The ride of the Valkyrie

Here we have Tom Cruise about to have a close encounter with a Curtiss P-40 in North Africa. I missed Valkyrie at the 'plex, but the other day it became available on DVD, and I got the disk from Netflix. Bummer! The P-40 was so small and went by so fast that I never saw it, so this is as close as I'm going to get.

I rather liked the flick, though I have never understood--and the movie didn't make clear, apart from a single reference to Moltke's dictum that plans never survive first contact with the enemy--why the fabled German talent for efficient action so failed Colonel von Stauffenberg when he went to assassinate Hitler. It must puzzle the suicide-vest lads and lasses of al Qaeda, too. He put his explosive briefcase under the table and then left the room. Sheez. And what about Hitler's bodyguards? They didn't check the packages people were bringing into the Wolf's Lair. Twice! Homeland Security would have done better than that. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford