Valkyrie is the (essentially) true story of the July 20, 1944 attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler by a group of German army officers. As the movie opens, German Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is nearly killed in North Africa. He survives a bomb attack but loses an arm and an eye. Flash forward a few weeks to the war fronts in Russia and Germany. Von Stauffenberg, now convinced that der Führer is an evil man who must be killed, becomes aware of a shadowy group of German dissenters and links up with them, after which the group members work together to devise a foolproof plot to kill Hitler and take over the country by putting into effect a national emergency plan called Operation Valkyrie. The bulk of the picture deals with the planning and carrying out of the plot. Of course we all know that the plan didn’t succeed, but the film has a great deal of positive and exciting tension nonetheless.
Valkyrie stars Tom Cruise as Von Stauffenberg. Cruise, normally my least favorite actor, does a creditable job of acting this time, not flashing his pretty boy smile even once. Interestingly, the filming of Valkyrie was quite controversial in Germany; Cruise is not well liked there because of his adherence to scientology, which many Germans consider a totalitarian philosophy. However, the picture has relatively little violence for a war movie, no sexual exploits, and almost no objectionable language. It raises significant questions, foremost among which is this one: Since God ordains national leaders, can it be right to pursue assassination?
Film Rating: PG-13
My Rating: 3 stars
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