Gripping drama

Rating: 7/10 (1 January 2009)

This is not a WWII action movie, and that's the reason it works. I don't know the history of this story, but knowing how Hitler died historically made me wonder where this was going when the plot seemed to be succeeding. I was thinking, something has to go wrong, or this is not historical. Yet I was surprised to watch it all play out - call the end an anti-climax perhaps? Anyway, it helps to be a history buff watching this: if you put yourself in the shoes of a conspirator-traitor it will mean more. The story is intense, though the action is not so much. I would have liked the writer to have explored the Wagner-Hitler connection more; why name this operation after Wagner's opera? Tom Cruise makes the Colonel character work; probably other actors could have done just as well - no Oscar here. I would have liked a bit more time spent on the motives of Olbricht and Fromm for their actions and inaction. It is fear of ending up on the "wrong" side that usually causes these decisions - that should have been further explored. My wife was pleased that the producer at least saw fit to explain what happened to von Stauffenberg's family at the end.