I’m usually a sucker for war films but didn’t have very strong interest in this movie. I did want to check it out but didn’t feel the urgency that I often do with a movie based around World War II. To my pleasant surprise, I really liked it. This was especially impressive to me because we know how this movie ends before it ever begins. You’ve also got the language/cultural barrier but I think they handled it adequately. It was a little weird hearing so many English accents but I stopped noticing after a few minutes. There are loads of actors contributing significant roles here, but a few really stood out to me.
Tom Cruise plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a veteran of the Third Reich’s failed North African campaigns. He’s disillusioned and misled about the Furher’s reign even before sacrificing an eye, an arm and a few fingers from the other hand to the cause.
After recovering from his wounds he serves in German Army high command in Berlin. There’s he’s taken in by others of similar mind, like Kenneth Branagh’s Major General Henning von Tresckow and Terence Stamp’s Ludwig Beck, who have already made an attempt or two at taking out AH. They want to prove to the world that not all Germans are like Hitler or his SS and then sue for peace with the Allies.
Stauffenberg takes the bull by the horns and seemingly takes charge of the effort once he joins. To pull off their plan, they need some luck and fortuitous change in circumstance. Much of the plan depends on invoking Operation Valkryie which was designed to stabliize the government in case of Hitler’s death. This requires the use of the German reserve army, headed by General Frederich Fromm (Tom Wilkinson), who seems aware of their conspiracy yet does his best to play both sides. They need his troops to defuse the threat of the SS and a few of Hitler’s other heavy cronies after the assasination.
Basically, the hope is to take out Hitler at his war bunker, codename the Wolf’s Lair, have General Erich Fellgiebel (Eddie Izzard) sever the Wolf’s Lair’s communications with the rest of Germany and then invoke Operation Valkryie to take over the government. Without going into too much detail because, unless you did bong hits everyday through third and fourth grade history lessons, we all know how this story ends.
There are a few things about this movie that really stood out to me. Cruise is very consistent here as is Tom Wilkinson. Some of the plot moves along too conveniently – like the conspirators basically handing Stauffenberg control of their destinies in quick, movie-like fashion – and the relationship between Cruise’s character and his family seemed a superficial attempt to show his humanity. But I think the real star of this movie is Bryan Singer’s direction. This movie starts strong, keeps a complicated conspiracy simple for a person like me to understand and adds a genuine sense of suspense for a movie with a built-in, knowable end.
I also credit them for not turning Hitler’s character, the few times we see him, into some cartoon characateur of evil. We all know how much damage that man did and how much he deserved to be taken out so there’s no need to beat that into our heads any further. Now to be clear, I’m not defending him at all, just crediting the folks responsible for not falling into the very clichéd movie-making trap of showing him ordering the deaths of millions while ripping out the beating heart of a newborn baby just for effect. After all, he was just a man. A terrible and misguided man at that, but that’s all he was.
But enough about that. This is very well produced, directed and acted. It kept me engaged from beginning to end. In the final analysis, I give this movie a solid B.
Tags: Eddie Izzard, Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, tom cruise, Tom Wilkinson, Valkyrie
