Desperate bravery by the conspirators

Rating: 9/10 (24 January 2009)

I saw a discussion of this film by a bunch art/culture critics on a TV show. They all said the film was poor (or words to that effect). The following day I had agreed to go to the movies with my 13 year old son in the afternoon. When the appointed time arrived he checked the theatre's film schedule. Valkyrie was the only film available at that time and that he was old enough to watch. So I had him check IMDb (in an attempt to dissuade him (thinking Valkyrie would be trashed by IMDb reviewers). To my surprise it got good reviews (as well as bad ones of course). So off we went. Now for some reason I was never really a huge fan of Tom Cruise although I'm not saying all his film are rubbish  he's been in plenty of good ones and I believe he is a very good actor  but I wasn't really expecting to enjoy Valkyrie because TC was staring Anyhow the film turned out to be very good. Cruise was very good. The rest of the cast was very good. Oddly, it did take a few minutes for me to come to terms with none of the actors making any attempt to affect a German accent!. One of the other IMDb reviewers said something about the film should have been a 'made for TV' movie. But, it looked absolutely fabulous on the big screen. The thing that really came across was the bravery of the conspirators and the despair as they realised their beloved Germany was doomed and they were being lead by a man who was close to insanity. I can usually tell when a movie isn't holding the audiences attention  people start shuffle around etc. Valkyrie seemed to have the audience enthralled. When the credits came on everyone just stayed in their seats for a good 30 seconds (normally folks get straight up when the credits appear). My 13 year old thought the film was fantastic - he was really surprised when it because obvious at the end that the film was based on true events. Maybe this type of film is not for everyone but for critics to say it was rubbish is beyond understanding. Roll on IMDb reviews  professional film critics are no more qualified to pass judgement on film than I am (or any other member of the public).