title: William Tecumseh Sherman

text: The influential literary critic Edmund Wilson found in Sherman's "Memoirs" a fascinating and disturbing account of an "appetite for warfare" that "grows as it feeds on the South". Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara refers equivocally to the statement that "war is cruelty and you cannot refine it" in both the book "Wilson's Ghost" and in his interview for the documentary film "The Fog of War" (2003). When comparing Sherman's scorched-earth campaigns to the actions of the British Army during the Second Boer War (1899–1902) —another war in which civilians were targeted because of their central role in sustaining a belligerent power— South African historian Hermann Giliomee claims that it "looks as if Sherman struck a better balance than the British commanders between severity and restraint in taking actions proportional to legitimate needs". The admiration of scholars such as B. H. Liddell Hart, Lloyd Lewis, Victor Davis Hanson, John F. Marszalek, and Brian Holden-Reid for Sherman owes much to what they see as an approach to the exigencies of modern armed conflict that was both effective and principled.


title: William Tecumseh Sherman

text: The gilded bronze Sherman Memorial (1902) by Augustus Saint-Gaudens stands at the Grand Army Plaza near the main entrance to New York City's Central Park. Sherman is represented astride his horse Ontario and led by a winged female figure of "Victory". Saint-Gaudens's "Bust of William Tecumseh Sherman", which he used as the basis for the larger Memorial, is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Arlington National Cemetery features a smaller version of Saint-Gaudens's statue of "Victory".


title: William Tecumseh Sherman

text: The General William Tecumseh Sherman Monument (1903) by Carl Rohl-Smith stands near President's Park in Washington, D.C. The bronze monument consists of an equestrian statue of Sherman and a platform with a soldier at each corner, representing the infantry, artillery, cavalry, and engineer branches of the U.S. Army. The site was chosen because Sherman was reported to have stood there while reviewing returning Civil War troops in May 1865.


title: William Tecumseh Sherman

text: Other posthumous tributes include Sherman Circle in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., the M4 Sherman tank, which was named by the British during World War II, and the "General Sherman" Giant Sequoia tree, which is the most massive documented single-trunk tree in the world.


title: William Tecumseh Sherman

text: This is actually a re-printing of the second, revised edition of 1889, published by D. Appleton & Company, of New York City. The first edition was published in 1875 by Henry S. King & Co., of London, and by Appleton in New York. All other "editions" of Sherman's memoirs are re-printings of the 1889 or, in some cases, the 1875 edition.


title: Vignesh Shivan

text: Vignesh Shivan, credited sometimes as Vignesh Shivn (born 18 September 1985) is an Indian film director, film producer, actor, singer and lyricist who works in Tamil cinema.


title: Vignesh Shivan

text: Shivan and actress Nayanthara had been in a relationship ever since they worked together on "Naanum Rowdy Dhaan" in 2015. They announced their engagement in 2021, and got married on 9 June 2022 at Sheraton Grand in Mahabalipuram.The couple had twin boys on 9 October 2022.


title: Vignesh Shivan

text: After getting Dharan to compose music for it, showed the film to producers, Gemini Film Circuit, and then to Silambarasan and both parties agreed to collaborate to make it a feature film titled "Podaa Podi" (2012). The joint producers of the film, Shanaya Telefilms, released a series of posters in June 2008 publicising the film, while Silambarasan and Vignesh toured in Canada scouting for locations and agreeing a deal with Mayor Ron Stevens to film in Orillia and Toronto. The film languished in production for close to four years, before finally releasing in October 2012 to mixed reviews. He then continued to be active in films by working as a lyricist, filming independent music videos and appeared in a cameo role as an engineer in "Velaiyilla Pattathari" (2014) along with Dhanush.


title: Vignesh Shivan

text: His second film, "Naanum Rowdy Dhaan" (2015), went through several changes of cast and production studios, before finalising on Vijay Sethupathi and Nayanthara as lead actors and Dhanush as producer.


title: Vignesh Shivan

text: In his third venture, "Thaanaa Serndha Koottam", he teamed up with Suriya and Keerthy Suresh. Anirudh Ravichander wrote the music numbers.


title: Vignesh Shivan

text: Vignesh Shivan along with Nayanthara, founded a new venture called Rowdy Pictures which produced the films "Pebbles" (2021) and "Rocky" (2021).


title: Kamal Haasan filmography

text: Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian film actor, screenwriter, film director, film producer, politician and choreographer who works primarily in Tamil cinema. At the age of 6, he debuted as a child actor in the 1960 Tamil film "Kalathur Kannamma", directed by A. Bhimsingh, which won him the President's Gold Medal. Since then he has acted in over 230 films in Tamil and other languages including Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, and Bengali. After a few projects as a child artist he took a break to continue his education. He later concentrated on dance choreography and worked as an assistant choreographer. During this time, he made uncredited appearances in a few films which he worked on.


title: Kamal Haasan filmography

text: In 1973, Haasan landed his first adult role as Thiagu in the film "Arangetram" by K. Balachander, whom the actor considers his mentor. He continued to act in minor roles in several films such as "Sollathaan Ninaikkiren" (1973) and "Naan Avanillai" (1974), most of which were directed by Balachander. His breakthrough as an independent lead actor came with the 1974 Malayalam film "Kanyakumari". His work in it won him the Filmfare Award for Best Actor (Malayalam). Following that, he starred in a series of films in both languagesTamil and Malayalam. His breakthrough in Tamil cinema came with Balachander's "Apoorva Raagangal" (1975) and AS.Prakasam's "Pattaampoochi" (1975); "Apoorva Raagangal" earned him a second Filmfare Award, his first in Tamil. Between 1974 and 1978, he won six Filmfare Awards including four consecutive wins for the Best Actor (Tamil). Haasan turned producer for "Raja Paarvai" (1981), in which he played the lead role of a blind musician. The film was produced under the "Haasan Brothers" banner which was later renamed Raaj Kamal Films International.


title: Kamal Haasan filmography

text: Haasan debuted in Bollywood with Balachander's "Ek Duuje Ke Liye" (1981), which was a remake of his 1978 Telugu film "Maro Charitra". His role as a school teacher who looks after an amnesic girl in "Moondram Pirai" (1982) won him several accolades, including the Best Actor honours at the National Film Awards and Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. He then starred in the Panchu Arunachalam-written "Sakalakala Vallavan", which expanded Kamal's popularity from classes to the masses. His role in Ramesh Sippy's Hindi film "Saagar" (1985), a triangular love story, was nominated in both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories at the 33rd Filmfare Awards. Under Raaj Kamal Films International, he produced films such as: "Vikram" (1986), "Apoorva Sagodharargal" (1989), "Thevar Magan" (1992) and "Hey Ram" (2000). As a producer he won a Filmfare Award and National Film Award for "Apoorva Sagodharargal" and "Thevar Magan". Seven films featuring Kamal have been submitted by India to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, the most for any actor in India. His work "Vishwaroopam" (2013), which he also produced and directed, won two awards at the 60th National Film Awards. He has starred in both blockbuster and art house films.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Valkyrie is a 2008 historical political war thriller film directed by Bryan Singer, written by Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander, starring Tom Cruise. The film is set in Nazi Germany during World War II and depicts the 20 July plot in 1944 by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country. The film was released by American studio United Artists and stars Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the key plotters. The supporting cast includes Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Eddie Izzard, Terence Stamp, and Tom Wilkinson.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Cruise's casting caused controversy among German politicians and members of the von Stauffenberg family due to the actor's practice of Scientology, which is viewed with suspicion in Germany. Because of this, the filmmakers initially had difficulty setting up filming locations in Germany, but they were later given access to locations such as Berlin's historic Bendlerblock. German newspapers and filmmakers supported the film and its intention to spread global awareness of von Stauffenberg's plot.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: The film changed release dates several times, from as early as June 27, 2008, to as late as February 13, 2009. The changing calendar and poor response to United Artists's initial marketing campaign drew criticism about the film's viability, and followed by a positive test screening, "Valkyrie"s release in North America was ultimately changed to December 25, 2008 and was opened in Germany on January 22, 2009; United Artists renewed its marketing campaign to reduce its focus on Cruise and to highlight Singer's credentials. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed nearly $201.5 million worldwide.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: During World War II, Wehrmacht Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is stationed in Tunisia, where he becomes increasingly disillusioned with the future of Germany under Hitler's tyranny. His battalion comes under attack by P-40 fighter-bombers of the No. 3 Squadron RAAF, Desert Air Force. Stauffenberg is severely injured in the air raid and is evacuated home to Germany, where he loses his left eye, his right hand, and two fingers on his left hand.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Meanwhile, Hitler visits his military headquarters on the Eastern Front. General Henning von Tresckow attempts to assassinate Hitler by smuggling a timebomb disguised as a box of Cointreau onto his plane. The bomb fails to detonate, and Hitler's plane lands safely in Berlin. Shortly afterwards, resistance member General Hans Oster is arrested by the Gestapo. While recuperating, Stauffenberg is recruited by General Friedrich Olbricht to take Oster's place in the German Resistance, which includes Tresckow, General Ludwig Beck, Dr. Carl Goerdeler, and Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Stauffenberg proposes using Operation Valkyrie, which involves the deployment of the Reserve Army in a national emergency, as a means to take control of the country. The plotters redraft the plan's orders to dismantle the Nazi regime after assassinating Hitler. Stauffenberg's promotion within the Reserve Army grants him direct access to Hitler, who approves the redrafted plan without fully examining the modifications. Realizing that only General Friedrich Fromm, the head of the Reserve Army, can initiate Valkyrie, they offer him a position as head of the Wehrmacht; but Fromm, although agreeing to remain silent on the matter, declines to be directly involved.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Stauffenberg is ordered to assassinate both Hitler and Himmler at the Wolf's Lair. He persuades General Fellgiebel to cut off communications after the attempt. On July 15, 1944, Stauffenberg attends a strategy meeting at the Wolf's Lair with a bomb, but does not receive permission to proceed as Himmler is absent. Meanwhile, the Reserve Army is mobilized by Olbricht. Stauffenberg leaves with the bomb and the Reserve Army is ordered to stand down. Fromm threatens Olbricht and Stauffenberg that he will arrest them if they try to control the Reserve Army again; Stauffenberg berates the plotters for their indecisiveness and condemns Goerdeler. When Goerdeler demands that Stauffenberg be relieved, Beck informs him that the SS has issued a warrant for his arrest, and that he must leave the country immediately.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: On July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg and his adjutant Lieutenant von Haeften return to the Wolf's Lair. Due to the warm weather, the conference is being held in an open-window summer barrack, minimizing their bomb's potential effectiveness. Stauffenberg places the briefcase containing the bomb close to Hitler before leaving. Officer Heinz Brandt moves the case behind a table leg, inadvertently shielding Hitler. When the bomb explodes, Stauffenberg is certain that Hitler is dead and flees, managing to bluff his way past security checkpoints and returning to Berlin.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Olbricht refuses to mobilize the Reserve Army without confirmation that Hitler is dead; but Colonel von Quirnheim, one of the plotters, forges his signature and issues the orders. With Valkyrie underway, the plotters order the arrest of Nazi party leaders and SS officers, convincing lower officers that the Party and the SS are staging a coup, and soldiers begin to take control of the ministries. Rumors surface that Hitler survived the blast, but Stauffenberg dismisses them as SS propaganda. Having learned from Field Marshal Keitel that Hitler is still alive, Fromm refuses to join the plotters, resulting in them detaining him.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Major Otto Ernst Remer of the Reserve Army prepares to arrest Goebbels, but he's stopped when Goebbels connects him by phone to Hitler. Recognizing the voice on the other end, Remer realizes that the Reserve Army has been duped. Soon, SS officers are released and the plotters are besieged inside the Bendlerblock. The headquarters staff flees, but the resistance leaders are arrested. Attempting to save himself, Fromm convenes an impromptu court martial, during which he places Beck under arrest, and sentences von Quirnheim, Olbricht, von Haeften, and Stauffenberg to death. The ringleaders are executed by firing squad; Beck is given a pistol and commits suicide; Tresckow kills himself in a forest by holding a grenade to his throat; Witzleben and Goerdeler are sentenced in show trials and hanged.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Patrick Wilson was originally cast in "Valkyrie", but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts and other unspecified reasons. Stephen Fry was also offered a role in the film but was unable to participate.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Some of the non-German actors initially experimented with German accents, but Singer discarded the idea, instead instructing them to adopt neutral accents that "[wouldn't] distract from the story". Singer added he was not making a docu-drama and wanted to make the story engaging.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: In 2002, Christopher McQuarrie visited Berlin while researching another project and visited the memorial to von Stauffenberg at the Bendlerblock. Researching the 20 July plot, he was moved and fascinated by the fact that the conspirators were fully aware of what would happen if they failed their assassination attempt, and he wanted to make their story more well-known. He approached Nathan Alexander to co-write the film, and Alexander began researching the project. McQuarrie sought to model the story after the 2001 TV film "Conspiracy", which depicted the Wannsee Conference at which the Nazis planned the Final Solution. (Branagh, McNally and McNeice had all starred in "Conspiracy".) He also sought to direct the film, until he realized that adequate financing would only be secured with Bryan Singer directing.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: After Singer completed the three major productions "X-Men" (2000), "X2" (2003) and "Superman Returns" (2006), he sought a smaller project before embarking upon the eventually aborted sequel to "Superman Returns". Singer and McQuarrie had often made World War II films in their backyards while growing up in New Jersey, and Singer had later dealt with Nazi subject matter in "Apt Pupil" and "X-Men". Singer first learned of the plot in the early 1980s when his mother visited Bonn and met Freya von Moltke, widow of Helmuth von Moltke, a founder of the Kreisau Circle resistance group. After learning of McQuarrie and Alexander's screenplay and signing on to direct "Valkyrie", Singer read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William L. Shirer to gain deeper understanding of Nazi Germany's political landscape, and also met with one of Hitler's bodyguards, Rochus Misch, who was the last person to leave the bunker where Hitler committed suicide. The creative team acknowledged the ambiguity over the enigmatic von Stauffenberg's true motivation, but Singer and McQuarrie judged him to be a man of ethics just from what he did. Though McQuarrie sought for "Valkyrie" to be similar to "Conspiracy", Singer had bigger ambitions for the film, wanting it to be more than "old men in rooms, talking". Singer looked back on his decision, saying, "The true story had all the makings of a classic assassination thriller. ... I knew if I could keep the audience with [von] Stauffenberg, with his mission, they would go with the flow and be less inclined to start hypothesising on things from history."


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: McQuarrie suggested they bring the project to United Artists partners Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise, who immediately agreed to finance the film in March 2007. Singer invited Tom Cruise to take the lead role, which Cruise accepted. Cruise had been provided a picture of von Stauffenberg, in which the actor noticed a similarity in his profile with the German colonel, drawing him to the role. The director and the screenwriter initially anticipated "Valkyrie" as a "small" film with a budget of under US$20 million and to be completed within several months, but Cruise's interest in playing von Stauffenberg made Singer realize his involvement could broaden the film's publicity and therefore its budget. The film's budget was then raised to $60 million. The director considered calling the film "Operation Valkyrie", not wanting to use a generic action film title. The film's English-language title was ultimately titled "Valkyrie" because Singer felt that the film was about more than the operation and liked its connection to Wagner's music.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Germany's Finance Ministry had originally denied the producers the right to film at Bendlerblock, explaining that the site should be treated as a "place of remembrance and mourning" which would "lose dignity if we were to exploit it as a film set". The producers were also denied a request to film at a Berlin police station by the department, citing adverse impact to the facility. The German government eventually had a change of heart concerning the Bendlerblock site and gave permission for filmmakers to film there. A United Artists spokesman said that they were "very grateful" for the decision, saying that the site "[had] always been important to us symbolically, creatively and for the sake of historical authenticity" and that the company had been in continuous talks with the German government in order to clear up any misconceptions about the nature of the film. The Memorial to the German Resistance also helped filmmakers by permitting them access to their materials and documents. German military pageantry was shaped by referring to the recorded material and input from military advisers.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: McQuarrie and Alexander researched first-hand accounts, photos, newsreels and texts. They also examined Gestapo and SS records, as the organizations had been meticulous in reconstructing the events of the conspiracy in its aftermath. A timeline of events was created, from which McQuarrie and Alexander shaped the script. After production began in Berlin, the writers were able to visit locations and meet with relatives of the conspirators; these meetings informed changes made to the script during filming.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: The initial scenes of von Stauffenberg in Tunisia were written to provide historical context to the rest of the film. The scenes were written with the intention of communicating the complexity of the situation—including references to the Holocaust—without being too obvious. The writers also wanted to evoke the spirit of the resistance and convey the ongoing disgust of the German officers. McQuarrie and Alexander found the most difficult task was in conveying the motives of the conspirators; von Stauffenberg especially remained an enigma, though the writers believed he and the other resistance members to be propelled by their moral outrage. McQuarrie and Alexander attempted to include a scene of von Stauffenberg's witnessing an atrocity, but because he was a supply officer he had little exposure to many of those that occurred. Though he witnessed some—such as the starvation of the Russians—they believed it difficult to dramatize von Stauffenberg's being compelled to action by "field reports". They also had difficulties with Hitler's portrayal; in researching his speeches, they struggled to find one in which he made overtly villainous statements.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Filming began on July 18, 2007, in Berlin. Production of "Valkyrie" was then estimated to have a budget of US$80 million, with two-thirds to be spent in Germany. The issued €4.8 million (US$6.64 million) to United Artists to assist with production. The filmmakers received permission to film at Tempelhof International Airport's Columbia Haus, a former Nazi jail for political prisoners. Production also involved World War II planes with swastikas painted on the sides, practicing in the airspace above Brandenburg. Around 70 sets were built for the film. The filmmakers also shot on location at the former Reich Air Ministry Building and the exterior of the house at which von Stauffenberg stayed with his brother.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: A replica set of Hitler's Eastern Front Headquarters Wolf's Lair was constructed south of Berlin, though the headquarters' actual location was in modern-day northeastern Poland. It took twelve weeks to build. Filming took place in some of the houses that were used to hide the bombs in 1944. The interior of Hitler's Bavarian residence Berghof was replicated using film shot by Hitler's consort Eva Braun and designing models of furniture possessed by secretive collectors. The production also made use of surviving Nazi relics, including furniture used by the Reich Air Ministry and objects that once adorned Hitler's desk. Nazi symbols, the display of which is heavily restricted in Germany, were used at several locations; while the filmmakers gave forewarning to local residents, a passerby witnessing the use of swastikas during filming in Berlin filed an official complaint with the city. Similar charges were filed against the owners of sites set up to show Nazi displays for the film's production. Filming also took place at Babelsberg Studios. During filming on August 19, 2007, eleven people were hurt when the side panel of a truck they were riding broke, with one person requiring hospitalization. They demanded $11 million in compensation, rejecting a settlement offered by the studio.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Before filming the scene of von Stauffenberg's execution at Bendlerblock, Tom Cruise led the cast and crew in holding a moment of silence "out of respect for the place and out of respect for the life achievement of these people who were executed there", according to actor Christian Berkel. After filming of the scene was completed, the footage was sent to be developed for the post-production process at a processing plant in Germany. The wrong chemical was accidentally used in development, damaging the film and requiring the crew to seek permission from the government to re-shoot the scenes. Permission was granted and a spokesman for the film indicated the schedule and budget had not been affected.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Singer and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel chose different styles for the separate halves of the film. Elegant camerawork such as cranes were used for the build-up to the attempt on Hitler's life, while the second half is frantic with handheld cinematography as the plotters are hunted down. The colors in the film also become more intense as the story continues. Sigel focused on red, the color of the Nazi flag, which he felt represented the violence of their ideology. Singer looked towards thrillers of the 1940s and home movies shot by Eva Braun for inspiration. Shooting scenes at night was difficult because presenting the era accurately required blackouts. Sigel noted that, in real life, car headlights were used for the firing squad to aim at and execute the plotters in the Bendlerblock. Singer chose to shoot in 1:85 aspect ratio and, since filming took place in Germany, the director used Arriflex cameras with Zeiss lenses.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: One Ju-Air Junkers JU-52, registration HB-HOT, which crashed near Piz Segnas in the Swiss Alps on 4 August 2018, had been used for the filming.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: The Tunisia battle sequence that opened the film was the last major sequence filmed. The filmmakers wanted to avoid the appearance that von Stauffenberg wanted to kill Hitler because of the injuries he suffered in the battle. They began a rough cut in October 2007 and, between then and June 2008, there were several test screenings without the battle sequence. By June 2008, the filmmakers felt that they knew how to adequately frame the characters when filming the battle sequence. Singer scouted Jordan and Spain for locations, but the candidates did not meet the aesthetic and economic criteria. The Cougar Buttes desert in California was ultimately chosen to represent Tunisia. Since the production budget was adjusted to provide visual effects to make von Stauffenberg's injuries realistic, not enough was left for solely computer-generated fighter planes. Singer instead used two P-40 Warhawks in the battle sequence. The budget increased in the course of production due to the filming in Germany, the rebuilding of sets, and lost shooting days, but German tax rebates tempered the growth. The studio reported its final production budget to be $75 million, but competing studios believed it to be closer to $90 million.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: The film's visual effects were created by Sony Pictures Imageworks, who collaborated with Bryan Singer on "Superman Returns". The company's two key goals were to accurately portray von Stauffenberg's injuries and to create a 1943 period look to Berlin. With many explosions and stunts seen in the film performed practically, the majority of the 800 computer-generated effects shots were used to portray von Stauffenberg's injuries. A digital version of Cruise's hand was designed, and technicians rotoscoped the hand in every movement it could make so the missing fingers were erased in the process. With many close-ups of von Stauffenberg's hand with missing fingers, the injuries were textured to look like actual scars, particularly based on surgical procedures from 1943. Cruise asked for advice on how to best move his hands so visual effects would be easier to apply, but some challenges, such as von Stauffenberg getting dressed on his own, were inescapable. According to supervisor Richard R. Hoover, "We know from historical accounts that von Stauffenberg didn't stick his hands in his pockets to try and hide his injuries."


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: For the battle sequence in North Africa, two real Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks in Desert Air Force paint schemes were used, accompanied by cloned images of them or by computer-generated planes. In scenes showing squadrons of soldiers, digital extras were not used; instead, photography of real squadrons was cloned. Sony Pictures Imageworks also digitally expanded details on stage locations and at practical locations. The exterior of Hitler's Bavarian residence Berghof was digitally created, since little was left of the original structure, and the creation was superimposed on a shot of a ski area in Austria. In Berlin itself, city officials helped reduce the need for visual effects by removing power poles and modern lighting over the weekend when filming took place and restoring the equipment by the start of the new week.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: There was widespread questioning in some corners of the press as to whether, in order to make himself look more muscular and of ample girth, Cruise had employed butt pads during filming. The star eventually addressed and denied the suppositions.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: As with his previous collaborations with Bryan Singer on "The Usual Suspects", "Superman Returns" and "X2", editor-composer John Ottman edited the film without a temp track, noting if the film was working well without music, it was becoming a strong product. Since "Valkyrie" drew its inspirations from previous World War II films like "The Great Escape" (1963), "Where Eagles Dare" (1968), "Patton" (1970), and "Midway" (1976), filmmakers initially had a cut where title cards introduced characters and their roles. When the cut was test screened with an American audience, the title cards were removed due to complaints that there were too many characters to follow. He said the challenge on "Valkyrie" was to create tension from dialogue scenes, and he often reshaped scenes to do this: moments rather than whole scenes were cut from the film. Being historically accurate meant Ottman was more restricted in reorganizing scenes, but he was able to choose what lines and close-ups he could focus on. Ottman said the scene he was most saddened to delete, because he had been looking forward to scoring it, was one where von Stauffenberg dances with his wife.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Ottman originally planned for a minimal score to "Valkyrie", but found that despite the film's dialogue-heavy nature, the film needed music to create a thriller atmosphere. He described the new approach as similar to his work in "The Usual Suspects" where "in order to keep the tension going in a scene where there's really a lot of dialogue, we had to rely on a lot of score", but the score is done in a "pulsating, subliminal way" and not an "expository score", but more like a "running pulse going through the movie". He excluded snare drums or trumpets, in the percussion and brass-led music, which are the changes made by Singer and Ottman, before scoring. He had to compose music for the North African battle before the scene was shot, because booking space to record film music is difficult. Although he found that composing music based on the script results in overlong pieces, he felt the music worked out fine for the sequence. The film's end credits piece, "They'll Remember You", is an original composition, though the lyrics were based on the poem "Wanderer's Nightsong" by German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. An end piece entitled "Long Live Sacred Germany" was inspired by Adagio for Strings. Ottman described the original version of the track as a "three minute drone that I slowed down with these two Tuvan throat singers, the whole thing was this horribly dark, morbid piece [which] left you cold". He further composed a metallic motif for Hitler, which was formed by low strings and a piano cluster.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: In June 2007, prior to production, a German Defence Ministry spokesperson said that filming of "Valkyrie" would not be allowed at the country's military sites if protagonist Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was portrayed by Tom Cruise, due to the actor's adherence to Scientology, which is considered a dangerous cult by the German authorities. The spokesperson further indicated that the ministry had not at that time received official filming requests from "Valkyrie"s producers. Colonel Stauffenberg's eldest child, retired Bundeswehr general Berthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, also voiced concerns over Cruise's portrayal of his father, saying that he would not oppose the film's production, but hoped that Cruise would drop the role. "I fear that only terrible kitsch will come out of the project. It's bound to be rubbish," he said. "Cruise should keep his hands off my father." Later in the month, the ministry reversed its stance and welcomed production of "Valkyrie".


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: The initial controversy reportedly stemmed from German member of parliament Antje Blumenthal, an authority on cults for the Christian Democratic Union and well-known opponent of Scientology, who had claimed that the German Defence Minister had assured her that the film would not be shot in the country. In addition, Cruise's affiliation with Scientology was also criticized by junior politicians such as Rudolf Köberle, the state secretary for interior issues in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Thomas Gandow, a spokesperson for the German Protestant Church, said Cruise's involvement in the film would "have the same propaganda advantages for Scientology as the 1936 Olympics had for the Nazis" and compared the actor to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: The film subsequently found local support in Germany. Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck saw that Cruise's involvement would promote awareness of a neglected story, and veteran German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl also gave his support to the production. A grandson of Colonel von Stauffenberg, who appeared in the film as an assistant, hailed Cruise's professionalism and indicated that most of his family were curious to see the finished product. In September 2007, when the Defence Ministry initially denied permission for filming at the Bendlerblock memorial, support for the film came in from German newspaper columnists and filmmakers, including director Wolfgang Petersen and Frank Schirrmacher, journalist and co-publisher of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung". Schirrmacher visited the set and agreed that the film would advance global awareness of the German Resistance. Ultimately granting access to the Bendlerblock after reviewing the script, the Defence Ministry said it showed that "barbarism didn't triumph but led to the founding of a democratic Germany". Ursula Caberta, who is in charge of a German government office which monitors Scientology, was disappointed in the ministry's decision, saying, "Tom Cruise [is] a figurehead of an anti-constitutional organization, and he should be treated that way."


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: A spokesperson for Scientology in Berlin, Sabine Weber, said in August 2007 that she was "shocked" by German politicians' criticisms, adding that it was a "call to discrimination" against someone based on their religious beliefs. In the same month, Cruise suggested to his critics that they see the film before denouncing it. In October 2007, fellow "Valkyrie" actor Kenneth Branagh said that the issue had been "largely exaggerated" and that the German official who initially incited the complaints contacted the production one week into filming to apologise, after reading the script and realising he had misinterpreted the film's plot.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: In November 2007, the head of the German Resistance Memorial Centre warned against any potential "myth formation" around von Stauffenberg as a result of the film, urging that any understanding of the Colonel must also be informed by the fact that he had been loyal to the Nazi cause for most of his military career. In the same month Cruise was given a Bambi courage award, presented by German media company Hubert Burda Media, "for tackling a story that had never been covered by Hollywood before".


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Klaus Berg of the "Hamburg Chronicle" noted that "... It is a well-known cliche that American film makers prefer to provide their audiences with a happy ending. Here, a viewer with even the most superficial and rudimentary knowledge of the history of the Second World War and of the National Socialist Regime would know from the very outset that a happy ending is out of the question, that all the protagonists' efforts and plans are doomed to end in bitter failure. Knowing this, I was surprised to realize how deeply I was caught up in the tension of the plot, how desperately I was hoping against hope that Cruise and his fellows would after all succeed. ... No, not for one minute during the entire film did I think about Scientology."


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: "Valkyrie" was intended to be a high-profile film that would jump-start United Artists, the host studio partly owned by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner. Pressure was placed on "Valkyrie" to do well since an earlier United Artists film featuring Cruise, "Lions for Lambs", performed poorly in the box office, and the studio's planned production of Oliver Stone's "Pinkville" was canceled. The film changed release dates multiple times. It was originally slated to be released on August 8, 2008, then moved up earlier to June 27, 2008. The film was then held off to October 3, 2008, to avoid competition from "WALL-E" and "Wanted", and to enable the late filming of the North African battle sequence. The October date was also originally chosen to increase the film's chances of awards success. In April 2008, the release date was pushed back to February 13, 2009, with the studio citing the early fall schedule as too crowded with Academy Award prospects. "Valkyrie" would have taken advantage of the lucrative President's Day weekend, after "The Wolfman" and "The Pink Panther 2" were moved from this date.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: In July 2008, United Artists president of worldwide marketing Dennis Rice was replaced by Michael Vollman, who was tasked to develop a marketing strategy for the "troubled" "Valkyrie", which had been "battered by constant media sniping". Under Vollman, by August 2008, the release date was changed to December 26, 2008, with reports citing commercial reasons for the move after a successful test screening. (The film was ultimately released on Christmas Day, December 25, 2008.) The release date was before the end of December, which "crucially" helped the film with a home distribution deal with the subscription channel Showtime. In the same month of August, Paula Wagner left her position with the studio during the film's post-production. The changing release date for "Valkyrie" drew criticism about the viability of United Artists, and the studio aimed to combat the criticism leading up to the film's eventual release. In addition, the first theatrical trailer, released early in 2008, received "mixed buzz" over Tom Cruise's portraying von Stauffenberg with an American accent. The trade paper "Variety" described the trailer as "dour and ... like it was selling a talky stage play with a cast of old British actors". Images of Tom Cruise as Colonel von Stauffenberg that surfaced during filming were widely ridiculed. Terry Press, a marketing consultant with the studio, said that "Valkyrie" had been wrongly labeled as "the Tom Cruise eye-patch movie".


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: As the December release date approached, United Artists launched a campaign to reform public perception of the film, downplaying the role of Tom Cruise as a German war hero and instead pitching "Valkyrie" as "a character-driven suspense thriller". The new campaign also played up the reputation of director Bryan Singer, who had directed the thrillers "The Usual Suspects" (1995) and "Apt Pupil" (1998). Terry Press urged foregoing an awards campaign for the film; Cruise agreed with the consultant, while Singer was disappointed about the decision. Instead, the studio focused on audience appeal in a competitive time frame in late December. A second theatrical trailer and a new poster were unveiled in October 2008 by United Artists to renew "Valkyrie"'s viability with audiences and accolades. The poster was designed to have flashy graphics and to emulate the posters from the war films "The Great Escape" (1963) and "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) in having a team as a central visual. The team element was based on market research from the studio's focus groups who indicated that they liked Cruise as "a character leading a group of people toward solving a problem". The new trailer accentuated action, and was widely considered an improvement over the first trailer. An internal MGM memo reported the reception of the trailer by online communities to be "significantly favorable" compared to the previous trailer. The studio sought two demographic quadrants: males over 35 years old as well as younger males. Since United Artists reported that the film cost $75 million to make and that $60 million was spent on marketing, the studio faced high financial stakes. The film also tested the determination of its distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the mettle of Cruise as a superstar.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Prior to "Valkyrie"s December 2008 release, concern was raised about how the film would be received in the holiday season due to its Nazi subject matter, along with related films "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", "The Reader", "Defiance" and "Good". "Advertising Age" wrote during the economic crisis of 2008, "The depressing state of the economy and an alarmingly low level of understanding of the Holocaust among American youth point to a tough road for such serious fare."


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: "Valkyrie" opened on Christmas Day, December 25, 2008, in 2,711 theaters in the United States and Canada. The film grossed an estimated $8.5 million for the opening day. In the four-day holiday weekend, "Valkyrie" grossed an estimated $30 million, ranking fourth at the box office with $7,942 per theater. Pamela McClintock of "Variety" cited the weekend performance as "a victory for United Artists and MGM"; Gitesh Pandya of "Rotten Tomatoes" said the haul represented a "big hit" for the studio. Studio research revealed that audiences averaged 55% male and 66% over 25. Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers, said that the weekend gross "totally robs the nay-sayers of their ability to deem it a flop", believing that Cruise's comic performance in the previous summer's "Tropic Thunder" helped audiences embrace the star again. Dergarabedian also ascribed the better-than-expected performance to the studio's marketing of "Valkyrie" as a thriller film. Since Cruise was collecting a salary of $20 million against 20% of the backend (revenue gathered after the completion of a film) and MGM/UA investment was capped at $60 million, United Artists sold the film to several foreign territories to make money back.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: The European premiere was held at the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin on January 20, 2009. "Valkyrie" commercially opened in over a dozen territories outside the United States and Canada on the weekend of January 23, 2009, including a premiere in Germany on January 22. The film ranked first in the international box office, grossing over $13 million. It placed first in Germany, Australia, and the Netherlands and placed second in the United Kingdom, Austria and South Korea. "Valkyrie"s highest-grossing territory was Germany, where it earned $3.7 million from 689 locations, averaging $5,311 per screen. The German opening was considered "a chart-topping yet unspectacular start", barely edging out "Twilight", which opened three weeks before. BBC News reported that the premiere of the film has renewed the topic of the German Resistance among the German populace.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: The film opened in 13 additional territories on the weekend of January 30, including Russia and Spain. With 3,600 screenings in 26 markets, the film grossed $18.6 million to maintain its top placement at the international box office for a second weekend in a row. Spain was its highest-grossing territory with $2.8 million, followed by Germany with $2.3 million, the United Kingdom with $2 million, and $1.9 million in Italy. As of April 13, 2009, the film has grossed $83,079,000 in the United States and Canada and an estimated $117,198,951 in other territories for a worldwide gross of $200,276,784.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: When "Valkyrie" premiered in New York City on December 15, 2008, it was shown in a private screening room at the Time Warner Center, rather than at a Lincoln Square theater. The venue was chosen in part to minimize the exposure to Scientology protesters gathered at the Time Warner Center. While the US "red carpet" was held in private, Cruise interacted with fans in South Korea and Europe. There were small anti-Scientology protests at the European premiere in Berlin, where Cruise signed one protester's Guy Fawkes mask. Anti-Scientology protests also occurred at the London premiere, and Amsterdam where Scientologists in the crowd engaged the protesters. The NTV news report about the January 26 Moscow premiere noted that journalists had to sign a document promising not to ask questions about Scientology, and their questions would be censored; to this, the reporter remarked, "You can't help getting reminded of those historic times depicted in "Operation Valkyrie"."


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: In Germany, authorities and politicians expressed concern that if the film was successful, it would boost Scientology in the country. German politician Michael Brand encouraged his deputies to boycott "Valkyrie", saying that Scientology pursued "totalitarian goals". Germany's Agency for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), which monitors the presence of Scientology in the country, expressed concern about the film's impact. An anonymous BfV official said, "These Scientologists have two goals in Germany ... to get their message to children, and make their organization respectable. The film does both: it has put a top Scientologist at the center of a national debate about German history."


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: In January 2009, Cruise appeared in the highly popular German-Swiss-Austrian TV show, "Wetten, dass." Cruise had already left the show, when German comedian Michael Mittermeier said: "In an interview, Tom Cruise claimed that he would have killed Hitler, too. To me, it would be sufficient if he had killed the "Führer" of Scientology." Prior to the show, members of the Christian Democratic Junge Union protested against the broadcaster for being uncritical about Scientology.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: "Valkyrie" was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 19, 2009, in three configurations: a single DVD edition, a two-DVD set, and a Blu-ray version. Valkyrie opened at #2 on the DVD sales chart, selling 844,264 units translating to revenue of $14,816,833. According to the latest figures, 1,631,011 units have been sold, bringing in $27,042,657 in revenue.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: The movie website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 62%, based on 196 reviews, with an average rating of 6.19/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Given the subject matter, "Valkyrie" could have been an outstanding historical thriller, but settles for being a mildly entertaining, but disposable yarn." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 56 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In the United States, the film received mixed reviews from critics, however in Germany, there were different reports about how "Valkyrie" was received. "The New York Times" wrote, "It has been greeted with a measured and hospitable reception in Germany, where it was once viewed with suspicion." The trade paper "Variety" reported that despite the controversy over Cruise's ties to Scientology, "initial reviews have been positive, with many observers now hailing Cruise and predicting the pic will even improve the country's image abroad." "Der Spiegel" said that the film and its supporting actors were praised, but that Cruise was panned by German critics for "a surprisingly low-key performance that fails to convey the charisma with which Stauffenberg inspired fellow plotters". The AFP also said that the German critics "savaged Tom Cruise's portrayal" of von Stauffenberg, yet "relished a homegrown hero getting the Hollywood treatment".


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Joe Morganstern wrote in "The Wall Street Journal", "Mr. Cruise's performance turns out to be brisk and reasonably plausible, though unexceptional, while the production as a whole succeeds as an elaborate procedural, impressively staged in historical locations." Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" thought that Cruise gave "a fine, typically energetic performance in a film that requires nothing more of him than a profile and vigor" but that von Stauffenberg was too complex a character to adequately portray in a film designed as a thriller. Dargis also wrote of the director's excess, "Though Mr. Singer's old-fashioned movie habits, his attention to the gloss, gleam and glamour of the image, can be agreeably pleasurable, he tends to gild every lily," citing as an example the "spooky music" and "low camera angles" in the meeting between Hitler and von Stauffenberg. Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" also found Cruise "perfectly satisfactory, if not electrifying, in the leading role", believing that the portrayal fit the "veterans of officer rank" that would not panic under fire; Ebert recognizes that "Singer ... works heroically to introduce us to the major figures in the plot, to tell them apart, to explain their roles and to suggest their differences."


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Writing in "Time", Richard Schickel said, "I'm not going to argue that Valkyrie is a great movie. But in its way it is a thoughtful and entertaining one, especially in comparison with the pomp and pretentiousness of most of the competition this holiday season." Ty Burr of "The Boston Globe" described the film: "It's a smooth, compelling, almost suspenseful ... and slightly hollow Hollywood period piece—a World War II action-drama in which an intriguing (but not electrifying) star performance is buttressed by stellar support." Burr analyzed Cruise's performance: "... his Claus von Stauffenberg is an honorable conception that's ultimately too thin to fully rise up from the pages of history. This story deserves to be told, but for reasons best known to himself, the star has latched onto a strictly Nietzschean interpretation that he rides into the ground." Claudia Puig of "USA Today" thought of Cruise as "unconvincing and stiff as the disenchanted" von Stauffenberg. She felt that the film started slowly and that "even during scenes of intense action, the visually slick production is only minimally engrossing". She concluded of the film's overall pace, "The action becomes more engrossing during the film's second half, but one expects more depth and nuance, given its pedigree." Anthony Lane of "The New Yorker" wrote, "[Cruise] carries the movie, although, once you dig beneath the uniform, there isn't much for him to get a handle on; the fascination with Stauffenberg resides in what he did, not in who he was." Lane thought that there was "too much" character acting of the British veteran actors and felt of the casting of Nighy, Stamp, and Wilkinson, "These men are meant to be battle-toughened Nazi officers, but what we get is an array of discreetly amusing studies in mild neurosis."


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Todd McCarthy of "Variety" wrote that "Valkyrie" "has visual splendor galore, but is a cold work lacking in the requisite tension and suspense". McCarthy considered Cruise as "a bit stiff but still adequate" as von Stauffenberg. The critic believed that McQuarrie's script was well-carpentered but felt that compressing and streamlining the events to make a known failed plot more thrilling lacked a "sufficient sizzle into the dialogue or individuality into the characters". McCarthy missed "many of the interesting personal and political nuances pertaining to these men" that were not detailed. He thought that the production design by Lilly Kilvert and Patrick Lumb stood out, that Newton Thomas Sigel's cinematography had a "restrained elegance", and that John Ottman performed well in his dual role as editor and composer. A similar sentiment was stated by Mike LaSalle in the "San Francisco Chronicle", who wrote "There's nothing inherently laughable about the spectacle of Tom Cruise with an eye patch and a missing hand, strutting around in a German colonel's uniform. But neither is there anything about him that truly suggests Claus von Stauffenberg, leader of the 1944 conspiracy to decapitate the Nazi government and stage a coup d'etat. Think of "Valkyrie" as a reasonably entertaining drama about the time Tom Cruise tried to kill Hitler. Do that, and it becomes possible to enjoy the movie.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Despite differences over the quality of the film, critics were in agreement that the film had drawn attention to von Stauffenberg's cause. It was applauded "both as a history lesson and as a film". Tobias Kniebe of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" described the film as "maybe not the masterpiece we might have dreamed of ... but not much less", a sentiment shared by many German critics. The public-service German television channel ZDF called "Valkyrie" "neither scandalously bad nor the event of the century. ... Neither is it the action thriller we feared, but it is a well-made and serious film." The newspaper "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" reported that any fear that the "myth of the German resistance would be put through a Hollywood filter has turned out to be wrong and prejudicial".


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Other critics thought that Tom Cruise did not "make the grade" as a German war hero. The film critic for "Der Tagesspiegel" wrote, "[Cruise's] image as an actor has been finally ruined by "Valkyrie" ... [the film] doesn't dare to be popcorn cinema and at the same time lacks any conceptual brilliance." Hanns-Georg Rodek of "Die Welt" reported of Cruise's performance, "He comes over best as an American hero, someone who battles for respect with aggression and energy. But Stauffenberg was a German hero, with aristocratic bearing, and Cruise cannot carry that off." The "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung" said Cruise's performance was "credible", and reserved praise for the authenticity of the dubbed German-language version of the film over the original.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: "Valkyrie" was nominated by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for seven Saturn Awards: Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film, Best Director for Bryan Singer, Best Actor for Tom Cruise, Best Supporting Actor for Bill Nighy, Best Supporting Actress for Carice van Houten, Best Music for John Ottman and Best Costume Design for Joanna Johnston. The film was nominated by the Visual Effects Society Awards in the category of Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: The Gestapo investigated the 20 July plot thoroughly, so filmmakers had access to much documentation as they integrated the historical account with "Hollywood factors" in producing "Valkyrie". Peter Hoffmann, professor of history at McGill University and a leading authority on the German Resistance, was a consultant for the filmmakers. Hoffmann spoke of the film's accuracy, "["Valkyrie"] gives a fundamentally accurate portrait of Stauffenberg and the conspirators. There are details which must be counted as liberties. But, fundamentally, the film is decent, respectful and represents the spirit of the conspiracy." "The Scotsman" reported of the film's accuracy, ""Valkyrie" ... sticks pretty closely to the story of the failed conspiracy to topple the Nazi regime ... it implies that the plot came closer to success than it really did. But the basic facts are all present and correct."


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: While von Stauffenberg listens to Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" in the film, in reality the colonel hated Wagner. In addition, von Stauffenberg's elder brother Berthold was also omitted from the film. Bryan Singer purposely left out some of von Stauffenberg's "macho" moments in writing the character, such as the colonel's refusal of morphine to avoid addiction. He explained the removals, "There were things I actually left out because I knew people would think we were making them up ... imagine Tom Cruise saying 'No morphine!' People would think it's a contrivance." In the film, von Haeften steps out in front of von Stauffenberg when he faces the firing squad, but when filmmakers attempted to reconstruct the scene based on eyewitness testimony and photographs, they discovered that the shots that killed von Haeften would also have killed von Stauffenberg, who was actually shot shortly after. Therefore, director Singer had only two members of the firing squad fire, without command, to kill von Haeften but not Stauffenberg. This attempt to explain why Stauffenberg was not killed by the shots that killed von Haeften is speculative but not impossible. Another alteration was to the portrayal of Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, played in the film by Kevin McNally. Goerdeler was written in the film to be antagonistic, dramatically representing the friction and conflict that existed within the conspiracy, though filmmakers considered him a "much more moral character" in reality.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: One significant historical alteration, made to avoid confusion with the audience and also to "set the stage" at the Wolf's Lair, was changing the location of the first aborted assassination attempt to kill Hitler on July 11. Historically, Stauffenberg first attempted to use his briefcase bomb at Berchtesgaden. In the film, this attempt is set inside Hitler's concrete bunker at the Wolf's Lair. Meanwhile, the Berchtesgaden affair is downgraded to a brief scene in which Hitler meets with Stauffenberg to approve a revised plan for Operation Valkyrie (in reality, the Valkyrie updates occurred over a period of several weeks at meetings between Hitler and General Olbricht). Producer Christopher McQuarrie later stated that the shift of the first assassination attempt to the Wolf's Lair was in order to show the audience the inside of the concrete command bunker, with the intent being to emphasize that Hitler most certainly would have been killed had the July 20th attempt not been moved to the outdoor conference hut.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: British novelist Justin Cartwright, who wrote the book "The Song Before It Is Sung" about one of the plot's conspirators, wrote, "The film is true to most of the facts of the plot, but fails to convey any sense of the catastrophic moral and political vortex into which Germans were being drawn." Though not depicted, but briefly mentioned in the film, von Stauffenberg was persuaded to become involved in the plot by his uncle, Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband and his uncle's good friend, Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg, who were both disenchanted with the Nazis and appalled by the atrocities in the concentration camps. The film also did not explore von Stauffenberg's philosophy and background, which Cartwright felt fit the German tradition of "Dichter und Helden" ("poets and heroes"). Cartwright described how von Stauffenberg was an appropriate leader for the plot: "He was the man who unmistakably wore the mantle of a near-mystic German past, a warrior Germany, a noble Germany, a poetic Germany, a Germany of myth and longing." The novelist felt that Cruise's portrayal was more akin to one as a "troublesome cop". Cartwright also noted that the film did not raise the question of what kind of Germany von Stauffenberg had in mind if the plot succeeded.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: They did not mention or include the popular Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. He was implicated in the plot and was later forced to kill himself because he knew about the plot but did not warn Hitler. In 2018 it was discovered through previously unknown papers that Rommel did in fact support the plot and even supported killing Hitler, contrary to previous accounts that stated he knew about the plot but did not support it unless Hitler was arrested and tried with due process, not assassination.


title: Valkyrie (film)

text: Historian Peter Steinbach has criticized especially the negative portrayals of some of the conspirators. According to Steinbach the movie depicts Goerdeler in a "hurtful and irresponsible way". Also the characterisation of Olbricht is "downright degrading", as it downplays Olbricht's important role in the plot. The movie portrays the non-military resistance as "quarreling, burnt out and powerless". Actually the military conspirators were not aiming at a military coup d'état but wanted to open up room for politicians. On the other hand, Stauffenberg is shown as being driven by the persecution and murdering of the Jews. But in reality, the Holocaust was the primary motive for only a few conspirators.


title: David O. Russell

text: David Owen Russell (born August 20, 1958) is an American filmmaker. His early directing career includes the comedy films "Spanking the Monkey" (1994), "Flirting with Disaster" (1996), "Three Kings" (1999), and "I Heart Huckabees" (2004). He gained critical success with the biographical sports drama "The Fighter" (2010), the romantic comedy-drama "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012), and the dark comedy crime film "American Hustle" (2013). The three films were commercially successful and acclaimed by critics, having earned Russell three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, as well as a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for "Silver Linings Playbook" and a Best Original Screenplay nomination for "American Hustle". Russell received his seventh Golden Globe nomination for the semi-biographical comedy-drama "Joy" (2015).


title: David O. Russell

text: Russell has garnered controversy on and off-set for antagonistic behavior towards the actors in his films including George Clooney, Lily Tomlin, and Amy Adams. He has also admitted to sexual misconduct against his nineteen-year-old niece in 2011 and physically attacked Christopher Nolan at a party in Hollywood in 2003.


title: David O. Russell

text: Russell was raised in Larchmont, New York, in an atheist, middle-class household. His parents worked for Simon & Schuster; his father was the vice president of sales for the company, and his mother was a secretary there. His father was from a Russian-Jewish family, and his mother was Italian-American (of Lucanian descent). His paternal grandfather, a butcher from the Upper West Side of Manhattan, lost many of his relatives in concentration camps.


title: David O. Russell

text: When he was 13, Russell made his first film for a school project and used a Super 8 film camera to film people in New York City. He attended Mamaroneck High School, where he was voted "Class Rebel". He fell in love with film in his teens (his favorite movies included "Taxi Driver", "Chinatown", and "Shampoo") but aspired to become a writer; Russell started a newspaper in high school and wrote short stories. As his parents worked in the publishing industry, he grew up in a household filled with books.


title: David O. Russell

text: In 1981, Russell received his A.B. degree from Amherst College, where he majored in English and political science. He wrote his senior thesis on the United States intervention in Chile from 1963 to 1973.


title: David O. Russell

text: After graduating from Amherst, Russell traveled to Nicaragua and taught in a Sandinista literacy program. He worked in waitering, bartending, and catering. Some of his bartending colleagues included members of the Blue Man Group. He worked for a booksellers' association and later became a community organizer in Maine. He used video equipment to document slums and bad housing conditions, which later became a documentary of Lewiston, Maine. Russell was a political activist and canvassed and raised money in neighborhoods; he also did community work in Boston's South End. In addition to working in several day jobs, he began to write short films.


title: David O. Russell

text: Russell directed a documentary about Panamanian immigrants in Boston, which led to a job as a production assistant on a PBS series called "Smithsonian World".


title: David O. Russell

text: In 1987, Russell wrote, produced, and directed "Bingo Inferno: A Parody on American Obsessions", a short film about an obsessive bingo-playing mother. Two years later, he made another short titled "Hairway to the Stars", which featured Bette Davis and William Hickey. Both shorts were shown at the Sundance Film Festival.


title: David O. Russell

text: After Russell made an award-winning short film for a Boston television station, he received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Instead of the money going towards a feature about a fortune cookie writer, he decided to make "Spanking the Monkey", a film about an incestuous mother-son relationship. As a result, Russell had to return the funds to the NEA.


title: David O. Russell

text: "Spanking the Monkey", the 1994 independent dark comedy, was his first directorial effort. The film was produced by Dean Silvers, and starred Jeremy Davies as a troubled young man and Alberta Watson as his lonely mother. Despite the controversial subject matter, the film received critical acclaim and won him Best First Screenplay and Best First Feature from the Independent Spirit Awards, as well as the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.


title: David O. Russell

text: His next project was the Miramax comedy "Flirting with Disaster" (1996), his second collaboration with Dean Silvers, and first with Harvey Weinstein. The film follows a neurotic man (Ben Stiller) who travels with his wife (Patricia Arquette) and a high-strung caseworker (Téa Leoni) to find his biological parents. The film also starred Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, Alan Alda, Josh Brolin, Richard Jenkins, and Lily Tomlin. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, and was well received by most critics. Roger Ebert said of the direction, "Russell finds the strong central line all screwball begins with, the seemingly serious mission or quest, and then throws darts at a map of the United States as he creates his characters." Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a 'B' and declared it "one of the ha-ha funniest comedies currently at a theater near you."


title: David O. Russell

text: The success of those two films led to the satirical Gulf War black comedy "Three Kings" (1999), starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube and Spike Jonze. Adapted from an earlier script by former stand-up comic John Ridley, the film follows three American GIs who devise a plan to steal hidden Kuwaiti gold during the 1991 Iraqi uprising against Saddam Hussein. Filmed in the deserts of Arizona, California and Mexico, and featuring actual Iraqi refugees as extras, Russell used several unique cinematic techniques to achieve a feeling of realism. He filmed using handheld cameras and Steadicam, and shot on Ektachrome slide photography stock that was cross processed in colour negative chemicals, to reproduce "the odd colour of the newspaper images [of the Gulf War]." He also insisted on filming all of the explosions in one shot, unlike a typical action film.


title: David O. Russell

text: "Three Kings" was released in 1999 and was his biggest critical and financial success. It grossed $60 million in the United States and over $100 million worldwide. It holds a 94% at Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus ""Three Kings" successfully blends elements of action, drama, and comedy into a thoughtful, exciting movie on the Gulf War." It ended up being the first of several collaborations with Mark Wahlberg.


title: David O. Russell

text: Russell's next project was the existential comedy "I Heart Huckabees" (2004). During pre-production in 2003, it was reported that Jude Law dropped the film to star in Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige" (2006), but after Russell headlocked Nolan at a Hollywood party, demanding that "his fellow director show artistic solidarity and give up his star in order to save "Huckabees"", Nolan dropped Law from his film. The film ended up receiving mixed reviews and underperformed at the box office, but recent collaborator Jennifer Lawrence called it her favorite David O. Russell film.


title: David O. Russell

text: "Nailed" is a political comedy co-written by Russell and Kristin Gore, and stars Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tracy Morgan, Catherine Keener, Paul Reubens, James Brolin and Kirstie Alley. Production was delayed or shut down four times in 2008, resulting in IATSE shutting down production because the crew was not getting paid. Actor James Caan left mid-production "due to creative differences and [the] split was amicable."


title: David O. Russell

text: The film revolves around the character of Alice Eckle (played by Jessica Biel) who gets accidentally shot in the head with a nail by a clumsy workman, eliciting wild sexual urges. The uninsured Eckle goes on a crusade to Washington to fight for the rights of the bizarrely injured. She meets an immoral congressman (Jake Gyllenhaal) who takes advantage of her sex drive and capitalizes on her crusade as Eckle heads into her own career in politics. Russell ceased working on the film in 2010; it was retitled "Accidental Love" and was released on VOD on February 10, 2015, before a limited release on March 20, 2015


title: David O. Russell

text: In 2010, Russell returned with "The Fighter", a biographical sports drama produced by and starring Mark Wahlberg. The film focuses on junior welterweight boxer Mickey Ward's rise to claim the WBU Light Welterweight title, as well as his difficult relationship with his mother, Alice Ward (Melissa Leo), and his older half-brother Dickie Eklund (Christian Bale). The film became a major critical and financial success, grossing $125 million, and appearing on several critics' year-end top ten lists. "The Fighter" also received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for Russell, the first of his career, and earned awards for both Bale and Leo, for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.


title: David O. Russell

text: "Silver Linings Playbook" was adapted from the serio-comic novel by Matthew Quick. Bradley Cooper plays Pat and Robert De Niro, who starred with Cooper in "Limitless", co-stars as his father. Jennifer Lawrence plays the lead female role of Tiffany. She commented about Russell, "He's really my favorite director since I started watching movies." The cast also includes Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker and the veteran Bollywood actor Anupam Kher. The film was released in the United States and Canada on November 16, 2012.


title: David O. Russell

text: Russell received the Hollywood Director Award at the 16th annual Hollywood Film Awards and an Indie Impact Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for his work on the film, as well as two Independent Spirit Awards (Best Director, Best Screenplay), two Satellite Awards (Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay), a BAFTA Film Award (Adapted Screenplay), and the AFI Award for Movie of the Year. "Silver Linings Playbook" won the People's Choice Award at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and garnered four Golden Globe Award nominations (with one win for Jennifer Lawrence, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy) and eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Russell), Best Adapted Screenplay (Russell), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bradley Cooper), Best Actress in a Leading Role (winner, Jennifer Lawrence), Best Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro), Best Supporting Actress (Jacki Weaver) and Best Film Editing (Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers).


title: David O. Russell

text: "Silver Linings Playbook" is about a former teacher named Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper), who suffers from bipolar disorder, and moves back in with his family. He is initially obsessive about reuniting with his spouse after having discovered her with a lover and assaulting the man; however, the story explores the development of his relationship with Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence). The film was inspired by Devereaux Glenholme School, a 12-month special education boarding school in Washington, CT. Russell's son is currently a student there, and Russell stated, "I was so familiar with the issues in the story that I knew how emotional and funny and original it could be. Without this community I would never have made this film."


title: David O. Russell

text: Russell's next project was "American Hustle" (2013), a comedy based on the ABSCAM scandal of the 1970s. The film's plot revolved around skilled con artists Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) being forced to work for unhinged FBI Agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). Their complicated operation eventually involves Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) of Camden, New Jersey, as well as Irving's unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence). The film reunited Russell with Bale and Adams after "The Fighter", as well as with Cooper, Lawrence, and De Niro after "Silver Linings Playbook". Saïd Taghmaoui, the Iraqi captain from "Three Kings", also makes an appearance.


title: David O. Russell

text: The film received seven Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture Comedy & Best Director for Russell, and three wins including Best Motion Picture Comedy, Best Actress for Amy Adams and Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Lawrence. Additionally, the film received ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, along with a Screen Actors Guild Award win for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.


title: David O. Russell

text: In January 2014, it was announced that Russell would rewrite and direct a comedy-drama film about American inventor and entrepreneur Joy Mangano, a struggling Long Island single mother of three children. Jennifer Lawrence played the lead role in the film. Principal photography began on February 17, 2015, and the film, titled "Joy", was released on December 25, 2015.


title: David O. Russell

text: The film received mixed to positive reviews, focusing mainly on the strong central performance by actor Jennifer Lawrence, Russell's direction, and the supporting performances by Diane Ladd, Robert De Niro, and others. Featured music in the film was a driving force behind the narrative, including a reworked a cappella version of Cream's "I Feel Free". Strong box office greeted the film's first five days, with a $5900-per-screen average, and 25 million dollars in gross receipts, according to Box Office Mojo; it grossed a worldwide total of over $101 million.


title: David O. Russell

text: The film was nominated for 2 Golden Globe Awards, including Best Musical or Comedy, and Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for Jennifer Lawrence, which she won. Lawrence was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, the film's only Oscar nomination.


title: David O. Russell

text: Written and directed by Russell, "Past Forward" was a short film collaboration between the director and Prada. A clip of the film premiered in September 2016 at Milan Fashion Week, and premiered November 2016 in Los Angeles. In the short film, Russell uses three actors for the same roles including Kuoth Wiel, Freida Pinto and Allison Williams. The film has been described as a "surreal dreamscape with an eclectic cast replaying scenes in shifting combinations".


title: David O. Russell

text: In January 2020, it was announced that Russell would be writing and directing "Amsterdam", produced by Regency Enterprises. Russell will be teaming up with Christian Bale for the third time, with Margot Robbie also joining the film. In October 2020 it was announced that John David Washington had joined the cast of the film, with filming scheduled to begin in January 2021. The same month that filming began, Rami Malek and Zoe Saldaña joined the cast. A trailer was released in July 2022, announcing the casting of Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Andrea Riseborough, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Taylor Swift, and Robert De Niro.


title: David O. Russell

text: David O. Russell is on the board of Ghetto Film School (GFS), an organization that was founded in 2000 to educate American storytellers. Russell learned about GFS in 2002 from two students who introduced him to Joe Hall, president of Ghetto Film School. Shortly after, Russell joined the board of the organization.


title: David O. Russell

text: Along with fellow board members, Russell brought filmmaker friends, industry and movie studio professionals to donate money and lend their time teaching classes to support young black and Latino filmmakers from the South Bronx and Harlem.


title: David O. Russell

text: On June 16, 2014, Ghetto Film School opened its new branch in Los Angeles. This was thanks in part to Russell with an assist from 21st Century Fox co-COO James Murdoch.


title: David O. Russell

text: In October 2015, Russell and Jim Gianopulos hosted the premiere of Ghetto Film School Los Angeles fellows' thesis film "Demon's Gate".


title: David O. Russell

text: Editor Jay Cassidy worked with Russell on "Silver Linings Playbook", "American Hustle", "Joy", and "Amsterdam". Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten also edited several films for Russell. Producers Dean Silvers, Megan Ellison, and Jonathan Gordon have worked with him two and three times, respectively. Linus Sandgren was cinematographer for "American Hustle" and "Joy".


title: David O. Russell

text: Russell was married to Janet Grillo, who was a producer at Fine Line Features, from 1992 to 2007. He has been with his partner, Holly Davis, since 2007. Davis is a costume designer. Russell has two children: one with Grillo and an adopted son with Davis. He resides in Santa Monica, California, and is an advocate for mental illness treatment and support, and an active supporter of autism research. Russell's efforts saw him named the Essential Puzzle Piece honoree by the Light Up the Night Gala for Autism.


title: David O. Russell

text: In 2013, Russell visited Washington, D.C., to meet with vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Debbie Stabenow to discuss a new bill regarding mental healthcare. In May 2014, Russell participated in a panel at Paley Center for the Media that discussed projects that have brought to light the stigmas and suffering associated with mental illness. Russell serves on the creative council of Represent.Us, a nonpartisan anti-corruption organization.


title: David O. Russell

text: Over the years Russell has gained a reputation for being combative and abusive towards actors in his films, notably George Clooney, Lily Tomlin, and Amy Adams. In 2003, he physically assaulted Christopher Nolan at a party in Hollywood.


title: David O. Russell

text: During filming, news spread of Russell and George Clooney nearly having a fistfight on the set of "Three Kings". In a 2000 interview, Clooney described his confrontation with Russell after tensions on the set had been steadily increasing. According to Clooney, Russell was demeaning the crew verbally and physically. Clooney felt this was out of line and told Russell, "David, it's a big day. But you can't shove, push or humiliate people who aren't allowed to defend themselves." After the confrontation escalated when, according to Sharon Waxman in her book, "Rebels on the Backlot", Russell actually head-butted Clooney and Clooney grabbed Russell by the throat. Clooney said Russell eventually apologized and filming continued, but Clooney described the incident as "truly, without exception, the worst experience of my life." When asked if he would work with Russell again, Clooney responded, "Life's too short."


title: David O. Russell

text: In early 2012, Clooney indicated that he and Russell had mended their relationship, saying "We made a really, really great film, and we had a really rough time together, but it's a case of both of us getting older. I really do appreciate the work he continues to do, and I think he appreciates what I'm trying to do."


title: David O. Russell

text: Russell had conflicts with Lily Tomlin during the filming of "I Heart Huckabees", and in March 2007, two videos were leaked onto YouTube portraying on-set arguments between Russell and Tomlin, in which among other things he called her sexist names.


title: David O. Russell

text: These abusive tirades by Russell were first reported in a 2004 "The New York Times" article by Sharon Waxman in which she describes him calling Tomlin "the crudest word imaginable, in front of the actors and crew." Additionally Waxman describes Russell storming off the set and back on again, continually shouting, which is corroborated by the leaked videos. On the set, actors were sometimes driven to their wits' ends after hours of takes. Afterward, Tomlin remarked that she and Russell are "fine", saying, "I'd rather have someone human and available and raw and open. Don't give me someone cold, or cut off, or someone who considers themselves dignified."


title: David O. Russell

text: In a 2011 interview with Movieline, Tomlin was asked about the incident and she replied: It happens sometimes—but David is a very mercurial person, and that's part of why he's so brilliant. He almost reflects the movie. I did two movies with him, and "I Heart Huckabees" was so crazy, so all over the place, I think he kind of embodies intuitively whatever he's trying to make happen. It was just crazy, crazy stuff. We were always doing something, and then we'd get manic and crazy and I just flipped out on him. Then he flipped out on me. And you know, stuff goes on. But it's nothing. It's like family. If you have a big fight in your family, usually it's treated that way on the set. We don't want to misbehave; believe me, it's embarrassing. It's humiliating, you know? Because you just lose it. You act like a crazy person. [Laughs] But I adore David. I adore him as a talent. A lot of my friends said, "Well, you won't work with him again." I said, "Of course I would! I adore him, I love him. He's brilliant."


title: David O. Russell

text: During the 2012 Gotham Awards, host Mike Birbiglia roasted Russell by reading a transcript of Russell's argument with Lily Tomlin. The event, specifically the joke and what transpired around it, later formed a large part of Birbiglia's show, "Thank God for Jokes".


title: David O. Russell

text: According to "Salon", in the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack, it was revealed that Russell made Amy Adams' life "a living hell" during the production of "American Hustle", and Christian Bale intervened. "Salon" reported that, in an email to Sony chief Michael Lynton, journalist Jonathan Alter said: "He grabbed one guy by the collar, cursed out people repeatedly in front of others and so abused Amy Adams that Christian Bale got in his face and told him to stop acting like an asshole."


title: David O. Russell

text: Adams confirmed the story in a 2016 "British GQ" interview stating, "He was hard on me, that's for sure. It was a lot ... I was really just devastated on set". She also added she wouldn't want to work with the director again. Adams also explained, "Jennifer [Lawrence] doesn't take any of it on. She's Teflon. And I am not Teflon. But I also don't like to see other people treated badly. It's not OK with me."


title: David O. Russell

text: In December 2011, Russell's 19-year-old transgender niece, Nicole Peloquin, filed a police report alleging Russell had sexually assaulted her. The case was closed without any charges being filed because the alleged assault wasn't witnessed by police. According to the police report, Russell offered to help Peloquin with abdominal exercises, during which his hand hovered above her genitals. After inquiring about the hormones she used to increase breast size, Russell slipped his hands under her shirt and felt both breasts.


title: David O. Russell

text: Russell confirmed that the incident happened, but told police that Peloquin was "acting very provocative toward him" and invited him to feel her breasts. He also admitted to being "curious about the breast enhancement." This incident was also directly mentioned in the 2014 Sony Pictures hack.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Store. The hardware platform, which Amazon subsidiary Lab126 developed, began as a single device in 2007. Currently, it comprises a range of devices, including e-readers with E Ink electronic paper displays and Kindle applications on all major computing platforms. All Kindle devices integrate with Windows and macOS file systems and Kindle Store content and, as of March 2018, the store had over six million e-books available in the United States.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: In 2004, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos instructed the company's employees to build the world's best e-reader before Amazon's competitors could. Amazon originally used the codename "Fiona" for the device.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: Branding consultants Michael Cronan and Karin Hibma devised the Kindle name. Lab126 asked them to name the product, and they suggested "kindle", meaning to light a fire. They felt this was an apt metaphor for reading and intellectual excitement.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: Kindle hardware has evolved from the original Kindle introduced in 2007 and the Kindle DX (with its larger screen) introduced in 2009. The range includes devices with a keyboard (Kindle Keyboard), devices with touch-sensitive, lighted high-resolution screens (Kindle Paperwhite), a tablet computer with the Kindle app (Kindle Fire), and low-priced devices with a touch-sensitive screen (Kindle 7). However, the Kindle e-reader has always been a single-purpose device for reading rather than being multipurpose hardware that might create distractions while reading.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: Amazon has also introduced Kindle apps for use on various devices and platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone. Amazon also has a cloud reader to allow users to read e-books using modern web browsers.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: Amazon released the Kindle, its first e-reader on November 19, 2007, for $399. It sold out in 5.5 hours. The device remained out of stock for five months until late April 2008.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: The device featured a six-inch (diagonal) four-level grayscale E Ink display, with 250 MB of internal storage, which can hold approximately 200 non-illustrated titles. It also has a speaker and a headphone jack for listening to audio files. It has expandable storage via an SD card slot. Content was available from Amazon via the Sprint Corporation US-wide EVDO 3G data network, via a dedicated connection protocol which Amazon called Whispernet. Amazon did not sell the first-generation Kindle outside of the US.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: On February 10, 2009, Amazon announced the Kindle 2, the second-generation Kindle. It became available for purchase on February 23, 2009. The Kindle 2 features a text-to-speech option to read the text aloud. It also has 2 GB of internal memory, of which 1.4 GB is user-accessible. By Amazon's estimates, the Kindle 2 can hold about 1,500 non-illustrated books. Unlike the first-generation Kindle, Kindle 2 does not have a slot for SD memory cards. It is slimmer than the original Kindle.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: The Kindle 2 features a Freescale 532 MHz, ARM-11 90 nm processor, 32 MB main memory, 2 GB flash memory and a 3.7 V 1,530 mAh lithium polymer battery.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: To promote the Kindle 2, in February 2009 author Stephen King released "Ur", his then-new novella, made available exclusively through the Kindle Store.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: On October 7, 2009, Amazon announced an international version of the Kindle 2 with the ability to download e-books wirelessly. This version released in over 100 countries. It became available on October 19, 2009. The international Kindle 2 is physically the same as the U.S.-only Kindle 2, although it uses a different mobile network standard.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: The original Kindle 2 used CDMA2000 for use on the Sprint network. The international version used standard GSM and 3G GSM, enabling it to be used on AT&T's U.S. mobile network and internationally in 100 other countries.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: Amazon launched the Kindle DX on May 6, 2009. This device has the largest Kindle screen at 9.7 inches and supports displaying PDF files. It was marketed as more suitable for displaying newspaper and textbook content, includes built-in speakers, and has an accelerometer that enables users to rotate pages between landscape and portrait orientations when the Kindle DX is turned on its side. The device can only connect to Whispernet while in the U.S.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: On January 19, 2010, the Kindle DX international version was released in over 100 countries. The Kindle DX international version is the same as the Kindle DX, except for having support for international 3G data.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: On July 1, 2010, Amazon released the Kindle DX Graphite (DXG) globally. The DXG has an E Ink display with 50% better contrast ratio due to using E Ink Pearl technology and comes only in a graphite case color. It is speculated the case color change is to improve contrast ratio perception further, as some users found the prior white casing highlighted that the E Ink background is light gray and not white. Like the Kindle DX, it does not have a Wi-Fi connection. The DXG is a mix of third-generation hardware and second-generation software. The CPU has the same speed as Kindle Keyboard's CPU, but the DXG has only half the system memory, 128MB. Due to these differences, the DXG runs the same firmware as Kindle 2. Therefore, DXG cannot display international fonts, like Cyrillic, Chinese, or any other non-Latin font, and PDF support and the web browser are limited to matching the Kindle 2's features.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: Amazon withdrew the Kindle DX from sale in October 2012, but in September 2013 made it available again for a few months. Using 3G data is free when accessing the Kindle Store and Wikipedia. Downloading personal documents via 3G data costs about $1 per megabyte. Its battery life is about one week with 3G on and two weeks with 3G off. Text-to-Speech and MP3 playback are supported.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: Amazon announced the third-generation Kindle, later renamed "Kindle Keyboard", on July 28, 2010. Amazon began accepting pre-orders for the Kindle Keyboard as soon as it was announced and began shipping the devices on August 27, 2010. On August 25, Amazon announced that the Kindle Keyboard was the fastest-selling Kindle ever. While Amazon does not officially add numbers to the end of each Kindle denoting its generation, reviewers, customers and press companies often referred to this Kindle as the "K3" or the "Kindle 3". The Kindle Keyboard has a 6-inch screen with a resolution of 600x800 (167 PPI).


title: Amazon Kindle

text: The Kindle Keyboard was available in two versions. One of these, the Kindle Wi-Fi, was initially priced at $139 and connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi networks. The other version, called the Kindle 3G, was priced at $189 and includes both 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity. The built-in free 3G connectivity uses the same wireless signals that cell phones use, allowing it to download and purchase content from any location with cell service. The Kindle Keyboard is available in two colors: classic white and graphite. Both versions use an E Ink "Pearl" display, which has a higher contrast than prior displays and a faster refresh rate than prior e-ink displays. However, it remains significantly slower than traditional LCDs. An ad-supported version, the "Kindle with Special Offers", was introduced on May 3, 2011, with a price $25 lower than the no-ad version, for $114. On July 13, 2011, Amazon announced that due to a sponsorship with AT&T, the price of the Kindle 3G with ads would be $139, $50 less than the Kindle 3G without ads.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: The Kindle Keyboard is 0.5 inches shorter and 0.5 inches narrower than the Kindle 2. It supports additional fonts and international Unicode characters and has a "Voice Guide" feature with spoken menu navigation from the built-in speakers or audio jack. Internal memory is expanded to 4 GB, with approximately 3 GB available for user content. Battery life is advertised at up to two months of reading half an hour a day with the wireless turned off, which amounts to roughly 30 hours.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: The Kindle Keyboard generally received good reviews after launch. Review Horizon describes the device as offering "the best reading experience in its class" while Engadget states, "In the standalone category, the Kindle is probably the one to beat".


title: Amazon Kindle

text: The fourth-generation Kindle and the Kindle Touch were announced on September 28, 2011. They retain the 6-inch, 167-PPI e-ink display of the 2010 Kindle model, with the addition of an infrared touch-screen control on the Touch. They also include Amazon's experimental web-browsing capability with Wi-Fi. On the same date, Amazon announced the Kindle Fire, a tablet computer including a Kindle app; in September 2014, "Kindle" was dropped from the Amazon Fire's name.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: The fourth-generation Kindle was significantly less expensive (initially $79 ad supported, $109 no ads) and features a slight reduction in weight and size, with a reduced battery life and storage capacity, compared to the Kindle 3. It has a silver-grey bezel, 6-inch display, nine hard keys, a cursor pad, an on-screen rather than physical keyboard, a flash storage capacity of 2 GB, and an estimated one month battery life under ideal reading conditions.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: Amazon introduced two versions of touchscreen Kindles: the Kindle Touch, available with Wi-Fi (initially $99 ad-supported, $139 no ads), and the Kindle Touch 3G, with Wi-Fi/3G connectivity (initially $149 ad-supported, $189 no ads). The latter version is capable of connecting via 3G to the Kindle Store, downloading books and periodicals, and accessing Wikipedia. Experimental web browsing (outside Wikipedia) on Kindle Touch 3G is only available over a Wi-Fi connection. (Kindle Keyboard does not have this restriction). The usage of the 3G data is limited to 50MB per month. Like the Kindle 3, the Kindle Touch has a capacity of 4 GB and battery life of two months under ideal reading conditions, and is larger than the Kindle 4. The Kindle Touch was released on November 15, 2011. Amazon announced in March 2012 that the device would be available in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy on April 27, 2012. The Touch was the first Kindle to support X-Ray, which lists the commonly used character names, locations, themes, or ideas in a book. In January 2013, Amazon released the 5.2.0 firmware that updated the operating system to match the Paperwhite's interface with the Touch's MP3/audiobook capabilities remaining.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: Amazon released the Kindle 5 on September 6, 2012 ($70 ad-supported, $90 no ads). The Kindle has a black bezel, differing from the Kindle 4 which was available in silver-grey, and has better display contrast. Amazon also claims that it has 15% faster page loads. It has a 167 PPI display and was the lightest Kindle, at 5.98 ounce, until 2016's Kindle Oasis.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: The first-iteration Kindle Paperwhite was announced on September 6, 2012, and released on October 1. It has a 6 in, 212 PPI E Ink Pearl display (758×1024 resolution) with four built-in LEDs to illuminate the screen. It was available in Wi-Fi ($120 ad-supported, $140 no ads) and Wi-Fi + 3G ($180 ad-supported, $200 no ads) models, with the ad-supported options only intended to be available in the United States. The light is one of the main features of the Paperwhite and it has a manually adjusted light level. The 3G access restrictions are the same as the Kindle Touch, and usage of the 3G data is limited to 50 MB per month and only on Amazon and Wikipedia's websites; additional data may be bought. Battery life is advertised as up to eight weeks of reading with half an hour per day with wireless off and constant light use; this usage equals 28 hours. The official leather cover for the Paperwhite uses a hall effect sensor to detect when the cover is closed or opened and turn the screen off or on respectively. This was the first Kindle model to track reading speed to estimate when the reader will finish a chapter or book; this feature was later included with updates to the other models of Kindle and Kindle Fire. The Kindle Paperwhite lacks physical buttons for page turning and does not perform auto-hyphenation. Except for the lock screen/power button at its bottom, it relies solely on the touchscreen interface.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: In November 2012, Amazon released the 5.3.0 update that allowed users to turn off recommended content on the home screen in Grid View (allowing two rows of user content) and included general bug fixes. In March 2014, the Paperwhite 5.4.4 update was released that added Goodreads integration, Kindle FreeTime to restrict usage for children, Cloud Collections for organization and Page Flip for scanning content without losing your place, which closely matched the Paperwhite 2's software features.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: The Kindle Paperwhite was released in most major international markets in early 2013, with Japan's version including 4 GB of storage, and in China on June 7, 2013; all non-Japan versions have 2 GB of storage (1.25 GB usable).


title: Amazon Kindle

text: Engadget praised the Paperwhite, giving it 92 of 100. The reviewer liked the frontlit display, high contrast, and useful software features, but did not like that it was less comfortable to hold than the Nook, the starting price includes ads, and it had no expandable storage.


title: Amazon Kindle

text: Shortly after release, some users complained about the lighting implementation on the Kindle Paperwhite. While not widespread, some users found the lighting inconsistent, causing the bottom edge to cast irregular shadows. Also, some users complained that the light cannot be turned off completely.