Valkyrie - movie review

Valkyrie

Recently I saw a movie trailer for Valkyrie and it was presented in such a way that the story appears more important than the actors. This has some appeal because usually Tom Cruise movies seem to be all about Tom and I just can’t get the image of him jumping all over Oprah’s couch out of my head.

I am delighted to say the movie does live up to expectations and even goes further than I had hoped. It actually has a respectful attitude to the people stuck in Hitler’s Germany and captures the difficulties faced by civilian and military folk who hated what Hitler and the SS stood for.

This flick has a strong cast who really get to shine. Plenty of big names here and they get to strut their stuff in a strong script. The only area it seemed short on was the actual actor who played Hitler, David Bamber, and only because I am comparing it to the definitive Hitler in Downfall.

I can’t vouch for the historical facts but it certainly feels right. I hope the mobilising of the Valkyrie plan actually occurred and I haven’t seen anything that challenges this point but with our tendencies of demonising the “baddies” I guess we should not expect to see much detail of resistance in wartime Germany.

This is a chilling movie that manages to deliver us into a world of confusion and unknowable consequences for the folk in the street. The problem of who else besides Hitler would be bad for the country was a conundrum indeed.

An excellent flick that is as good as Downfall. Cruise manages not to be “Tom” for the whole time so if you are looking for a super spy doing super stunts don’t go. It’s a serious flick with real people facing an almost insurmountable problem.