And we went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral (NYC) to hear the choir, light a candle or two and then walked (despite the freezing temperatures) over to Radio City Music Hall to see a double feature. I think one of the movies was Disney’s “Son of Flubber” starring Fred MacMurry.
It always seemed to snow back then. I would go skating with other holiday revelers at Wolman Rink in Central Park. I drank hot chocolate. It was a wonderful, magical time. It just never occurred to me or any of my family or friends to go see a movie about Adolf Hitler. Besides my father would have killed me.
Ok, so call me crazy. What are you and your kids going to do this Christmas? So maybe the Nutcracker is a bit dated and somewhat irrelevant in this day and age. But Hitler? Out just in time for Christmas, “heart throb” Tom (there is no such thing as post partum depression) Cruise offers his fans not one tutu and no jet fighters being catapulted off a carrier, but “Valkyrie.” It’s all about the bungled plot to assassinated Hitler toward the end of World War II. It’s the “true” story of one Colonel von Stauffenberg. That’s a picture of him on the left. On the right is (I’m going to jump up and down like a loon on Oprah’s couch) Cruise.
Could this be the latest Scientology way to celebrate Christmas? After all, Tom Cruise, the star of this new movie, is a big-wig (a "OT VII") in the Church of Scientology. But Hitler? His last movie “Lions for Lambs” was a bomb, despite having Robert Redford and Meryl Streep in it. With all due respect to Scientology, I think even L. Ron Hubbard would rather go see the Nutcracker than a Hitler flick.
So, will I go and check it out on my home time? No. Absolutely not. I’m sure it’s just a wonderful movie. But Hitler? Colonel von Stauffenberg? Who cares? I don’t. Especially not at Christmas time. Can you say DVD? Mrs. Grumpy and I will probably watch “Home Alone 1” while enjoying our traditional Chinese food Christmas dinner.
stuff about the movie - http://valkyrie.unitedartists.com/ and http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809913399/info about Stauffenberg - http://poopdeck90210.com/ww2his/stauffenberg.htm about the Nutcracker ballet - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nutcracker and http://www.balletmet.org/Notes/NutHist.html
The photo credit is: http://poopdeck90210.com/ww2his/stauffenberg.htm
