compelling film about plot to kill Hitler

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2009)

'Valkyrie' made me think of 'Apollo 13' in the sense that both are about true stories most people have heard about but whose details remained obscure, and thus make the stories worth telling, even though the endings are never in doubt. In the case of 'Valkyrie,' Tom Cruise and a supporting cast largely made up of British actors take us through the fascinating tale of the last documented attempt to kill Adolf Hitler (there were fifteen altogether), and the intricate plan to seize the German government, disable the dreaded SS, and negotiate an end to World War II. Unless one is a student of the war, chances are you've only heard a fragment or two of the whole story; many might think a German officer placed a briefcase with a bomb in it next to Hitler at a meeting and that was it. But as we find out in 'Valkyrie,' there was much more to the scheme and it came tantalizingly close to succeeding. The only real problem was that Hitler wasn't killed by the blast. Many of Germany's top generals had serious doubts about Hitler's military strategy, particularly toward the end of the war, but there had been resistance movements against Hitler since the late thirties, with a changing roster of conspirators. 'Valkyrie' details the last one, spearheaded by Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg (Cruise). The other major players, mostly generals, varied in their degrees of commitment to the plot. Some were adamant in their hatred of Hitler and demanded he be killed; others wavered back and forth, obviously in fear for their lives and their families if the plot failed and they were discovered. The more insistent ones, like Stauffenberg, pushed the plan forward and at times bullied their more reticent comrades into taking action. This is all presented in a very straightforward fashion. 'Valkyrie' reminds one of nothing so much as a very good WW2/espionage film made at the time. The script is tight and well-drawn, the actors uniformly believable. Cruise himself is somewhat subdued compared to other roles he's played, which is the right approach here. The thing that will strike many viewers as most surprising is how far the scheme got. After the bomb explodes during a meeting where Hitler is present, the conspirators waste no time in rounding up SS officers and phoning German commanders in the field to notify them of Hitler's death and the change in government. For a while, it works and there is surprisingly little resistance to what is in effect a coup. Eventually though, Hitler's voice is heard in a telephone call to Berlin, and that is the end of it. Needless to say, the conspirators are nearly all killed, as well as many others who had nothing to do with the plot. Such was the kind of vengeance practiced in Hitler's Germany.