it could have been a much better film

Rating: 5/10 (9 October 2011)

The plot to kill Adolf Hitler put together in July 1944 by a group of military was the last in a series of attempts to kill the head of the Third Reich and save what could be saved of the German honor, and spare Germany the total defeat and unconditional surrender. This is one of the most fascinating and intriguing pages of the history of World War II and any film that is inspired by this action has interesting premises to base upon despite the fact that the end is known to everybody. The plot failed and the was continued for another ten months, Adolf Hitler committed suicide and escaped human justice, but not the justice of history.
The man who led the plot and who had the courage to put a bomb in the meeting room where the commanders of the German army were gathered together with Adolf Hitler is one of the fascinating characters of history. He was a complex character, that his wife Nina von Stauffenberg who survived him for more than half a century described in the following words: He let things come to him, and then he made up his mind ... one of his characteristics was that he really enjoyed playing the devil's advocate. Conservatives were convinced that he was a ferocious Nazi, and ferocious Nazis were convinced he was an unreconstructed conservative. He was neither.
Claus von Stauffenberg is the principal character in Valkyrie, the historic thriller directed by Bryan Singer. Tom Cruise could have been the ideal casting, even if he is about ten years older than the age of 37 that Stauffenberg had at the time of the events. He was not, as both director and lead actor seem to focus on the action side of the story, on the details of the plot that involved activating a program designed by Hitler himself that mobilized the reserve army in the eventuality of a successful plot to the life of the Fuhrer, and on the reasons - mostly of human nature and of hazard - that lead to the failure of the plot. The historic details are interesting, but the documentary quality is not enough to fully sustain a Hollywood production with stars of such quality, and too little of the human dimensions, dilemmas, fears of the plotters make it beyond the screen.
'Valkyrie' could have been a much more interesting film, a drama focused on the tragic complicity of the German military class with the criminal Nazi regime and the choice that few of them made to become traitors to their country in order to save something of the honor of the nation. Instead of that we get a docu-drama made with the expensive means of the Hollywood studios, which bows respectfully to the plotters of July 1944, but fails to bring on screen their human and true historic dimensions.