Valkyrie Movie Review - Plot
During World War II, Wehrmacht Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) is severely wounded in Tunisia, and is evacuated home to Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, Major General Henning von Tresckow (Branagh) attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler by smuggling a bomb aboard the Führer’s private airplane. The bomb, however, fails to detonate and Tresckow safely retrieves it to conceal his intentions. After learning that the Gestapo has arrested Major Hans Oster, he orders General Olbricht (Nighy) to find a replacement. After recruiting von Stauffenberg into the German Resistance, Olbricht delivers von Stauffenberg to a meeting of the secret committee which has coordinated previous attempts on Hitler’s life. The members include General Ludwig Beck (Stamp), Dr. Carl Goerdeler (McNally), and Erwin von Witzleben (Schofield). The Colonel is stunned to learn that no plans exist for after Hitler’s assassination.
After a bombing raid on Berlin, he lights upon using the plan Operation Valkyrie, which involves the deployment of the Reserve Army to maintain order in the event of a national emergency. The plotters carefully redraft the plan so that they can dismantle the Nazi regime after assassinating Hitler. Realizing that only General Fromm (Wilkinson), the head of the Reserve Army, can initiateValkyrie, they offer him a position as head of the Wehrmacht in a Post-Nazi Germany and recruit him into the fold. With the rewritten plan needing to be signed off by Hitler (Bamber), von Stauffenberg visits the Führer at his Berghof estate in Bavaria. In the presence of his inner circle, Hitler praises von Stauffenberg’s heroism in North Africa and signs off on the plan without fully examining the modifications.
At Goerdeler’s insistence, von Stauffenberg is ordered to assassinate both Hitler and SS head Himmler at the bunker Wolf’s Lair. At a final briefing, Colonel Mertz von Quirnheim (Berkel) instructs the committee members in how to use pencil detonators. von Stauffenberg also reaches out to General Fellgiebel (Izzard), who controls all communications at Wolf’s Lair, to cut off communications after the bomb blast. On July 15, 1944, von Stauffenberg attends a strategy meeting at Wolf’s Lair with the bomb in his briefcase, but with Himmler not present at the meeting, von Stauffenberg does not get the go-ahead from the committee leaders until the meeting is over. Meanwhile, the Reserve Army is mobilized by Olbricht, unbeknownst to Fromm, to stand by. With no action taken, von Stauffenberg safely extracts himself and the bomb from the bunker, and the Reserve Army is ordered to stand down, believing that the mobilization was training. Enraged, von Stauffenberg goes to the committee to protest the indecisiveness and blames the bungling of Goerdeler, who has been selected to be chancellor after the coup. When Goerdeler demands that von Stauffenberg be relieved, Beck informs him that the SS is searching for him and implores him to leave the country immediately.
On July 20, 1944, von Stauffenberg and his adjutant Lieutenant Haeften (Parker) return to the Wolf’s Lair. To von Stauffenberg’s dismay, he discovers that the conference is being held in an open-window summer barrack, whereas the plotters had intended to detonate the bomb within the walls of the bunker for maximum damage. While his adjuntant waits with a getaway car, von Stauffenberg leaves the briefcase at the meeting. With the bomb armed, von Stauffenberg leaves the barrack for the getaway car. When the bomb explodes, von Stauffenberg is certain that Hitler is dead and flees the Wolf’s Lair. Before shutting down communications, Fellgiebel calls Mertz about the explosion but cannot clearly convey whether or not the Führer is dead.
As von Stauffenberg flies back to Berlin, Olbricht refuses to mobilize the Reserve Army until he knows without a doubt that Hitler is dead. Behind Olbricht’s back, Mertz forges his signature and issues the orders anyway. With Operation Valkyrie underway, von Stauffenberg and his fellow plotters order the arrest of Nazi party leaders and SS officers and begin to take control of Berlin’s government quarter, which will allow them to command the entire Reich. Rumors reach Berlin that Hitler survived the blast, but von Stauffenberg dismisses them as SS propaganda. Meanwhile, Fromm learns from Field Marshal Keitel that Hitler is still alive. The General refuses to join the plotters, resulting in his arrest. When Hitler reaches the Reserve Army by telephone, the SS officers are released and the plotters in turn are besieged inside the Bendlerblock. The headquarters staff flees, but the ringleaders are arrested. Most are eventually tried and executed, while some commit suicide. Von Stauffenberg is executed by a firing squad.
Valkyrie Movie Review -Directed by
Bryan Singer
Valkyrie Movie Review - Produced by
Christopher McQuarrie
Bryan Singer
Gilbert Adler
Chris Lee
Written by Christopher McQuarrie
Nathan Alexander
Starring Tom Cruise
Bill Nighy
Eddie Izzard
Terence Stamp
Tom Wilkinson
Carice van Houten
Kenneth Branagh
Valkyrie Movie Review - Music by
John Ottman
Cinematography Newton Thomas Sigel
Valkyrie Movie Review - Editing by
John Ottman
Valkyrie Movie Review - Distributed by
USA/Canada
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
United Artists
Worldwide
20th Century Fox
Valkyrie Movie Review - Release date
December 25, 2008 (US)
January 22, 2009 (GER)
January 23, 2009 (UK)
Valkyrie Movie Review - Running time
120 min.
Valkyrie Movie Review - Country
United States
Valkyrie Movie Review - Language
English
Valkyrie Movie Review - Budget
$75 million (official) to $90 million (reported)
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stupid fat bitch, go scarf down another pop tart. QUENTIN IS A FUCKING GENIUS AND HIS MOVIES KICK ASS!
VALKYRIE
Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg lost an eye, a hand and several fingers in the service of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. He sacrificed the rest of himself fighting it.
There are no surprise twists in Valkyrie, the story of Stauffenberg's assassination attempt of Hitler. There are no happy endings. The German dictator survives. Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators do not. Their failed July 20, 1944, coup is both tragedy and farce—a chronicle of missteps and poor luck.
When the film opens in 1943, Stauffenberg—a lieutenant colonel stationed in Tunisia—is already disillusioned by Hitler's government. We're made to understand that he was banished to Africa for speaking against the Reich, and he chronicles some Nazi atrocities in a letter home: "My duty is no longer to save my country, but to save human lives," he writes. Minutes later, allied planes strafe Stauffenberg's compound, pocking his body with bullets and destroying his left eye, his entire right hand and two fingers on his left.
Three months later, Stauffenberg returns to Germany a hero. But despite his rank, medals and accolades, the German is a Nazi traitor-in-waiting. It doesn't take long for a band of conspirators—a small but influential group of politicians and generals—to find and usher him into its inner circle.
The goal? Overthrow or kill Hitler to preserve Germany and, perhaps, save Europe.
"We have to show the world that not all of us are like him," says Major General Henning von Tresckow, the conspiracy's military ringleader.
When von Tresckow is transferred to the front, Stauffenberg takes the major general's place as leader. He recruits new conspirators with an almost reckless alacrity. He recrafts Hitler's Operation Valkyrie—a blueprint for preserving the Reich should the fuehrer be killed—to serve Stauffenberg's own ends. And, because he has regular access to Hitler, Stauffenberg is more than the conspiracy's brain: He becomes the triggerman, too.
When the fateful day of execution arrives, Stauffenberg travels to a military briefing carrying two small bombs in his briefcase. The meeting is to be held in Hitler's reinforced concrete bunker, which will amplify the explosion. Everyone in the bunker, Stauffenberg is told, will be killed instantly. Once Hitler is dead, the conspirators will cut off and arrest Hitler's cronies, take control of the government and sue for peace.
Or so went the plan.
POSITIVE ELEMENTS
It's rare the words "treason" and "heroism" are comfortably linked. But in the case of Stauffenberg, the link, for many, works.
Stauffenberg is a traitor—he admits it himself, and owns up to its consequences—but to one of history's most immoral governments. He loves his country but hates its leadership, and the colonel believes that decapitating the Nazi beast would be less a political assassination and more a virtuous act of war. In hindsight, it's hard to argue. If assassination can ever be justified, it seems this would be as clear a case as one could imagine. When some of his other conspirators dither, Stauffenberg plows forward, undaunted—holding a firm, unwavering conviction that their cause is just.
"It is not that simple," says one would-be recruit, wrestling with a decision to throw in his lot with the conspirators.
"Yes," Stauffenberg says. "Yes, it is."
Stauffenberg's so sure of his cause, in fact, that he's willing to put not only his own life on the line, but the lives of his wife and children—people he clearly loves. Not that he's reckless about it. He knows the Reich will come after them if he's unsuccessful, so he sends his family far away from Berlin. And, when the conspiracy starts to head south, he frantically tries to contact his wife—putting in call after call until the Nazis cut the phone lines.
Most of the rest of the conspirators also are motivated by high ideals—though some differ on methods. One politician advocates confronting Hitler directly, believing that trying to assassinate him is immoral. "I would've thought a man of your caliber would've thought of a more honorable approach," he tells Stauffenberg.
SPIRITUAL CONTENT
The historical Stauffenberg was a practicing Catholic who justified his treasonous pursuits through theology and faith. The film doesn't spell this out, but it does hint at his motivations: As Stauffenberg gets dressed, the camera focuses on a cross and ring hanging around his neck. His first meeting with the conspirators takes place in a roofless, war-torn church, in which we see the anguished face of Jesus—a corpus hanging in the church—looking on.
Actually, many conspirators suggest that it's their divine duty to save Germany from Hitler. One refers to "sacred Germany" during his trial, and von Tresckow tells Stauffenberg, "Only God can judge us." A conspirator recalls the biblical story of Sodom, and how God would've s