Dateline Berlin, where the late fascist evil person was a featured wax personage at Madame Tussauds along the likes of Hollywood celebrities, sports figures and contemporary/historical politicians. At least until someone decapitated him on opening day:
Just minutes after the museum opened, the 41-year-old German man
pushed aside two security men guarding the figure before ripping off
the head in protest at the exhibit, a police spokesman said. The police
were alerted and arrested the man.The waxwork figure of a glum-looking Adolf Hitler in a mock bunker
during the last days of his life was criticized as being in bad taste.
A media preview of the new branch of Madame Tussauds Thursday was
overshadowed by a row over the exhibit.
Why so glum, Hitler?
Frankly, it couldn’t have happened to a better genocidal maniac.
At least it wasn’t a story about some weird proof of love, a la Nicolas Cage’s wooing of Patricia Arquette. Because really, no matter how quirky you are, love should never mean having to say, "Bring me the head of Adolf Hitler."
[cross-posted from MyUrbanKvetch]
Sam Spade was a midget?
Damn.
German law knows a strict distinction between officially acknowledged religious bodies and “sects”, which may be unconstitutional / harmful. The former can benefit from “church tax” (9% to 10% of the income tax, depending on one’s federal state) and they may receive tax deductible donations.
Humphrey Bogart apparently was so short that in Casablanca, Ingrid Bergman would stand inside a ditch.
Prize question: Clint Eastwood made an uncredited appearance in a film directed by an uncle of mine. That film is one of the world’s thirty most-played films. What’s the title of that film?
A friend told me recently that because Clint Eastwood towers over everyone, a ditch was dug for him in the Dirty Harry movies to bring him down to size in scenes with his love interest (Sandra Bullock, I think).
Maybe Cruise will move on to Napoleon in his next flick.
Is Cruise going to be wearing stilts, or will everybody esle have to stand in a hole or kneel?
That’s your choice individually, but the German government goes well beyond what we Americans are used to in its opposition to Scientology.
I can’t help but show it some mercy; L. Ron Hubbard is Middle’s favorite author.
Tom, I think one concern is that Scientology seems to be recruiting heavily in Berlin, so having one of their most prominent figures on spot is worrisome, but the foremost reason is that Scientology stands for a lot of things Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg and the others of Valkyrie would have fought and in our understanding, it violates what we consider to be human and civil rights. Letting Cruise shoot a film that will eventually fill the coffers of Scientology, disrespecting the wish of von Stauffenberg’s family at that, is what irks a lot of people. The story has been put into film before, an excellent one at that. Hollywood could have had it synchronized had it really been interested in presenting the events of 20 July 1944 to a wider audience. Documentaries and docutainment films have been made galore, some of the best ones by Prof. Dr. Guido Knopp, who is an outstanding expert at presenting history in a fascinating way by merging acted scenes, original documents and eyewitness reports. IMHO Cruise’s film is redundant and anybody who minds authorative organizations with supremacist tendencies should stay away from indirectly financing them. That’s the freedom of belief I enjoy exercising.
Maybe we screwed up when we gave you the Grundgesetz, but in any event I’m not sure why the government’s stance on Scientology requires taking it out on Cruise or the film. I’m looking forward to the latter. There are many ways of viewing the events of 20 July ’44 and I’m sure there’s room for another treatment of the subject.
Tom, there already was a brilliant film version of the events surrounding Valkyrie. Cruise is way too short to resemble Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg. The issues the German government’s got with Scientology is that the sect is possibly anti-constitutional with its desire to achieve world dominion and that dissenters have reported having been subject to severe pressure and even physical violence. So, the FRG doesn’t mess with people’s freedom of creed, but when religious or pseudo-religious bodies take unconstitutional measures to keep and even gain adherents, the government has got to interfere.
I’m not a Tom Cruise fan particularly, but he does look strikingly similar to von S. back in the day. Just because Cruise is a Scientologist doesn’t mean he can’t, you know, act.
Too bad the German government did what it could to disrupt the making of the film.
ck, I’m going to translate a lengthy interview von Böselager did shortly before his death. He lived pretty close to me. A geat man.
Von Stauffenberg’s son strongly opposes against Cruise playing the role of Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg in Valkyrie. But suppose the clang of hard cash is louder than the whisper of respect.
Finally! An assassination attempt on Hitler that worked! Coincidentally, Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, the last surviving member of the failed 1944 plot to kill Hitler, died just 2 months ago. Also coincidentally, Tom Cruise is set to play Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg, leader of that failed assassination plot, in an upcoming movie called Valkyrie.
Hmmmm…..