Valkyrie

Valkyrie tells the story of the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler towards the end of World War II, when it was becoming pretty obvious that Germany was going to lose badly. The plotters, led by Colonel Claus von Staffenberg hoped to replace der Fuhrer with a new set of leaders who would presumably be able to negotiate a more advantageous peace for the third Reich. Tom Cruise plays the Colonel as the leader of a group of "good" Nazis, an oxymoron if there ever was one, who is also obviously ashamed of many of the excesses of the third Reich. As someone who knew the basic outline of the plot, but not all of the details, I would have to say that the film does a good job of filling in the blanks, and at times resembles a "procedural". The main trick that this film has to accomplish though, is to make you feel sympathy for let's face it, Nazis. I mean, who knows what these guys were up to before they said whoa, der Fuhrer has gone too far this time. Also, except for the Colonel, who expresses misgivings at the excesses of the Nazi regime, the other guys seem only concerned with the fact that Germany is losing, and how they'll be treated by the allies at the end. In spite of all this the film worked for me. The direction, by Bryan Singer of the first two X-Men movies and The Usual Suspects, was such that you felt the suspense build, even though you pretty much knew that things weren't going to work out for the plotters. The acting was fine, in spite of the variety of accents, including basic American, English and German. A good film with some history thrown in.

Rating - Solid 3