Valkyrie: Review By slysnide

Few times in WWII did any Nazi attempt any bold rejection of Hitler's evil regime, but the few in this film had the best plan in mind. Yet strangely enough, their detailed story is much lesser known than that of Oskar Schindler and his list of workers which Steven Spielberg immortalized in his 1993 film. But thanks to Christopher McQuarrie and Bryan Singer, the true story of the enacting of Operation Valkyrie has been fully realized properly for the first time.

Writer Christopher McQuarrie visited Benderblock in Berlin to learn more about the famous "Wolf's Lair" assassination plot against Hitler which occurred on 20 July 1944, and ended haphazardly in tragedy that very night outside the German Military Headquarters at Benderblock. Being fascinated by the concept that people with full knowledge of the consequences if they failed to achieve in such a plot would press on with it anyway, Christopher decided that he wanted the story more well known, and so he had Nathan Alexander co-write the screenplay with a plan for himself to direct it with the intention to model it after the 2001 TV movie "Conspiracy" which featured the Wannsee Conference, but unfortunately couldn't get proper finances unless Bryan Singer was in the director's chair as studio execs desired. Nevertheless, the outcome was just as great, if not better than what Christopher McQuarrie envisioned.

The thought of casting all British actors as top dogs in the Nazi regime and German Military left me very confounded considering that there's probably plenty of German actors who'd have vied for the roles, as the main characters in the film are among the few and only Nazis to actually receive a memorial dedication in Germany. But since any and all Nazi related paraphernalia is strictly forbidden in today's Germany, then perhaps their actors were too hesitant to jump at playing such roles. For even the memorial hasn't receive much press over the decades. And even though the actions of the Nazis in this film are noble and heroic, the actors cast still didn't like the idea of wearing Nazi uniforms, such as one claim Bill Nighy made in an interview: "One of the most disconcerting things imaginable is to put on a Nazi uniform. It's so associated with evil that it took me several days to get used to being in costume." So that was the general opinion of everyone on set. But the weirdest of all was having Tom Cruise lead them, and even weirder was that he looks almost exactly like the real Colonel Von Stauffenberg.

The group of renegade Nazis rebelling against Hitler's regime include:

General Friedrich Olbricht (Bill Nighy) of the German Army who's hesitant at first to go along with the plot, but realizes that its perfection was too good to pass up. Bill wanted to play the role sympathetically as Olbricht's was risking everything to murder Hitler and decommission Nazi Germany. And Nighy certainly achieved at doing this in his performance.

Major General Henning von Tresckow (Kenneth Branagh) who makes the fourteenth attempt to kill Hitler in the beginning of the film by giving him a bottle of booze with a bomb inside for his airplane flight. He obviously fails, but is around to help plan the ultimate coup de etat against the Nazi Third Reich. Kenneth was great in the role, but after the first half hour he's not really seen.

Colonel General Ludwig Beck (Terrance Stamp) was the Chief of the General Staff of High Command of the Army, and leader of all meetings which conspired to kill Hitler. He was very quiet, extremely tense, but recognized a good scheme when he saw one. Terrance was great for it, and he even assisted Bryan Singer in staging a scene in which the Von Stauffenberg's take shelter from a blitzkrieg having endured some himself in England as a toddler.

Dr. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (Kevin McNally) was the politician who planned to assume the role of chancellor after Hitler's murder, and execution of Operation Valkyrie. However he has to literally duck out before long into the plot.

Erwin Von Witzleben (David Schofield) was a retired Field Marshal whom also participated in the plot, and as a result of actor David Schofield showing up on set in scenes that didn't feature his character, Bryan Singer extended his role in the film in thanks for his dedication and professionalism throughout production.

Wolf's Lair Communication's director General Erich Fellgiebel (Eddie Izzard) also assisted in severing all communications from Wolf's Lair after the explosion, though for relatively unexplained reasons. He even seemed resilient to the whole plot, but still didn't rat them out. Not even when faced with execution.

And the only potential problem person to get joining in on the plot was Colonel General Friedrich Fromm (Tom Wilkinson) who resented not being able to rise any higher in Nazi Germany under the Third Reich which was his motivation to participate. Hardly for the right reasons, and deserving of execution by the likes of the Bear Jew for even taking credit morally in the plot. Though luckily Tom's performance doesn't cloud the fact that he's just another selfish Nazi stooge out for his own personal gain, than for the end of the war, and ultimate liberation of Europe.

Finally, their leader was Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) who'd been demoted to the 10th Panzer Division of the Africa Korps in Tunisia for not being up to par enough for Nazi Military Officials. Upon returning to Berlin, he almost immediately took part in planning the revolt against the Third Reich, and its evil leader Adolf Hitler (David Bamber). Tom's performance was dead on, and that really surprised me. While it's nothing different than what we've seen as 'serious Tom Cruise' in movies, it works so much better with this character than with any of his other ones. His dedication to the plot, selflessness, and determination to not accept defeat in front of gun barrels all comes across in Tom Cruise's performance. So after Oskar Schindler, Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg should be the next renowned Nazi in WWII.

So how do they plan to carry out the plan? Well it involves Hitler's own fallback plan "Operation Valkyrie" which states than in the event of his own death, the national Reserve Army should be immediately deployed to maintain order amongst all Nazi troops across the world. It was originally drafted to preserve Hitler's Germany, but Hitler's own gullibility, stupidity, and overall arrogance allowed him to not see certain changes to the plan which now scapegoats the SS for Hitler's assassination as a ploy to hijack the government. But the question is: How the hell can the rebels hope to acquire the written forms of "Operation Valkyrie" to make these changes? And how do they expect they'll get Hitler to go along with them? And most importantly, in the event that Hitler does survive an assassination attempt, then how do they go about carrying out the operation?

Well, these are all questions that you either already know the answer to, or will have answered in this great film which has constant tension and suspense all the way to the nail biting final moments of the plan in a fast paced climax. Despite knowing the history of what the outcome was, we dare to think it'll be different at how well Bryan Singer conveys it all on screen. A true espionage laden delight from beginning to end. And it's not to be missed by fans of all these actors. Co-starring Tom Hollander as Wehrmacht staff officer Oberst Heinz Brandt who played a crucial role in the outcome of the assassination attempt which got him posthumously promoted to Generalmajor, this film is not to be missed.

Filmed on location in Germany and Babelsberg Studios, the most exclusive thing granted to this $75,000,000 production besides the $6,640,000 donated by the German General Film Fund was the exquisite permission to film at Benderblock where the famous & dramatic end to this operation took place. It was creepily accurate on screen, and the only thing not seen was the memorial statue that's there today. The visuals of the film were perfect with everything shown in Berlin, and the Wolf's Lair especially which looks exactly like it did in reality despite being filmed sixty miles south of Berlin rather than in Rastenberg Poland. 5 stars all around!

Overall, I was surprised at how much this didn't resemble your average conspiracy film in how much the tension & suspense constantly built up till the climax. That's what essentially separates this from other films like it, and it's definitely one that's not to be missed by WWII buffs like me.