Valkyrie: Kill the Hitler, Kill the Hitler, Kill the Hitler

In this festive season of movies about Nazis and World War II, we get the story about the German Resistance movement that plotted to assassinate Adolf Hitler toward the end of World War II, and unlike recent fabrications from that period, this story actually happened. Tom Cruise stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, an officer in the German Army who is disillusioned with how Hitler’s Nazism has disgraced and tarnished his beloved fatherland, Germany.  Cruise joins an ongoing conspiracy of like-minded dissenters as they map out what would become the April 20, 1944 assassination plot.

While we all know Hitler was never assassinated, the film is highly suspenseful and manages to capture the struggle the conspirators had leading up to and the day of their attempted coup.  As we watch the plot unfold we know that ultimately Hitler will live on but it is still interesting to see how successful the plan was in its initial hours, as it is similarly intriguing to see it all crumble apart.

Unfortunately, though, there were some flaws with the film.  For starters, the audience is dropped in the middle of the Resistance movement with little understanding of who the people are who are involved or why they, unlike countless others, are part of an underground resistance movement.  Similarly, some of the characters’ actions could have been spelled out a little more, such as why Erich Fellgiebel (Eddie Izzard) ultimately sided with the resistance and why Friedrich Fromm (Tom Wilkinson) went ahead with a speedy court-martial of the conspirators (hint: to conceal his own implicit cooperation with the plot).  Finally, and perhaps it was due to the positioning of the projector in my theater, but I counted 19 appearances of a boom mike dancing across the top of my screen.  Had I been watching this at a bar, it would have quickly turned into a drinking game (and if it remains in the DVD release, I suggest you play it at home).  Hopefully this was unique to my viewing or else you too will be distracted by an otherwise good film.

Of the performances, Wilkinson proved once again that he will steal every scene he is in, whether he is speaking or merely glancing across the room.  Having seen him most recently in the two HBO productions of John Adams and Recount, he’s reason alone to enjoy the film.  (The same is true of Kenneth Branagh brief scenes that were disappointingly minor.)  The other performances, such as Cruise and the other officers, were understated but that was appropriate for this film.  For those who ordinarily do not care for Cruise’s style, he delivers a serious performance without the usual exuberance best reserved for his turn on the talk show circuit.

So even if you are not normally drawn to historical films I suggest you go see Valkyrie for a suspenseful, abridged telling of a lesser-known aspect of World War II.  (And for those of you, like me, who cannot hear the word “valkyrie” without thinking of What’s Opera, Doc?, this is for you.)