Very fine account of one of the many Hitler assassination attempts.

Rating: Null/10 (27 May 2009)

Quite by coincidence I watched two Nazi-related movies on successive nights, first "The Reader" and now this one, "Valkyrie." Both different, both excellent.
As we have been able to reflect on the aftermath of WW II (I was born right after it ended) it is clear that Hitler had many enemies in his own country. As far back as 1938 and continuing through the mid-1940s there were a number of attempts to assassinate him, by his own soldiers. As history tells us they all failed, but mercifully Hitler took his own life at the end of the war.
"Valkyrie" is a Wagner composition, but also a code word for a military contingency plan in Nazi Germany. Tom Cruise is Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, seriously wounded in 1943 in North Africa fighting, and now viewed as a military hero back in Germany. He is one of many who realize that Hitler is misguided and worry that if they don't do something to stop him it will result in the end of Germany and Europe as they knew it, as the Allies were getting closer to victory.
This movie contains a good number of established stars in key roles, including Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Thomas Kretschmann, Terence Stamp, and Eddie Izzard.
The story recounts, with suitable historical accuracy, one of the attempts on Hitler's life, with Von Stauffenberg as the key driver of the effort. It is an absorbing glimpse into 1940s Nazi Germany and the different factions, those with absolute loyalty to Hitler and those seeking ways to oust him.
SPOILERS: Of course the assassination attempt chronicled here failed, the small bomb went off and Stauffenberg escaped the encampment, but the heavy map table shielded Hitler well enough that he survived the blast with only relatively minor injuries. Thinking Hitler was indeed dead the rebels initiated the revised Valkyrie plan to usurp power, but were fairly quickly arrested, tried, and executed.