Review: Valkyrie (2008)

[Steve Rhodes]

VALKYRIE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  ***

Always interesting -- but it should be absolutely mesmerizing -- VALKYRIE 
does provide solid entertainment value.  In the days and weeks after you see 
it, you'll likely to be thinking frequently about the true story it reveals, 
but you'll probably forget most of the movie itself.

Director Bryan Singer, whose last film was the disappointing SUPERMAN 
RETURNS, strives for and achieves the authenticity of something that the 
History Channel would be proud of.  Never, while watching it, will you be 
shaking your head in disbelief.  I can't personally verify the events as 
portrayed, but the movie is very convincing and probably quite historically 
accurate.  I know I've read that it is, which is certainly something to be 
admired in a film world in which too often filmmakers play fast and loose 
with the truth.

When we meet German Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, he is about to get part 
of his limbs blown off in the North African campaign in World War II. 
Playing the famous colonel who almost assassinated Hitler, Tom Cruise 
delivers a workmanlike performance.  All of the actors give reserved but 
believable performances, but none of them speak with German accents, which I 
found somewhat off-putting.

With a missing eye, a missing hand and missing two fingers off of the one 
hand he has left, Colonel von Stauffenberg is viewed as a hero of the Third 
Reich, but he is a man disgusted by the mass murder of civilians and the 
many other atrocities of Hitler's barbarous regime.  When asked to join a 
group of conspirators who plan on killing Hitler and taking over the 
country, he is eager to help.

Colonel von Stauffenberg's new position within the "Reserve Army" makes him 
a perfect candidate, since the conspirators have an elaborate plan to make 
use of something called "Operation Valkyrie."  This is a plan for the 
Reserve Army to seize control in the case of a coup.  The conspirators plan 
to stage a coup but use Valkyrie's preset orders to have the Reserve Army 
round up the SS by claiming that it is the SS who have staged the coup.

Early on, someone remarks that most military operations fail, which, as we 
know now, this one did too.  In a large and talented supporting cast, none 
is better than Bill Nighy as General Friedrich Olbricht, the man who halts 
the plan in progress until he double-checks that everything is going okay. 
Of course, when time is crucial, one can be too cautious.

The story is full of twists and turns, which will surprise all but the most 
knowledgeable history buff.  The battle sequences, of which there are only a 
few, are quite impressive, especially in the sound design, which will strain 
even the best subwoofers.  Perhaps the most touching scene in the movie 
occurs soon after Colonel von Stauffenberg returns to his homeland from the 
North African front.  Praying in a church with others, we watch him as the 
camera pulls back to reveal that the church's roof is non-existent, having 
been blown off in a previous raid by Allied bombers.

Realistic to the end, the movie ends as unhappily as you would imagine.  The 
closing credits tell us that the main assassination attempt shown in the 
film was in fact the last of fifteen known attempts to kill Hitler.

VALKYRIE runs 2:00.  It is rated PG-13 for "violence and brief strong 
language" and would be acceptable for kids around 8 and up.

The film opens nationwide in the United States on Christmas Day, 2008.  In 
the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century 
theaters and the Camera Cinemas.

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