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Vampires of history

SHAUN DE WAAL - Jan 30 2009 06:00

Two movies opening this week are of historical import -- one goes = back to the=20 1970s and the aftermath of Richard Nixon's fall from power; the other = outlines=20 the 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. One is a detailed, meticulous = reconstruction of an inside-the-media story; the other is a dour = inside-the-plot=20 quasi-thriller.

Fictionalising historical characters is always a=20 difficult job; the criteria for success are multiple and often mutually=20 contradictory. If anyone was going to get relatively recent history = right, it=20 was Peter Morgan, who wrote The Queen, and which also starred = Michael=20 Sheen; in Frost/Nixon he plays broadcaster David Frost instead of = Tony=20 Blair.

Up against him, Frank Langella plays Nixon -- instead of = Dracula,=20 whom he impersonated in 1979, not long after the date of the Nixon = interviews.=20 Then again, Langella also played John Adams, second president of the = United=20 States, some time earlier, so he can do presidential as well as = vampiric.=20

As Nixon, Langella is simply brilliant. There is no fake nose, = and he=20 seems taller than the real Nixon was, but the performance is utterly = convincing.=20 He's even able to make one sympathise somewhat with the old = crook.

After=20 Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal and in the face of=20 impeachment proceedings, he found himself being solicited for a series = of TV=20 interviews by a rather lightweight British broadcaster. Frost was more = at home=20 in the world of Australian game shows, it seems, than the heavy-duty = world of=20 political coverage. Nixon, a wily manipulator hypersensitive about his = "legacy",=20 as well as eager for the fistful of dollars on offer, decided to go with = Frost.=20 He'd be a walkover. But he wasn't.

The film shows how this all = came=20 about, with much behind-the-scenes stuff as Frost and Nixon prepare for = their=20 confrontation. This kind of thing can be dull (of interest more to media = people=20 than anyone else), but here it is made entertaining and gripping. Just = as we=20 come to sympathise, somewhat surprisingly, with Nixon, so our sympathies = for=20 Frost are disturbed a little; he's not a clear-cut hero, or someone of = great=20 intellectual nous, but more like the right man in the right place at the = right=20 time -- with a nose for good television. That the Nixon interviews, an = edgy=20 dance of one-upmanship between the two men, came so close to failure is = also an=20 interesting insight.

Talking of failure, we know that the 1944 = plot to=20 kill Hitler failed. He'd have another nine months to go before he did = the job=20 himself. So that element of suspense is missing from Valkyrie, in = which=20 Tom Cruise plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the war hero who = planted the=20 bomb that very nearly did blow up the F=C3=BChrer. Unlike Langella, who = seems taller=20 than Nixon, Cruise plays someone who was noted for being tall. In fact, = Von=20 Stauffenberg was noted for being the very model of the militaristic = =C3=9Cbermensch=20 Hitler idealised. He was also part of the German mystic poet Stefan = George's=20 circle -- one both rather homoerotically inclined and given to the kind = of wafty=20 Wagnerian nationalistic mumbo jumbo for which Hitler had a soft spot. = Cruise's=20 Von Stauffenberg doesn't cruise into that odd past; despite the = inevitable=20 reference to Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, he's no Siegfried come to = slay the=20 dragon Fafnir.

Instead, Cruise is a rather stolid presence in a = rather=20 stolid film. For all the conspiracy-mongering and so forth, it takes a = good hour=20 for Valkyrie to get suspenseful. By then we're pretty much inside = Hitler's bunker. After that, it's up to the standard Hollywood = mechanisms of=20 tension-building to grip us.

Until that point, the viewer is all = too=20 distractable. For me, it was a bit like watching Jesus of = Nazareth about=20 30 years ago: the fun was in waiting for the next famous face to turn up = --=20 Peter Ustinov, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, Anthony Quinn =E2=80=A6 In = Valkyrie=20 it's a host of well-known character actors: Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, = Terence=20 Stamp, Tom Hollander, Eddie Izzard =E2=80=A6 You expect Udo Kier to pop = up at any=20 minute, but when he does it is in fact Christian Berkel. Hitler, by the = way, is=20 played by David Bamber, who was Cicero in the TV series Rome. At = this=20 point in history, it would appear, Hitler was a rather ill vampire. = Perhaps the=20 echo of Max Schreck in Nosferatu was intentional.

Directed by = Bryan=20 Singer, who gave us The Usual Suspects and X-Men, = Valkyrie=20 isn't as bad as I thought it might be. It's just not very good, either. = It's=20 well put-together and efficient, dragging us through its broad-strokes=20 historical narrative with determination rather than flair. We understand = more or=20 less what went on, without much sense of any character's depths, least = of all=20 those of the mysterious Von Stauffenberg himself. Perhaps it was felt = that, just=20 as we need no telling that Hitler was evil, we need no telling that the = colonel=20 was charismatic. Trouble is, when he's played by Tom Cruise, some of us = will=20 need telling.

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address:=20 http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-01-30-vampires-of-history=20

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