Valkyrie: Movie Review

Valkyrie: Movie Review

Rating 6/10
Cast: Tom Cruise, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Eddie Izzard, Terence Stamp, Kenneth Branagh
Director: Bryan Singer
Historical thrillers are a difficult beast.
Inevitably when concerned with real events, you almost always know the outcome.
So, when it was announced Tom Cruise would be involved in a film about the assassination of Adolf Hitler, attention switched to what Cruise would bring to the role (given history tells us Hitler ended his own life)
When we first meet Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg during World War II, he is voicing concerns about how Hitler's actions are damaging the view of Germany abroad.
Within minutes, he's ambushed in the Tunisian desert, and shipped back home - albeit without an eye, his right arm and several fingers.
Elsewhere, Kenneth Branagh's character General Henning von Tresckow (acting as part of a cabal who want the downfall of Hitler) is planting a bomb in some liquor which is taken onboard Hitler's private plane.
When that assassination attempt fails, it soon becomes clear the shadowy movement who want shot of Hitler will have to try something different.
Enter von Stauffenberg - who becomes pivotal in the plotting after being brought into the group by Bill Nighy's General Olbricht.
It soon becomes clear the group's only thought as far ahead as how to assassinate Hitler - not what will happen to Germany after it - so von Stauffenberg starts to mastermind the post assassination operation and plays a major part in the attempt to end Hitler's reign on July 20, 1944.
Valkyrie is an interesting conspiracy film - there will be some purists who'll be irritated by the mix of accents (all of the key players are American or English and don't attempt the German accent - despite them being seen to write in German) but to get hung up on that would be a major mistake.
Bryan Singer's film portrays a Germany which was in part radically in conflict with itself as it tried to separate duty for the country from moral responsibility.
Hitler's image is omni-present throughout the film - be it in paintings on walls or in radio broadcasts - he has limited screen time which makes every scene he's in particularly tense.
And thanks to Singer's subtle eye for detail, tension is a major part of Valkyrie.
It's interesting how some of the main players and instigators of the coup d'etat suffer from such indecision after the plan's set in motion - although with their lives at stake, it's easy to see why.
Cruise himself brings a steely determination to the von Stauffenberg role - but it's never anything less than human. While he teeters on becoming like Hitler as the coup unfolds and during the bomb attempt's aftermath, it's clear this man's passion is what is driving him - not a ruthless streak.
The tension in Valkyrie leads to some edge of the seat moments - one scene sees an order for Goebbel's arrest issued as the same arrest order for von Stauffenberg comes in - and a lot of that stems from the decisions made by some when faced with horrendous pressure and moral decisions.

Overall, Valkyrie is another step up for Cruise whose image has radically suffered during the past few years - and a sign that underneath all the couch jumping and Scientology debate, there really is a good character actor lurking in there.