Excellent Movie With One Problem

Rating: 9/10 (28 December 2008)

Valkyrie is a great film, important because it is the first (to my knowledge) to illustrate an incident in history too remarkable to be forgotten. The film is well-acted with lush cinematography, and it does a good job of building and maintaining suspense throughout. For this I would give it a 10 out of 10. However, it leaves out a crucial part, and, in doing so, it fails to do justice to Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and the other protagonists.
Namely--and this is a spoiler--there have been various failed coups dealt against Hitler and other dictators, each one more or less successful. But this coup did not merely end with the execution of the rebels by firing squad. Rather, and I quote from a book, Hitler 'sadistically condemned the men responsible to a slow--and deliberately prolonged--death by piano- wire strangulation while hung on meat hooks. As they were about to expire, they were cut down, revived, and then rehung--repeatedly. (The gruesome spectacle was filmed in graphic detail for Hitler's later enjoyment.)' [--_The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People_ by Irving Wallace et al.]
The movie only hinted at this. In the movie Hitler said he wanted the rebels alive. Some rebels commit suicide instead of going to certain death by uncertain means. Towards the end the film shows the top brass among the rebels hung by piano wire, which was in turn hung on meat hooks. I presume that in real life the people themselves were hung on meat hooks, Mafia-style. (After all, what are Fascist dictators, if not violent thugs who control the government?) I take it that this scene was meant to be symbolic of the torture, but someone who doesn't know the history might not understand this.
Maybe the filmmakers thought that a torture scene would be too much for the audience. Personally, I was dreading the idea of seeing the rebels get tortured to death, and I was relieved when that was glossed over. Unfortunately, real life is sometimes crueler than Hollywood, and the real protagonists actually had to go through the hell of being tortured to death by Hitler. So to remember that, I think, is worth sacrificing the psychological comfort of the viewing audience for a few minutes. It's important to understand that Hitler wasn't just oblivious to the torture being carried out under his regime, he was actually a sadist.
Anyway, I think there should be a director's cut where they make this scene a little more realistic. After all, other films out there do this without becoming unwatchable. If this happens, I will give the altered version 10/10.