Valkyrie Reviews

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[Highly rated reviewer]

superb......................................

This dvd is superb. Valkyrie is a historical thriller film starring Tom Cruise. The film is based on the 20th July plot of German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Tom Cruise portrays the leader of the plot, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.

The film also stars: Kenneth Branagh as Major General Henning von Tresckow, Christian Berkel as Colonel Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, Bill Nighy as General Friedrich Olbricht,

David Schofield as Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, Terrence Stamp as Colonel General Ludwig Beck, Kevin McNally as Carl Goerdeler, Carice van Houten as von Stauffenberg's wife, Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg, David Bamber as Adolf Hitler,

Eddie Izzard as Erich Fellgiebel, Tom Wilkinson as Friedrich Fromm, Thomas Kretschmann as Otto Ernst Remer, Gerhard Haase-Hindenberg as Hermann Göring, Anton Algrang as Albert Speer and Matthias Freihof as Heinrich Himmler.

During World War II, German Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) is severely wounded in Africa and returns home to Nazi Germany.

Stauffenberg helps conceive Operation Valkyrie, a plan approved by Adolf Hitler which, in order to manage turmoil within Germany, would implement a shadow government in the event of the Nazi Führer's death.

The Colonel eventually joins the German Resistance and becomes part of the July 20 plot, a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and execute Valkyrie in order to take control of the country and make peace with the Allies.

Stauffenberg finds himself taking on not only the responsibility of leading the coup, but also the task to assassinate Hitler himself.

Well worth watching.

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Valkyrie

Another film that has a few personal dilemma's for me, firstly I'll put my indifference for Mr Cruise as an individual aside here, and secondly from the little I've read about the infamous Colonel Von Stauffenburg the hero of the hour played by Cruise , it's obvious the Hollywood gloss brigade have been working overtime to tie this one up into a neat little package for general cinematic consumption, that said it's not without it's merits.

The film concentrates on one particular attempt to assassinate Adoph Hitler during the final year of World War II , with the noble Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise ) playing a pivotal part in proceedings as a group of so called honourable high ranking officers who are completely out of step with the Nazi doctrine come together in an attempt to over throw Hitler and his henchmen and save Germany from itself. It's a complicated, dangerous and mad plot that could so easily have worked and changed the course of history.

A strong cast which includes the cream of British acting talent including Terence Stamp, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Eddie Izzard, Kenneth Cranham, Bernard Hill, and Tom Wilkinson who is more than impressive as General Fromm an odious man who's never quite sure which side of the fence to come down on . You don't see a huge amount of Herr Hitler (David Bamber) on screen but when you do there is an underlying menace to Bamber's performance that hits the spot.

Cruise gives a decent well rounded performance as the fearless Stauffenberg, in what is every young boy's real adventure story, and you get the feeling he really wanted to tell this story to the world, it has moments of high drama, tension, and real excitement, though peppered with a few plodding moments too, but I suppose any story based on such a well documented piece of history will struggle to keep the momentum going.

So the big question is 'Did I enjoy it'? ...........To be fair it was one of those films that entertained on a 'what you see is what you get' level, and yes I left the cinema satisfied with what I'd seen and not begrudging my ticket money, and it certainly leaves you with that feeling of 'If only' .................In a word........... Entertaining.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Valkyrie

Tom Cruise very rarely tends to play a bad egg in his movies, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that while he may play a German WWII Colonel in Valkyrie, it would happen to be the one that attempted to kill Hitler, not help him. Cruise is von Staffenberg, an outspoken critic of the Furher, who helps to mastermind a plot to kill him.

While covering the events leading up to and after the attempt, and while solid all round, Valkyrie has a bit of a problem. It doesn’t particularly like to get in to the mindsets of these key players all that well, never really showing us what drove these conspirators to forge this dangerous plan. It plays rather like one of those National Geographic documentaries in certain places. Also the decision to forgo any sort of German sets the movie out of its context. Its all well and good Tom Wilkinson getting pissed off in his German uniform, in his German office, but if he still sounds like Gerald from the Full Monty your not really going to be as engaged. It’s the little things….

However, it does contain something of a stellar cast, although Kenneth Brannagh is rather underused. Bill Nighy is great as General Olbricht who can talk the talk but struggling to do the walk.and Eddie Izzard continues to pop up in an understated role as a German comms officer. Cruise is good, but unfortunately the film lacks a definitive cutting edge that could make it a true spectacle, preferring to wash over you then really get you involved. Even its ultimately downbeat ending doesn’t really evoke anything out of you, and considering the historical significance of the events, it is somewhat confusing that the events should be made in to a popcorn movie.

Still worth a watch and better then Singers Superman reboot.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Flawed... but enjoyable and admriable

After seeing the film advertisments hanging all around the cinema walls and billboards across the country, I was truly looking forward to sitting in a cinema and enjoying every minute of a perfectly produced, directed and acted film.

This film`s base is about a true story, that holds such bravery and heroism to do whats right, no Spiderman or Batman fantasy film could ever surmount too.

However, although this is still a good movie, they really have missed a massive oppurtunity for a stunning masterpiece.

One thing that makes this work of art feel like a childs painting is the fact that Tom Cruise plays the usual pure American blood 'Top Gun - i`ll do it no matter what' role, while on the over hand we have the German actors, talking english... and then we have English actors, talking english.

At the end of the film, although you do feel completly moved by this masterpiece of a story, there is a sense of 'ahh well, it`ll do...' attitude which is pronounced generally throughout the film. Camera work, which seems desperate, focusing on boots, glass eyes, pregnant bellies.... you feel like calling out infront of the whole audience - OK STRINGER WE GET THE POINT!!

This film is definatly worth a watch, but not an oscar. Only a let down due to the intergity and depth of story used and shallow cast and ideas brought forward, maybe that was the main mistake??

[Highly rated reviewer]

Cruise to boredom

Amazing story based on historical events, absolute top notch supporting cast, beautfully shot, talented director....then theres Tom Cruise! The stink in an enclosed room! Tom gave us shouty Cruise, arrogant Cruise, determined Cruise, i love my family Cruise, the Eureka moment Cruise and so on. Tom ran through all his acting repertoire and managed to turn something potentially brilliant into a complete dud of a movie. I was astounded to find myself actually bored and not really caring what the outcome to the whole tale was...which i blame the Cruise for. If you love Tom you may like the film, if, like me, hes not for you then i strongly suggest you dont get seducted by everything else to do with film and keep well away from it

Good movie

Fantastic movie - Tom Cruise is good and great story. Well worth a viewing

[Highly rated reviewer]

CALL ON ME, VALKYRIE! (ONE FOR THE STEVE WINWOOD FANS)

A solid enough war movie. Who knows where Hollywood blurred the line between 'true story' and bollocks. However, I did find the stella cast rather distracting. You have to stop 'star' spotting and switch on to the characters. The lack of any attempts at German accents didn't help either. It made it all a bit 'Emperors new clothes'.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Excellent

Being German and growing up in Germany was always overshadowed by the war, even being born 1969.

In school during history lessons, we always have been told that we 'have to feel ashamed in the guilt of our forefathers' - This might sound to you like a familiar Harry Endfield joke, but for my generation it was true.

I did my A-levels in history - even Nazi-Germany. Frankly all our material was based on how evil the Germans have been (no doubt about that). Graf von Stauffenberg was j u s t mentioned.

Watching this film felt good for a couple of reasons. Sad thing is that Hollywood needs to come along to honor a hero of the German resistance.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Serious

A very worthy and well filmed telling of the last attempt to assassinate Hitler. It is a little like watching a drama documentary made for schools though with much higher production values and also the (mainly British) acting is of a very good standard particularly Tom Wilkinson as Fromm and Nighy as Ostibert(sp). It is rare that the German army is depicted as human so it feels a bit uncomfortable but is probably a good history lesson for us all. Tom Cruise is good but he is Tom Cruise and you can't help noticing that which probably means the film is not involving its audience enough and after all we know what happens. There are very tense moments however and the photography is extremely good.My feeling is that the film is almost a tribute to these high ranking officers so their names are not forgotten.

Great film

Loved this film, great acting. Caught the atmosphere of the times.