VALKYRIE
FILM REVIEW
VALKYRIE
Run Time 120 minutes
Certificate: 12A
Director: Bryan Singer
Tom Cruise is not a great actor. Sometimes his performances are cringeworthy to the point of embarrassment so I generally avoid his films. Accordingly, I entered the cinema to see Valkyrie with some trepidation. Would Cruise play the role of the disillusioned Nazi Claus von Stauffenberg with his usual over-the-top histrionics? I rather feared that he might. He certainly would not have been my choice to play the man who almost succeeded in his plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944. My fears were groundless. Director Bryan Singer seems to have kept a very tight rein on his bombastic self-obsessed leading man. Tom Cruise without ham? Yes. This is quite an achievement.
As the film opens, the rebellious Colonel von Stauffenberg is severely wounded in an Allied bombing in north Africa. He loses his left eye, as well as his right hand and three fingers from his left too. This finally turns Stauffenberg against Hitler so he discreetly joins up with the German Resistance — a bunch of top rank military and government bigwigs who meet in secret to discuss what can be done to save Germany and negotiate peace with the allies.
Killing Hitler was all very well, but this would not get around the fact that the likes of Goebbels, Himmler and Goering would be able to step into his shoes and the Nazis still had thousands of loyal soldiers in Berlin. The resistance knew this, so they were paralysed in ineffective bickering as they tried to discuss the way ahead before Germany was finally driven into destruction and defeat.
Enter Stauffenberg, the Man of Action. Ignore the American and English accents. This is dealt with at the start by Staufenberg reading his secret diary in German with subtitles before we suddenly realise we understand him as the dialect has switched to English. In effect, the whole audience seem to have become Germans and to understand the language. It really works.
This film was a great job creation exercise for the cream of the British acting establishment. Kenneth Brannagh, Eddie Izzard and Bill Nighy deliver solid understated performances as the bickering and dithering resistance leaders.
In contrast to these tired old ditherers, Stauffenberg devises a plan for the Resistance to seize power from the inside, through the use of Hitler’s own emergency contingency plan in the event of the Fuhrer's death: the Valkyrie plan. In such an event, the Reserve wing of the army is to take control of the situation.
Stauffenberg's plan was to assassinate Hitler, and then convince the military that the SS under Himmler did it in an attempted coup against the government. In this scenario Operation Valkyrie would take effect, and the Reserves would deploy to contain the apparent threat from the SS and many Nazi Party top brass. This would open the door for the Resistance to set up a new, non-Nazi government and draw up a truce with the Allies.
We all know that the July Plotters did not succeed, but this knowledge after the fact does not spoil the movie. Singer cranks up the suspense as supporters of the Resistance waver and vacillate while Stauffenberg puts his life on the line to plant the bomb that will kill Hitler. Who can be trusted? Who will crack? You forget this is history as you become involved in the tense narrative.
It just goes to show, with the right script and the right director, Tom Cruise really can act! Who would have thought it?
VALKYRIE
Run Time 120 minutes
Certificate: 12A
Director: Bryan Singer
Tom Cruise is not a great actor. Sometimes his performances are cringeworthy to the point of embarrassment so I generally avoid his films. Accordingly, I entered the cinema to see Valkyrie with some trepidation. Would Cruise play the role of the disillusioned Nazi Claus von Stauffenberg with his usual over-the-top histrionics? I rather feared that he might. He certainly would not have been my choice to play the man who almost succeeded in his plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944. My fears were groundless. Director Bryan Singer seems to have kept a very tight rein on his bombastic self-obsessed leading man. Tom Cruise without ham? Yes. This is quite an achievement.
As the film opens, the rebellious Colonel von Stauffenberg is severely wounded in an Allied bombing in north Africa. He loses his left eye, as well as his right hand and three fingers from his left too. This finally turns Stauffenberg against Hitler so he discreetly joins up with the German Resistance — a bunch of top rank military and government bigwigs who meet in secret to discuss what can be done to save Germany and negotiate peace with the allies.
Killing Hitler was all very well, but this would not get around the fact that the likes of Goebbels, Himmler and Goering would be able to step into his shoes and the Nazis still had thousands of loyal soldiers in Berlin. The resistance knew this, so they were paralysed in ineffective bickering as they tried to discuss the way ahead before Germany was finally driven into destruction and defeat.
Enter Stauffenberg, the Man of Action. Ignore the American and English accents. This is dealt with at the start by Staufenberg reading his secret diary in German with subtitles before we suddenly realise we understand him as the dialect has switched to English. In effect, the whole audience seem to have become Germans and to understand the language. It really works.
This film was a great job creation exercise for the cream of the British acting establishment. Kenneth Brannagh, Eddie Izzard and Bill Nighy deliver solid understated performances as the bickering and dithering resistance leaders.
In contrast to these tired old ditherers, Stauffenberg devises a plan for the Resistance to seize power from the inside, through the use of Hitler’s own emergency contingency plan in the event of the Fuhrer's death: the Valkyrie plan. In such an event, the Reserve wing of the army is to take control of the situation.
Stauffenberg's plan was to assassinate Hitler, and then convince the military that the SS under Himmler did it in an attempted coup against the government. In this scenario Operation Valkyrie would take effect, and the Reserves would deploy to contain the apparent threat from the SS and many Nazi Party top brass. This would open the door for the Resistance to set up a new, non-Nazi government and draw up a truce with the Allies.
We all know that the July Plotters did not succeed, but this knowledge after the fact does not spoil the movie. Singer cranks up the suspense as supporters of the Resistance waver and vacillate while Stauffenberg puts his life on the line to plant the bomb that will kill Hitler. Who can be trusted? Who will crack? You forget this is history as you become involved in the tense narrative.
It just goes to show, with the right script and the right director, Tom Cruise really can act! Who would have thought it?
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