Henry Saw: Valkyrie

I would admire the German officers who tried to kill Hitler more if they were in any way competent or truly committed to it...


Bryan Singer is back in thriller territory. After the Usual Suspects, one of the most cracking thrillers ever made, Singer abandoned that kind of pace to make the plodding Apt Pupil, and a trilogy of superhero movies (two X-Men and a Superman). Singer returns to the action/thriller genre with Valkyrie, the true story of the group of German Nazi Officers who decided to try to assassinate Hitler and retake Germany from the Nazi Party.

Tom Cruise plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, someone who was against the Nazi's practices from the beginning, and takes charge of the plot to kill Hitler. He leads a cast that includes Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Terrence Stamp, and Eddie Izzard.

The plan, which basically boils down to Cruise planting a bomb at Hitler's Lion's Den, and then helping take control of Berlin by blaming the SS and using the reserve army to claim the city, falls apart when the bomb doesn't actually kill Hitler. See, Cruise's character leaves the room - unwilling to sacrifice himself to make sure the job is done - and seems to want to help run Germany after the job is done. This point is what bothered me throughout the movie. If these Germans really wanted Hitler dead, they could have just shot him and dealt with the consequences later. Instead you had a bunch of stuck-up, power-hungry, cowards (despite what the movie would have you believe) who cared more about their reputation and legacy than actually saving the country.

The movie's argument to this point of view is that Hitler was not the only one who needed to die. If Himmler didn't die, and the SS wasn't taken care of, nothing would be different. Does anyone actually believe this? Would 400,000 of Hungary's 800,000 Jews be killed in late 1944 if Hitler was still alive? Would his officers, both more sane and more intelligent, have really allowed more than a quarter of the Nazi's forces to devote themselves to killing Jews in the last year of the war? Obviously the German officers depicted in Valkyrie couldn't know this but Bryan Singer must...

Aside from that: The actors are almost all poorly cast except Kenneth Branagh. Bill Nighy plays a nervous ninny which doesn't suit him, Terrence Stamp is just Zod, as Anthony Lane said - if the Nazi Generals really resembled Eddie Izzard...how big a threat could they have been, and Tom Wilkinson is just sort of there. Tom Cruise is fine, but still, he's not someone the audience can ever buy as anyone but Tom Cruise. This sometimes works (Jerry Macguire) but here it doesn't.

Also, as a suspense movie...it's kind of crazy. We know they don't kill Hitler. So...where's the drama? Most of the movie is concerned with the plot and failure to take back Germany. Not the whys, hows...the actual event. And it's mostly a series of errors that led to the death of millions because the so called heroes of this film lacked any balls.

Its an entertaining film, entertaining enough, but frustrating on multiple levels. I ultimately can't recommend it but I must admit that it is a film that will inspire much conversation.

Grade: B-

Best Scene: Tom Wilkinson first meets Bill Nighy and Tom Cruise