Directed by:
Bryan SingerCinematography:
Newton Thomas SigelComposer:
John OttmanCast:
Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Carice van Houten, Thomas Kretschmann, Terence Stamp, Eddie Izzard, Kevin McNally, Christian Berkel (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
In a country in the grips of evil, in a police state where every move is being watched, in a world where justice and honor have been subverted, a group of men hidden inside the highest reaches of power decide to take action. Based on the true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and the daring and ingenious plot to eliminate one of the most evil tyrants the world has ever known. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (12)
I avoided the film for a long time, but in the end it is a solid suspenseful spy-war film about the overthrow of Hitler. Tom Cruise is excellent in the lead role and even though I couldn't get into the film for the first half hour, once Operation Valkyrie started I didn't even flinch.
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Singer did a good deal of work on this and everything is in the right place. He literally delights in the authenticity of the setting and the event. Cruise’s acting is good and his performance as Colonel von Stauffenberg will win you over. Simply because of what a good guy he was. It was excruciating knowing how his assassination attempt worked out.
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The first half an hour was admittedly difficult, full of Hollywood clichés, with each prominent character being a well-known actor, which made it almost impossible to believe that this group was the one that took part in the real Operation Valkyrie. Tom Cruise had a lot of confidence when he decided to become Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg. But if one agrees to play the game, one wins and is rewarded with one of the best films about the assassination of Hitler.
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Valkyrie is a film that was made thanks to the desire, money, and determination of Tom Cruise, who played the main role. I must admit that I didn't believe in the project even after seeing the trailers, and I was afraid of the usual distortion of historical events by Hollywood. To my surprise, Valkyrie is a sober, perhaps too sober, film that simplifies (as was necessary) complex motivations and events, but remains faithful to historical events. Tom Cruise portrayed his character somewhat idealistically, 2-3 dialogues are weak, and a drop of pathos is evident in 2-3 scenes, but I was spared the heart-wrenching scenes of farewells with family and condemned prisoners that I expected. I didn't give it a fifth star because the events surrounding the coup are well-known to history enthusiasts, and the film has nothing surprising in that regard. Kenneth Branagh's performance as General Tresckow deserves mention. Singer's direction is professional, and we get to enjoy the tension in manipulating detonators or briefcases filled with explosives. Just a note: Hitler's death could indeed have shortened the war by several months, but the prospects for the coup plotters were minimal; they simply did not have enough support, and once the circumstances of Hitler's assassination became known, they would undoubtedly have been eliminated. The conspirators, after all, never formed a compact group; there were moderate nationalists as well as liberals, and they struggled to find common ground. Their ideas, even concerning the allies, were naive; they expected to negotiate a ceasefire and an honorable peace, which in their minds included a number of territorial gains from the ongoing war. However, after the successful invasion of Normandy and the crushing of the German army in Belarus, the Allies no longer considered anything other than unconditional surrender. Overall impression: 80%. By the way, not only I but also major American studios, did not believe in the film, expecting that the artistic reconstruction of events that did not directly affect American involvement in World War II would fail to resonate with audiences.
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Valkyrie will be enjoyed the most by those who like to dig into this particular historical period. Bryan Singer approaches his subject matter responsibly, without twisting history to better suit his movie. Valkyrie doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t; it has no ambition to be a piece of “high art” and it doesn’t comment on politics like Spielberg’s Munich. It just reconstructs events as a solid conspiratorial thriller with high production values, exciting and well-cast (despite being a small part, Kenneth Branagh’s General von Tresckow is the film’s most interesting and best played character). And its ending doesn’t lack emotion or depth, which reminds us that someone was courageous enough to at least try... P.S. John Ottman’s choral main theme is beautiful!
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