise on another mission impossible if ever there was one,very competently at that,with an eye patch replacing the sunglasses.

BLINDNESS
CAST: Julianne Moore,Mark Ruffalo,Alice Braga,Danny Glover
DIRECTOR: Fernando Meirelles
Blindness is based on a book by renowned writer Jose Saramagao. In it a nameless country is stricken by a strange epidemic of blindness,which leaves them only seeing white. They are quarantined together in dilapidated halls in a building,and are soon at each other’s throats,quarrelling,bartering,raping,looting and murdering,while still not able to see anything.

It’s evident that the story is an allegory for all that we don’t see when we are looking,or choose not to. So,the victims here don’t feel an absence of light as much as too much of it (as Meirelles pictures it,it’s almost like the blinding light before death,only they all end up in hell). They are couples with problems they don’t mention,a call girl who plies her trade behind dark glasses and similar such characters.

Forced to live together in proximity with no rules governing them,they let all semblance of civility wither away. It starts with the unwashed halls and toilets,and builds up to the unburied bodies. It’s human nature at its most basic,selfish and short-sighted. The only witness,quietly toiling away at being normal,is the doctor’s wife (Moore). She is pretending to be blind so that she can stay with him.

However,as lust,greed,hate and violence take over their wards,she can take it no more. The “leader with a vision” convinces some of them to fight back against such forces,and just so,they are free.

As a mini Lord of the Flies,Blindness may not be a great effort,but it isn’t really bad. Moral ambivalence is always hard to portray,and Meirelles’s (City of God) way is through bombarding us with mercilessly disturbing and dark visuals. While there is only so far you can stretch metaphors,it does set you thinking.

What is unfathomable is Moore,who puts up with far more than a human possibly can. It perhaps isn’t a coincidence that she talks briefly about agnosticism,or lack of belief,earlier on.

shalini.langer@expressindia.com