Tuesday, December 30, 2008

'Valkyrie' Review


Tom Cruise as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg in Valkyrie. Watch the trailer: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/valkyrie/30574/main
This movie is based on a true event, the 15th and final known attempt to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944. The History Channel is running a documentary about this plot as a tie-in for the movie. Valkyrie is done quite well and suspenseful even if you already know the details and the tragic outcome. Some reviews have downgraded Tom Cruise's performance and the mix of English and German actors' accents as jarring but we didn't consider him or the others a distraction. All the performances are good including Cruise as a wounded officer intent on overthrowing Hitler and his SS henchmen. The story uncoils as the plotters hammer out details and demand other officers to join their cause, as almost like in one of Cruise's Mission Impossible movies. But as General Beck, well played by Terence Stamp warns him, "Expect things to go wrong."
Cruise has taken a lot of knocks in the media, some he deserved, but he does a fine job as the doomed coup's leader. One reviewer thought he was "too American" for his role but go see for yourself. Maybe the character's nobility is misinterpreted as a vanity project for Cruise but he's surrounded by many better actors who contribute to the scope of the film. Everyone involved on and off screen deserves credit.

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