Valkyrie

 

 

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There have been five versions of `Valkyrie' told on screen in the last twenty years. 1990 had the excellent Brad Davis in "The Plot To Kill Hitler", 2004 had "Operation Valkyrie" by Sebastion Koch and 2008 produced two films, "Killing Hitler: The True Story Of The Valkyrie Plot" and "Operation Valkyrie: The Stauffenberg Plot To Kill Hitler". For those interested, the word valkyrie is derived from `old horse' valkyrja (referring to the slain on the battlefield) and the verb kjósa (meaning "to choose"). Together, the words mean "chooser of the slain." A word chosen by Hitler himself. The story tells of the 1944 attempt by several High Command German Officers to asassinate Hitler and take over control of the German government. Colonel Stauffenberg led a resistance group who managed to plant a bomb in Hitler's battlefield headquarters. The bomb went off. We all know how Hitler really died.

Now this year we have "Valkyrie" starring a host of grand actors like, Tom Wilkinson, Terrance Stamp, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy and Eddie Izzard. Hitler is played to perfection by a lesser-known actor named David Bamber. All sport British/German accents, which helps the credibility of the story. Then we have Tom Cruise as Colonel Stauffenberg. He is horrendously and miserably miscast. The beginning of the film has a Tom Cruise sound-alike German voice speaking that tries to slowly evolve into Cruise's American voice. It's as big a bomb as the one that goes off in Hitler's bunker.

The direction by Bryan Singer is, of course, well done with first class cinematography and surround sounds of explosions and gunfire. All the acting is first rate, except for Tom Cruise who rarely raises his voice and looks meek and stoic throughout the film. I am sorry to bash Mr. Cruise, but he is just terribly miscast. He shows little emotion, drive or passion. Brad Davis in the 1990 version was excellent, showing a wide range of emotions, especially towards the plot, his companions and his family. In fact, Davis successful changes his accent even if it isn't perfect German or British.

The Singer film is perfectly adequate, but I found myself sighing every time Cruise appears on film (and not the good kind of sighing). Singer does manage to be faithful to the original story, only changing some scenes to highlight Cruise. Many of the scenes of the Stauffenberg house, the bunker in the forest and others are identical and it manages to feel like WWII Germany (it was filmed there), but the ending set-up seems contrived, even if it is true. The Stauffenberg family was imprisoned and released a few years later, something not noted in the Singer film.

If you have never heard the story, it is an amazing part of history. The supporting cast couldn't be better and Director Singer knows how to handle suspense and the horrors of war. However, Tom Cruise is simply "Risky Business" Tom Cruise in a German uniform. He is completely out of place. Enjoy the film with that warning.

Unintentional comedy is off the charts in this one. The trailer where Tom Cruise says the classic line "Operation Valkyrie is in effect" is not only sadi once but twice in this flick. Surrounded by a bevy of great Brit actors (Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Terence Stamp, etc.) who chew up the scenes, this movie is a total mess. Having Cruise act with a patch over his eye and a missing hand was not up there with Jack Nicholson with his sliced nose in Chinatown in the annals of great acting while having a movie inspired disfigurement.

If you know anything about WWII history it's also laughbale how much they twist for movie suspense. I actually thought the movie started off well with the Afrika Korps scene but after that it became mostly a movie about shuffling papers and getting them signed followed by the plot to kill Adolph Hitler. They could have chopped about 30 minutes off this movie and made a half-decent watchable motion picture.

The extras I'd love to comment on but there are none.

Valkyrie is based on the fifteenth attempt to assassinate Hitler and is based on actual events. It goes over what happened behind the scenes and what happened afterwards. There's a group of people, who have all sworn an oath to Hitler, but still want to kill him for the sake of saving Germany. Tom Cruise is part of that group and is the main actor here, although I did not think he suited the part well, because to me, he seemed out of place.

I thought it was an interesting tale because it was based on true events. There were just too many characters that it was difficult to remember many names. It's the type of movie that you see a lot of things going on but don't actually get into the story until about thirty minutes have passed, and after that, it becomes a more enjoyable story.

Since we all know Hitler did not die as a result of this, we can see what went wrong in the plot that at first seemed to be well-planned.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Saw it in theatres - bought the DVD
I enjoyed the movie well enough in theatres that I wanted to watch it again and catch the sub-plots which I missed. The other reviews are essentially correct. Read more

Published on July 9 2009 by Eric Lawton

4.0 out of 5 stars A fabulous part of history retold
Valkyrie is based on the real-life plot by a group of Germans to assasinate Hitler towards the end of World War 2. Read more

Published on Jun 7 2009 by Matthew King

3.0 out of 5 stars A Flop of a Movie
This movie is hardly a blockbuster performance, whatever way you cut it. Technically, the action involving one of the defining moments for Germany in WWII - the assassination of... Read more

Published on May 27 2009 by Ian Gordon Malcomson

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