Valkyrie
Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in Valkyrie
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Wednesday, 21, Jan 2009 04:27
Directed by Bryan Singer, out January 30th in cinemas, starring Tom Cruise, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Kenneth Branagh, Jamie Parker, running time 120 mins.
In a nutshell...
Tense but shallow military drama.
What's it all about?
Injured in North African action for the German army, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) finds his hopes of bringing down Hitler close to realisation after joining forces with the influential German Resistance movement and concocting a plan to use Hitler's own emergency plan - Operation Valkyrie - against him. But with the fate of a nation in their hands, the group entrust Stauffenberg with casting the final stone in their bid to overthrow the Nazi government.
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Who's in it?
Three-time Oscar nominee Tom Cruise (Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg) most recently earned a Golden Globe nomination for his hilarious turn in Tropic Thunder but has worked with a stunning array of directors in his 27-year career, including Scorsese, Kubrick, Stone, Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson and Michael Mann. One of the most bankable movie stars in the world, he last starred in Mission Impossible III and Lions for Lambs, and is currently attached to Todd Philips' comedy-drama Men.
Renowned British thespians Bill Nighy (Freidrich Olbricht), Tom Wilksinson (Freidrich Fromm) and Kenneth Branagh (Henning von Tresckow) are mainstays of both stage and screen while other cast members include Eddie Izzard, Carice Van Houten, Thomas Kretschmann, Jamie Parker and Terence Stamp.
As an example...
"Hitler is not only the archenemy of the entire world but the archenemy of Germany." - Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg
"God promised Abraham he would not destroy Sodom if he could find just ten righteous men. I have a feeling that with Germany it will come down to just one man." - Major-General Henning von Tresckow
"One cannot understand National Socialism if one does not understand Wagner." - Adolf Hitler
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
The lengthy production delays, a January release and a worthy subject matter might have suggested that Valkyrie was being primed for awards glory but in reality, it's a superbly-made but emotionally-slight thriller which centres the majority of its action on one man.
What the others say
"A film more concerned with 'how' than 'why' or 'who', Valkyrie would have benefited from more scrutiny and complexity. Still, once the bomb goes off, the thrills come in spades." - Dan Jolin, Empire
"Bryan Singer's long-awaited account of the near-miss assassination of Adolf Hitler by a ring of rebel German army officers on July 20th, 1944, has visual splendour galore, but is a cold work lacking in the requisite tension and suspense." - Todd McCarthy, Variety.
So is it any good?
Suspend your disbelief and expectation of a wartime epic on an Oscar-winning Spielberg scale and you'll be pleasantly surprised to find a first-rate espionage thriller that slickly relates the story of a brave, ingenious assassination plot.
From an artillery-disrupted North African opening in the Panzer division to dizzying shots of commendably authentic period air action, it's clear that Singer's hand for thrilling audiences has been strengthened by his work on the X-Men films and Superman Returns.
There are strong turns from all concerned - Wilkinson, Izzard and Thomas Kretschmann especially, though Cruise's character is little more than a cipher for political discontent - and some stylish editing and bombastic sound means the viewer can't help but be carried out for the ride, even though the hindrance of hindsight means dramatic tension should be lessened.
Unfortunately - and this is a problem that has been apparent from the first release of preview footage - any sense of seriousness is undermined by the array of accents on display, with Singer deciding to allow the characters to "come through in strong and very human performances".
He's not wrong to praise the quality of his cast and it seems almost infantile to criticise the film on this level but so many of the cast speak with Received Pronunciation as to be barely believable as Germans in a second world war context. Branagh's cut-glass tones are such that audience members might initially think him an Allied spy while Cruise's unashamedly American tones leave the viewer asking if Daniel Craig can do a Polish accent for Defiance, why can't Cruise do German?
The plot flies along so quickly that a potentially emotional climax falls a little flat but this is still an undeniably suspenseful account of an incredible story.
7/10
Lewis Bazley