Review

Review Date: 28-December-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Valkyrie (2008)

For people who have not studied World War II (or not recently, anyway), Valkyrie comes as a kind of relief. The question that always smarts when one contemplates Nazi Germany is: even accepting that many people are susceptible to evil, how could an entire nation have behaved like monsters? Valkyrie dramatizes an actual plot by German military and political leaders to kill Adolf Hitler and restore their country's honor. Evidently not everyone in the Third Reich lost their mind.

Of course, the movie starts off with the handicap of our knowing that Hitler was not assassinated, so viewers must be willing to forgo a happy ending. Presumably to counter this negative overtone, the central role of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is given to Tom Cruise, a tarnished but still potent Hollywood idol. (He is backed up by thespian heavyweights like Tom Wilkinson and Kenneth Branagh.) Cruise gives the protagonist a dedicated, efficacious air if little pizzazz. He is a patriot who fearlessly shares his negative opinion of Hitler even as he advances in the ranks of the Nazi army. After being wounded in Africa, he returns to Berlin and discovers like-minded others of high rank who need a man of action to get the ball rolling. He convinces them that assassination is not enough. It must be immediately followed by a coup to insure that the SS does not pick up where Hitler left off.

The key to the coup is a militia kept on tap for the possibility of invasion, which can only be called up under an operation known as Valkyrie. (The Valkyries are mythical goddesses who select worthy Norse warriors and escort them to their final reward.) Von Stauffenberg rigs it so that his cronies (played by Bill Nighy, Christian Berkel, Jamie Parker, et al.) can mobilize the militia as soon as he has blown up the Führer at a debriefing in his woodland bunker. After a few setbacks, the plan gets under way and appears to be going well. But as another conspirator notes, military operations are always unpredictable.

The first two thirds of the movie consist of preparations for the coup, and although director Bryan Singer tries to squeeze suspense out of ringing phones, switched briefcases, and the presence of the western world's most famous mass murderer, the action feels rather flat. The last third is a definite improvement, with the plot coming tantalizingly close to success and issues of bravery, loyalty, and martyrdom shifting to the fore. Valkyrie tells a story worth knowing, though it might be better served by a medium other than a major motion picture or by an approach that is less clinically historical. That these events happened is important; how they happened isn't very interesting.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.