Valkyrie - Failed bomb plot to kill Hitler - Tom Cruise

Director Bryan Singer's account of a doomed German plot to assassinate Hitler opens with: Based on a True Story. That's often shorthand for Warning: Balderdash Ahead, so it's worth noting that Valkyrie respects the historical record.

As the film portrays, a coup attempt was organized by a band of German officers and civilians sickened by the murderous Third Reich. Initially led by a general (Kenneth Branagh), the conspiracy's leadership passed to an aristocratic colonel, Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise).

Twice, Stauffenberg smuggled a bomb into military conferences attended by Hitler. Once, the dictator left the meeting before the charge could be detonated. But on July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg placed his lethal package near Hitler, then walked out of the room. The ensuing explosion killed four, but not the dictator.

For a few tense hours, though, the schemers believed they had succeeded and that command of the German armed forces and the Reich itself was theirs for the taking.

Valkyrie portrays this accurately and with visual style, but without a shred of credibility.

Cruise is part of the problem scratch that, he's most of the problem. His Stauffenberg is a 24/7 marvel of iron determination, jut-jawed certitude and immaculate tailoring. (He lost an eye, a hand and part of the other hand in 1942, when strafed by Allied planes in North Africa. When Singer zooms in on the unconscious officer lying in the desert sand, Cruise's face is bloodied, but his coiffure is perfect.)

As performances go, this one is as shaded as his solid black eye patch. Watching Cruise, you wonder why anyone including several superior officers follows this humorless stick. But only Gen. Olbricht (Bill Nighy, superb as a timid man struggling to quash his doubts) wavers, and his hesitation has ruinous consequences.

Stauffenberg, though, was also a victim of his own judgment. When reports trickle into Berlin that Hitler had survived the bombing, Stauffenberg is adamant.

I saw the blast, he insists. I saw the blast.

So the conspirators rush forward, to their doom.

Singer doesn't shrink from showing us their fate, and some of the best scenes illustrate the conspiracy unraveling with tragic speed. At one point, a German communications officer brings his supervisor two orders. One is from conspirators, demanding the arrest of SS chief Heinrich Himmler; the other is from the SS, to arrest Stauffenberg.

The solution? Obey both. Ours is not to interpret orders, the supervisor argues with perfect Nazi logic.

Unfortunately, Valkyrie turns a blind eye to other baffling questions.

From North Africa to Berlin, Stauffenberg advertises his desire to rid Germany of Hitler. Why didn't the SS stop him?

In the washroom of a crowded cabaret, Stauffenberg screams details of the plot to another conspirator. Why didn't the SS, etc.

Before entering a bunker to blow up Hitler, Stauffenberg takes off his eye patch and pops a glass eye into his socket. Wouldn't someone the ever-present SS, say notice that Stauffenberg is acting a mite peculiar?

Stauffenberg, the historic figure, staked his life in an ill-fated gamble against a monstrous regime. He's a hero. Stauffenberg, the Valkyrie character, is so convinced of success, he doesn't recognize the stakes. That makes him a well-intentioned fool and an irritating companion for two hours.

http://www.blacktree.tv

Category:

Film & Animation

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[southernID]

I think Stauffenberg is one of the bravest German in the 20th century. Why? He tried to kill Hitler. This is not so special, because many others also tried to kill him. But he tried it without one eye, one hand and only three fingers left on the other hand. See what a disabled man can do - only if he is willing enough.

[Hytjeie]

2:44 a scene cutted out of the movie? In the movie, Goebbels wasn't arrested.

[ITSxFAITHxBITCH]

@Tony63909 yes they did,.. but they were sent to concentration camps, doesn't necessarily mean that they died there..

[Tony63909]

@ITSxFAITHxBITCH I believe you're mistaken. His wife and children grew up and have lived a full life.

[ITSxFAITHxBITCH]

@Tony63909 they did, they were sent to concentration camps, i think

[20Alanpartridge]

It must have been a fantastic and surreal moment when the bomb went off and out of the smoke and flames Adolf comes walking out, dusty and cross ,but alive

[metacosmos]

Staufenberger should have kindnapped Hitler at the Mountain shelter and forced him to end the war.

[icejetsrok]

Please people, dont take 12 year olds ignorantly making comments on youtube too seriously.

[NICEDOPPY]

Tom Cruise did a really honest good work in a modest way representing the Brave Count-Colonel Klaus Stauffenberg role in this Movie about Valkyrie Protocol-Operation; Nobody understand to this days why the bomb failed, is a such hard strange thing around.

[thetrialshot]

@TehOgMerk OMG STOP BITCHING PLEASE!

your economy is now falling... trillion debt's? WTF?

you achieved nothing in AFGHAN AND IRAQ, you only care about OIL... stop watching CNN RETARD!

[AntipodeanStar]

@TehOgMerk You say "cause USA Beats ANY County"? You came within 12 hours of default this week. You have 48 million people on food stamps. You did not win the Korean War. You lost the Vietnam War. You were routed in Somalia. You achieved nothing in Iraq and you will never win Afghanistan. Stop dreaming America and wake up to reality.

[neempoppa]

The "greatest monster" is Mao.