Valkyrie

The first half an hour was admittedly difficult, full of Hollywood clichés, with each prominent character being a well-known actor, which made it almost impossible to believe that this group was the one that took part in the real Operation Valkyrie. Tom Cruise had a lot of confidence when he decided to become Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg. But if one agrees to play the game, one wins and is rewarded with one of the best films about the assassination of Hitler. (2020-12-21)

Valkyrie will be enjoyed the most by those who like to dig into this particular historical period. Bryan Singer approaches his subject matter responsibly, without twisting history to better suit his movie. Valkyrie doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t; it has no ambition to be a piece of “high art” and it doesn’t comment on politics like Spielberg’s Munich. It just reconstructs events as a solid conspiratorial thriller with high production values, exciting and well-cast (despite being a small part, Kenneth Branagh’s General von Tresckow is the film’s most interesting and best played character). And its ending doesn’t lack emotion or depth, which reminds us that someone was courageous enough to at least try... P.S. John Ottman’s choral main theme is beautiful! (2009-01-16)

I avoided the film for a long time, but in the end it is a solid suspenseful spy-war film about the overthrow of Hitler. Tom Cruise is excellent in the lead role and even though I couldn't get into the film for the first half hour, once Operation Valkyrie started I didn't even flinch. (2019-05-07)

A fairy tale that is simplified beyond bearable limits, about the struggle between good Germans and ultra-evil ones, where all the motivations of the coup d’etat are summed up in the phrase "Hitler is simply evil. Excuse me, but what's that supposed to be? At least they could have touched on the real reasons. I felt as if I were on the verge of adulthood, and my parents were explaining to me that babies were created by mom and dad kissing, and then a few months later a stork delivers the baby. But despite the general knowledge of the event, despite Cruise being just Cruise and not Stauffenberg, despite the Germans scheming in English, despite the transformation of ranks and terminology to what they are called in the West, despite the inaccuracies, despite the unintended ridiculousness of the eureka scene (including the light bulb turning on!), Singer made the almost impossible possible. After a weak opening half hour, my respiratory system stopped working for tension in many scenes. So I left the movie theater pretty damn happy, but I'd still rather someone did a better job, faithfully, and in detail. Ideally under HBO's supervision. (2009-02-05)

A historical thriller executed with precision, which, even despite the handicap of having a known ending, manages to generate tension better than most of today’s competition. Cruise is not quite up to the task, which results in several uneven scenes (the ones with his wife), but the perfect performances of the rest of the cast more than make up for it. It’s not a perfect film by any means, but I still liked Valkyrie more than three fifths of this year’s Oscar contenders. (2009-02-16)