Review of Valkyrie (2008) by Jenna G — 16 Feb 2011

The 2008 Tom Cruise film Valkyrie is based on an actual attempt to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi government. The real story is that Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg lost his right hand, two fingers on his left hand, and his left eye in an attack. This caused him to conclude that his job in life was to kill Hitler. The plan constructed was to kill Hitler during a meeting with a suitcase bomb. However due to the placement of the bomb, Hitler was protected by the table he was sitting at, therefore he only suffered minor injuries. However, the people who were involved still believed Hitler was dead due to lack of communication, so they carried on the plan to overthrow the government. This resulted in all the major people involved in Operation Valkyrie to be put to death.

Valkyrie was very precise in detail regarding the actual events. Everything about this movie was historically accurate, from the way the plan went, to the failure of the plan. I was actually surprised that the creators of the film managed to conceal two fingers on Stauffenberg's left hand considering that it could have caused complications in Tom Cruise's doing things while acting. The movie is fairly clean of over-dramatizing events, however it made a major flaw that made the movie seem more towards audience pleasure rather than realism. At the meeting, one of the people at the meeting says that they are in danger, with the bomb exploding nearly a second afterwards. This seemed to me like sloppy writing, which was intended to add a hint of irony to the scene, but fell short and made the scene seem unrealistic. Fortunately this movie did not leave out anything that was really important. All the details of Stauffenberg's injuries, Operation Valkyrie, and the failure of the plan were spot on. However I did not like Tom Cruise's portrayal of Stauffenberg due to the fact that it seemed like every other Tom Cruise performance that I have ever seen. This actually occurred to the point that I would feel like I was watching a movie about Tom Cruise attempting to assassinate Hitler instead of the actual plot.

Although this is an incredibly accurate film and could be used as a tool to learn about the real events, I can't help but say not to watch this movie. Valkyrie was extremely slow moving, and at points hard to understand. There were scenes where very dim lighting, and quiet speaking would be used to add a desired dramatic effect, however it was overdone to the point where it could be difficult to comprehend what was going on. I would personally recommend reading about Operation Valkyrie rather than seeing the movie for this reason.