Thursday 5 February 2009

Valkyrie Cinema Review

Based on a true story from WWII, Tom Cruise stars as the lead role in Valkyrie as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a man who is loyal to his country and will fight for Germany to the end.

Stauffenberg is badly injured in an attack on his camp in Africa and looses his right hand, two fingers from his left and one of his eyes. His fears that Hitler will bring his beloved Germany to its demise are stronger than ever after the incident and he takes it upon himself to do something about it.

He joins a group of men, including Major-General Henning von Tresckow (Kenneth Branagh), General Friedrich Olbricht (Bill Nighy) and General Erich Fellgiebel (Eddie Izzard) among others, who are conspiring to end the dictator’s rein. They plot to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi government and put into place Hitler’s emergency plan (operation Valkyrie) to take control and save Germany and the rest of Europe.

Valkyrie is an interesting depiction of the WWII Hitler assassination attempt and is an entertaining and dramatic film. The plot is a bit slow at times and this makes the film feel as though it is dragging a bit but, there is a great mix of characters throughout, providing different takes on how the people of Germany felt about Hitler’s rein. The dominating American accents are a little out of place but, the audience gets used to that after a while (this is a Hollywood film after all) and Tom Cruise is surprisingly sound as such a complex and important protagonist.

Overall, Valkyrie is a good film and is well worth a watch. It is always good to see a film like this that can make you really think about everything that went on in Nazi Germany. War film fans will probably not be disappointed.