Valkyrie may represent to some as no more than an ordinary thriller used as a star vehicle for star Tom Cruise. I do not think it’s used simply as a star-vehicle for Cruise, but nevertheless, Valkyrie is not a completely successfully mounted thriller, directed by Bryan Singer, who also helmed the Usual Suspects, X-Men, X-2 and Superman Returns, all of which were more popular though maybe not greater movies then this.
Cruise stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a colonel (obviously), serving for the Wehrmacht in North Africa. The film opens in 1943, when Stauffenberg is critically wounded in an Allied air attack. His hand and part of his fingers are blown off and his eye is shot out. He is through with Hitler as he believes that Hitler is leading Germany to its destruction. Stauffenberg says one or more times in the movie, “you can either serve Germany or the Fuhrer”. Stauffenberg joins a group of German military conspirators who have been planning to assassinate Hitler since the mid 30s. Stauffenberg takes command of the group, and they set to work in eliminating Hitler, his loyalists and taking major cities. As the deadline to taking out Hitler goes on, Stauffenberg grows increasingly scared for his family’s protection, but remains determined to bring Hitler down.
Cruise is somewhat miscast as Stauffenberg. Cruise, even though he is nearly a decade older then Stauffenberg was in 1944, looks very much like Stauffenberg did. Even so, Cruise’s acting is rigid and stiff. In addition, except in the first few minutes of the movie, Cruise speaks with an almost unbearable American accent when he plays a German. This is not exactly Cruise’s type of movie to be in, but he still gives it a nice try.
The ensemble cast co-starring alongside Cruise all give worth able performances. Bill Nighy is General Friedrich Olbricht, Kenneth Branagh is General Henning von Tresckow and Terence Stamp is General Ludwig Beck. The conspirator’s main opposition comes from General Friedrich Fromm, who is played very convincingly by Tom Wilkinson, and is loyal to Nazi Germany and Hitler.
Valkyrie is an engaging thriller but never develops much into its characters, as the focus and star of the film is Stauffenberg. It opened to mild box-office success and mixed reviews.
Nevertheless, the true story shown in Valkyrie is an incredible tale of courage, bravery and justice. You can tell that Singer is not trying to make this a boring picture and is trying to get the message out that not all Germans were like Hitler, and wanted Germany to be free. The suspense of the film builds up until the climax on 20 July, 1944, when the bomb went off in the Wolf’s Lair and Operation Valkyrie went underway. That night, the plan had failed, though the conspirators got very close to success, and all were executed and/or tortured and imprisoned. That being said, Valkyrie never loses itself is becoming action packed and/or CGI; it in fact wants so much to show this history being shown on screen for the first time, but it doesn’t do so in the most fashionable and artistic way. This is a movie I am very glad I watched.
It’s mostly entertaining and is a movie that anyone should put into their DVD player to watch. A memorable picture it is not, but Valkyrie is still one of the more meaningful Hollywood movies released lately.
*** ½/5
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