Valkyrie
This film was set up to fail and did not succeed, at failing.
Most of the people I’d spoken to about this film had either said they didn’t like it or that it was just “ok”.
I disagree with them.
Valkyrie is the story of a group of Germans who are fed up with Hitler’s Germany. They don’t want Germany to be remembered for all time for the holocaust and the destruction caused by the Nazi regime. Tom Cruise’s character is brought into the group and then leads a revolt to assassinate Hilter and then get the army to fight themselves.
This film is based on actual events and according to research, it appears that it is fairly accurate.
I’m not a big Tom Cruise fan, but his portrayal was convincing and not forced. I think one thing the film lacked was a background on his character that would’ve given more depth and reason as to why he felt the way he did. These Germans knew from the get go that if they failed at their mission, they would be executed, along with their families. It would take a special type of person in 1940’s Germany to revolt against the Fuhrer.
While an “action/war” film, Valkyrie has little of either. It is definitely more of a suspense film, one of which you know the ending of, but just need to find out how they get there.
Good acting and writing, Singer’s direction is spot on and a fantastic story that I never knew of prior to watching this. Valkyrie is definitely one to watch on DVD.
June 21st, 2009 at 8:56 pm
i actually watched this today before reading your review. i definitely heard bad things about it before i watched it however i thought i’d give it a shot. it was very well portrayed from a historical standpoint. i think most people were expecting another action packed war movie and if it disappoints them that is wasn’t.. they then should watch TBS movies because you always know what to expect… and if you didn’t know what to expect they will be an encore presentation directly after or at least 6 hours after the original air time.
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:19 am
so you weren’t taken out of the movie because everyone was speaking either german or with a german accent EXCEPT the principal actor?
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:42 am
No, that actually did not affect me at all. I thought the transition from German to English at the beginning of the film was incredibly well done and I never was brought out of the film due to Cruise’s lack of accent.