Valkyrie, the Movie

Valkyrie, the new Tom Cruise movie is an interesting foray into history and entertainment. The movie is 120 minutes long and a very enjoyable interlude. It's hard to beat factual events presented in an interesting and engaging manner, and director Bryan Singer delivers.

The story around which the movie is weaved are the factual events of the July 20, 1944 plot on the life of Adolf Hitler at his Prussian forward command post, the Wolfschanze, or Wolf's Lair.

The movie opens with Tom Cruise's main character, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, being injured in Tunisia as the result of an Allied air attack on his vehicles. Stauffenberg loses his right hand, two fingers on his left hand and his left eye as a result of his injuries.

As Stauffenberg convalesces he is approached by Wehrmacht (German Army) General Tresckow, most excellently played by British actor Kenneth Branagh, and let into the cabal of plotters and their numerous failed attempts to depose and kill Adolf Hitler.

Stauffenberg joins the plotters and off the story goes. I will refrain from revealing any more of the story so as to avoid the role of spoiler.

The movie was filmed in a combination of standard directorial manners - the fixed camera, as well as the hand held style that helps convey certain emotions at various points in the plot line. Director Singer knows the blockbuster format from "X Men" and "Superman Returns."

Singer makes excellent use of cinematic filtering. Throughout the film the colors are often muted to a certain degree, much like we have recently seen in the more recent films depicting World War Two, "Saving Private Ryan," being the prime example. The muting filter also serves to create a high level of contrast whenever the Nazi flag is in the shot, as is the case a great deal of the time. Singer used this method of contrast to draw attention to the blood red National Socialist (Nazi) flag, and said he did so specifically to highlight the red of the flag as a correlary to the blood-letting of the Nazi's.

Tom Cruise gave a fabulous performance, and coming form me that is a high compliment. As well the cast of supporting characters turned in excellent and emotional efforts, especially Branagh and British actor Bill Nighy who played General Friedrich Olbricht, a main supporting character and Cruise's closest confidant throughout the film. Longtime critically acclaimed actor Terrence Stamp portrays retired General and head of the Army, Ludwig Beck, and his performance is riveting as well.

As well movie goers will be surprised and pleased to see famous British comic and transvestite actor Eddie Izzard. Izzard turns in an awesome, albeit painfully brief portrayal as General Erich Fellgiebel, the officer in charge of the communications center at the Wolf's Lair. Izzard plays the desperate and fearful general with style and really adds a sense of urgency to the proceedings.

Singer's effort is an excellent demonstration of presenting a convoluted and complicated series of events. Singer treats us to the necessary facts to make the story make sense and largely keeps to telling the story of one of the seminal events of World War Two with as little distraction as possible. Singer focuses on Stauffenberg's reasons for joining the plotters, the efforts to carry out the assassination attempt, and the tremendously complicated series of events the plotters put into motion after they think they have successfully killed Hitler, and in many ways this was for me the best part of the movie.

From an historical and factual point-of-view, had Hitler been killed by the bomb, the follow-on events to seize control of the government would likely have succeeded. But for Hitler's unlikely survival, the plot followed the conspirator's likely scenario, and had Hitler been killed by the bomb, in all likelihood the cabal would have successfully seized control of the government and the German Wehrmacht.

I highly recommend this film to any Cruise fan, anyone interested in history in general, World War Two especially, or anyone who just loves a great true story told in an entertaining manner.