Tom Cruise gives a strong and dignified performance.

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2008)

A prudent movie goer approaches with caution any commercial movie that purports to be based on an actual historical event. Usually by the time the movie is released the facts are so distorted as to render the actual event almost unrecognizable. Surprisingly this movie is an exception. Although the actual assassination attempt on Hitler failed, this movie succeeds in establishing and maintaining the level of suspense required to keep the audience engaged. Tom Cruise gives a surprisingly strong and dignified performance as the German officer who plays a crucial role in planning and implementing the plot. The supporting cast, which includes several outstanding English actors including Terence Stamp who plays an uncharacteristically sympathetic role, are also excellent. What makes this movie especially effective is that it avoids stereotyping the Germans as a bunch of goose-stepping Nazis or in the case of the assassins a bunch of frantic anti-Nazi fanatics and instead stays true to the story which involves a group of individuals trying to stop a war against all odds. That they fail is not the point because the audience already knows that. Rather, that they were willing to take action at all is what makes this movie a special cinematic experience.
Another interesting feature of this movie is its treatment of how the German soldiers, including the plotters, dealt with the loyalty oath that every German soldier swore to Adolf Hitler. This meant that the mere thought of opposing Hitler was tantamount not only to committing treason but acting with dishonor which would cause that soldier to be held in utmost contempt by his fellow soldiers, a disgrace that few soldiers could endure. (Of course, when one considers who the German soldiers were fighting for and the crimes many of them committed in the name of their leader, one must question the extent to which ethical considerations played a role in anything the German soldiers did.)
Now here's the negatives about this movie. What is especially ironic is that while the Germans were invading countries, committing genocide and killing people by the millions, they could not assassinate one person. The Germans were systematically murdering Jews - they had no qualms about THAT - but apparently killing the Fuehrer was another story. Remember, the plotters were senior military officers, not unarmed civilians, who had access to all the weapons they needed to to the job. Yes, the Germans were very "brave" when fighting unarmed Jews but when it came to dealing with their Fuehrer, the person to whom they voluntarily swore allegiance, then their bravery failed them. Where was the opposition on September 1, 1939 (when Germany invaded Poland)? Or on June 21, 1941 (when Germany invaded the Soviet Union)? May 29, 1942 (when the British obliterated Cologne)? Or on January 30, 1943 (when the Soviet Union captured the German 6th Army at Stalingrad)? This doesn't make the assassination attempt any less significant but it should be placed within an historical context. History records that Adolf Hitler was adored ... indeed loved ... by the German people, a fact that the German people will have to deal with for a long time to come. Germans opposed Adolf Hitler? So what? Too little, too late. And who were they to repudiate their oath of allegiance? Guided by a misplaced sense of honor, they chose to follow the Fuehrer, so they had no cause to complain. The Fuehrer had not duped them, they had duped themselves. This movie teaches that one should take great care to whom to swear allegiance. The same officers who plotted against Hitler also participated in aggressive war which set the stage for genocide. That they had second thoughts about the direction the war was going is commendable but it does not absolve them of their own complicity in implementing Hitler's policies.