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Valkyrie: Single Disc Edition

Review By: Tom Herrmann
TomHerrmann@TheCinemaSource.com

Movie Grade: C+
DVD Features Grade: A-
Overall Grade: B

Part of me feels bad for Tom Cruise, the other part of me realizes that he is a psychopath who is far too extreme in his beliefs, but that is somewhat irrelevant. The pity comes into play because he was at one point an A list actor who gave us great movies like Risky Business, Top Gun, and A Few Good Men as opposed to his current status as a regular on shows like The Soup and Best Week Ever for constant mocking. It isn’t that he doesn’t have the jokes coming to him, but he’s gone through quite the transition from the kind of crazy where he runs around in his underwear because his parents aren’t home to the kind of crazy where he jumps on Oprah’s couch and tells us all not to take medication.

In his new attempt at a comeback, Cruise took on the part of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg who is part of a group who plan on killing Hitler and show the world that not all Germans support the Nazi party. Their plan is to eliminate not only Hitler, but Hitler’s government by first assassinating him and then initiating Valkyrie. Valkyrie was an operation of Nazi Germany that was created to be a backup plan to seize the government if the Nazi party was corrupted. They planned to make it seem as if the assassination attempt was an effort of devoted members of the Reich which would allow them to create the illusion that loyal solders were acting in favor of Hitler’s government while they were actually dismantling it.

Don’t let the plot summary fool you, the movie isn’t that interesting. It is mostly a compilation of political conversations between seemingly lethargic political figures. Being dialog heavy doesn’t automatically take away from a film, what does take away from a film is a lack of emotion behind the dialog. Stauffenberg was particularly apathetic, and being that he is the main character it drags the movie on significantly. Even a gunfight toward the end of the film seems bland with the way the characters reacted to the situation by almost not reacting at all.

This obviously has an effect on the suspense of the movie. Without the right emotion, the scenes that were intended to be suspenseful fall flat with few exceptions that actually deliver. When the explosives go off and it seems that the plan to over through Hitler is coming to fruition was somewhat enjoyable, but the fact that anyone who has an either grade education knows that Hitler was not assassinated takes away from its strength. The ending was the only part of the film that executed its mood well, no pun intended. Despite its abrupt ending it was very well done, and while it isn’t ...