Valkyrie

_Valkyrie_ is a thrilling historical drama about a fascinating chapter in World War II history. Based on a true story, the film recounts a daring coup that attempted to assassinate Hitler and seize control of the German government. The cast is stellar, and includes Tom Cruise, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, and Terence Stamp; who all give excellent performances. And, director Bryan Singer is able to keep the plot exciting and suspenseful, even though the outcome is already known. An inspiring story of courage and sacrifice, _Valkyrie_ is an incredibly compelling and powerful film.

Fantastic movie. Tom Cruise dedicates himself to the role as per usual.

A very inspiring movie non the less!

The story of the Stauffenberg assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. The story is based on real events and the movie is well made and well played by the main cast. A good movie that teaches also something about history.

Note: If you are interested in assassination attempts on Hitler, this is certainly a spectacular one that was made towards the end of the war. But you should also check out the story of Georg Elser who made an attempt at the beginning of the war and could have change history by killing Hitler and most of his top aids only 2 months into the war. His attempt only failed due to bad weather … Check it out too.

A somewhat overlooked entry in the Tom Cruise filmography. I saw it in the cinema and never really thought about it since.

Upon rewatch, a few things stand out - solid construction, solid performances, solid plot, yet ultimately unremarkable.

Could it be we know the arc of history too well? That you'd need to rewrite that in a Tarantino flourish for it to shock the viewer? Is it the dour and sad nature of the whole thing weighing over the whole proceedings?

I can't say. But what I will say is that this is a hugely odd choice for Tom Cruise to undertake. Hats off to him for going off-piste but it doesn't rank as one of his great successes. He's as dedicated as always but it doesn't catch the soul - like Inglorious Basterds was able to - do the whole thing just doesn't quite work for me.


7/10

Like standard insomnia, Valkyrie is a text book case study that didn't put me to sleep.

There's a lot of interesting information in this true story, but they replaced the passion with melodrama so it comes off more as reality TV than really cinematic.

Tom Cruise travels back in time to assassinate Hitler. Okay, that's not fair. Tom Cruise stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg who leads a group of German Army officers who plot to kill Hitler.

This is by all accounts, a largely accurate retelling of the true story. It's a well-acted, great looking movie. It's exciting and interesting and Cruise is very good in his role. As I've stated before, he gets criticized unfairly too often. He is one of the last true "movie stars".

Then why have I not rated this higher? It's because it looks far too slick. I may have watched too many WWII documentaries in my time or recreations of events starring no-name actors. It may not be fair, but it curbed the impact this otherwise very good film had on me. As it progressed, I kept waiting for the story to veer from reality because it looks so "Hollywood". It never did and I give it credit for that. But my experience was still dulled by my past big-budget movie "conditioning".

Got bored half way. A typical case of a story being ruined by Hollywood writers.