Historical accuracy is a fickle beast. On one hand you’re fighting for loyalty to the source, for the finished product to avoid any charge of embellishment or unjust editing; on the other, you don’t want to overburden and undervalue the cast, crew, or audience. With Schindler’s List, Steven Spielberg seemed to have found the Hollywood balance, preferring good, albeit inaccurate, English-language performances over the alternative, of accurate but bad – or at least unmanageable – German-language performances, a balance Bryan Singer seems desperate to strike.
And, in truth, I respect Singer, as well as his co-writers, for avoiding outright any half-attempts at accuracy, especially with foreign languages and dialects, ala Harrison Ford’s Americanized Russian gargles in K-19: The Widowmaker. My only real qualm with Valkyrie came with an interview done by one of the film’s co-writers for the History Channel, in which he claimed that combining unnamed historical figures into unnamed composite characters was, to paraphrase, “no big deal,” especially since the marketing of this film has been aimed at educating audiences in this comparatively recent and sadly overlooked aspect of world history. Considering these are men and women who fought for what they thought was right, leaving their families to suffer from years, even decades, of humiliation at the hands of their fellow citizens, I’d think it at least polite and respectful to honor all participants rather than abridging their contribution for the sake of time.
by Adam Balz | Source: Theatrical Print
09 Jan 2009 10:52 AM | Submit Comment
