Review of Valkyrie (2008) by Alvin John C — 06 Jul 2012

With films like "Valkyrie" to give us a fresh perspective, I swear the WWII genre cannot get old. This story recounts the the most trying effort of a band of German military officers to commit the highest act of treason possible: the assassination of Adolf Hitler. Those of you who are acquainted with history should know that this attempt is ultimately a failure. Nonetheless, "Valkyrie" is quite suspenseful.

As a story, the film is entirely successful in its aim of showing that not all Germans are the same. A message which Hollywood has not conveyed in most of its films. Germans have predominately been portrayed as willing Nazi party members flatly evil and devoid of any humanity. "Valkyrie" gives us the story of a real life hero, Colonel Stauffenberg, who was willing to take the desperate measures required in desperate times. A hero whose uniform bore the insignia of Nazi Germany and yet whose inner man could not be silenced to blind obedience.