Don’t believe all the bad reviews, Valkyrie is a good film. Not a great film, but a good one. X-Men and Superman Returns director Bryan Singer leaves the fan-boy realm behind for more serious fare, and he does not disappoint.
Not at all a heartwarming holiday film, Valkyrie is based on the true story of the last and most complex attempt by high ranking German officers to assassinate Hitler. The mission, which employed an operation called “Valkyrie,” obviously failed. The film is closely focused on that failure and it’s aftermath.
Everyone seems to rip on Tom Cruise, which I just don’t understand. I think he’s solid in this film, as well as most of the other films I’ve seen him in. He brings an energy and an intensity to the role of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the key conspirators in the attempt, that I can really get behind. People who judge an actor’s performance based solely on who they are in real life really bug me!
I was most impressed by the way the film stuck to the facts. That Valkyrie has no major action sequences and is shot mostly in medium and close-ups testifies that Singer wasn’t trying to squeeze an epic or an action flick out of real events. He instead focuses on the tension and anti-climax of a failed endeavor in a very realistic manner, creating an enlightening, if not an exhaustive historical drama.
It’s no spoiler to say that Cruise’s character, along with the other conspirators, die in the end, but they die bravely, and I think that this is the point of the film. It’s not necessarily meant to entertain, but to honor these brave men who sacrificed themselves in an attempt to destroy a great evil. When the credits rolled the audience was silent, clearly as affected as I was. Valkyrie is a solid film that does it’s job well. Kudos to Singer for spending his time and talent in honoring these brave men.