Beware of some spoilers

Despite how people feel about Tom Cruise Valkyrie was a movie that I have been looking forward to very much. I love films about World War II even though I admittedly haven't seen all that many but I've tried to see those that are considered the best. My hope was that Tom Cruise and director Bryan Singer could create a film that can be added to the likes of Patton, Saving Private Ryan (although not a true story) and the HBO mini series Band of Brothers, especially since it's a story about German heroes who tried to stop Adolf Hitler. I've said before that I love films about war heroes because it's real - real people, real blood, and real sacrifices - the story of Valkyrie is just that. People sometimes forget that some Germans hated Hitler too but like any dictator most of the country just feared him all for good reason. We all know who he is, we all know what he did and I don't think there has been a villain like him in human history; god willing one never reappears.

I don't doubt, and I have taken into consideration while writing this, filming for Valkyrie had to be incredibly hard while trying to make it authentic considering the huge sensitivity of the subject to the Germans. No people in the world feel so ashamed about their past like the Germans; I wish some countries can learn from their mistakes, maybe the world would be a less violent place but that is obviously too idealistic. If you look on information sites like Wikipedia or IMDB, it will tell you the difficulty of getting shooting sites in the country and how even more difficult it was to use Nazi flags in the country; that is definitely something I can understand but at the same time, it's only a movie and it's a movie portraying those who believed in a free Germany. I am, however, not one to speak for the Germans.

Valkyrie is about a German Colonel named Claus von Stauffenberg who lead a plot to kill Adolf Hitler and engage a takeover of the government by initializing Operation Valkyrie. The goal of the German resistance was to over throw "Hitler's Germany", to arrest the SS and the Gestapo in a attempt to end the war before Europe destroyed itself.

It failed.

Valkyrie stars Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg, Bill Nighy as General Olbricht, Tom Wilkinson as General Fromm, Terence Stamp as General Beck and Kenneth Branagh (Thor director) as General Tresckow with David Bamber as Adolf Hitler. Along with that stellar cast is a group of excellent supporting cast members that is too long to list.

Could Tom Cruise and Bryan Singer make this film tasteful enough and make it a good film for all of us to see? Many probably believed, no - some, like myself, may have been skeptical but with a cast like Valkyrie's with a talented film maker it had a chance of being something great. Guest what... it is great.

Like:

• It's intense! You know the situation and the outcome but watching it is still very much intense because deep inside you want Stauffenberg to succeed in killing Hitler but you know it's impossible since it didn't happen.
• Helping the intensity is the pacing. The pacing moves very quickly never leaving me bored for a minute and that's a quality that I love.
• It's a very authentic in feeling. When you see men dressed as Nazi's in Berlin, airfields and so forth it's frightening. The set pieces dressed in Nazi flags... ahhh.... It's scary.
• David Bamber as Hitler honestly made me feel gross, nasty and disgusting inside - that's how good he is. Every time he was on screen you couldn't help but feel hatred towards him but also a fear. This isn't a horror film but I legitimately felt uncomfortable with a twisted stomach when he would glare at Tom Cruise's character. I could only imagine what it felt like on screen for the actors - for that matter in real life.
• The overall performances are really good from all of the cast. I can't say I didn't like any ones performance.
• The overall story telling is, I have to say, solid and good.

Dislikes:

• I wish there was more... A lot was left out but there is so much you can do in a movie so I should be forgiving, but Valkyrie deserved more.
• SO MUCH IS LOST with this film not being in German. It honestly is very distracting hearing this movie in American and British accents. It at least could have been in German accents but this movie probably would have been soo much better if it was in the German language. This honestly is a big problem for me and it dropped the overall score a couple of points. If Valkyrie was in the German language things would have been a lot more intimidating and enjoyable as a movie goer.

I wouldn't recommend this for everyone because I know that a lot of people hate Tom Cruise even though he's actually very good in this film, but it's all Cruise and if you can't stand him don't watch it. It would honestly be unfair to the film because most people would automatically say "it sucks, I hate Cruise"... so just don't watch it and ruin it for others that want to be entertained. Those of you who do enjoy the occasional war time story, I would say - go ahead and hit up the theater! Everyone else, this would make a great rental. It might not be as amazing as Patton, or emotional like Saving Private Ryan and not as complete as Band of Brothers, but it's an honorable tale about heroes not giving up in the face of death for a free Germany. Valkyrie gets a very solid 6.5... no a 6.8 out of 10 and would probably have been an 8 if it was in German.

-Phil

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