Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
12/31/08
I've come to the conclusion
that the only way to teach history in high schools is by showing the kids
movies and then explaining which parts were changed for dramatic purposes.
A high school history textbook once paused for a paragraph to mention to
me that some German dude put a briefcase with a bomb in it under Hitler's
table and it blew up, but the Nazi Fuhrer emerged unscathed. It's
certainly the kind of fact that sticks with a person (who wouldn't have
loved a crack at blowing Hitler up?), but it barely scratches the surface
of the events that made Claus von Stauffenberg and his fellow July 20th
Plot conspirators German heroes even though they failed. That's where
Bryan Singer's Valkyrie comes in: methodically tracking the
planning and execution of the Plot through Stauffenberg's involvement,
it reveals a full-fledged coup that came ever so close to sparing the world
the last nine months of the Nazis' mad rule. Well acted from top
to bottom, never less than interesting and quite moving at its' best, Valkyrie
is required viewing for fans of historical thrillers, especially those
who only know what they've read in textbooks and seen in the movies.
It's 1944 and Colonel Claus
von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) can no longer bear to serve the murderous
Nazis. After losing an eye, a hand and two fingers in an air raid
in Africa, he's reassigned to Berlin, where his anti-Hitler sentiments
become known to a group of men considering how they might assassinate the
Fuhrer. Major-General Henning von Tresckow (Kenneth Branagh) has
already tried, but when a bomb smuggled onto Hitler's plane does not explode,
he and General Friedrich Olbricht (Bil Nighy) bring Stauffenberg in to
consider a new plan. He finds one in Operation Valkyrie, a plan commissioned
by the Nazis to use a reserve guard to consolidate their power in the event
of Hitler's death or incapacitation by locking down major cities throughout
German-held territory. Assigned to General Friedrich Fromm (Tom Wilkinson),
who oversees the reserve units, Stauffenberg conspires to revise Operation
Valkyrie to focus only on securing Berlin in hopes of arresting the SS
and cutting the head off the Nazi snake. With his status as a wounded
war hero earning him instant credibility, he's able to gain access to Hitler
(David Bamber), by now a frazzled gnome of a man who signs the orders and
welcomes the Colonel at strategic planning sessions. That's the opening
that will allow the conspirators to get a bomb inside, provided by Colonel
Mertz von Quirnheim (Christian Berkel). It's simple: blow up
Hitler, trigger Operation Valkyrie, establish a new government and offer
Germany's surrender to the Allies who're already marching across Europe.
What could possibly go wrong?
And they came oh, so close
in so many different ways. Historians have been hashing out all the
different ways the July 20th Plot could have succeeded for years, and Valkyrie
is at its' heartbreaking best when the third act puts the plan into full
effect. So many little mistakes, so many missed opportunities...
that we can root for the success of a plan we know is doomed to fail is
a tribute to the success Singer has keeping the pace marching forward and
the suspense bubbling. This isn't the kind of movie that's going
to take a lot of time getting to know the characters and their backstory:
it's about what they did, not who they were. It helps to have a great
cast under those circumstances, and Valkyrie's is top-shelf.
Start with Cruise, who attracted
bad buzz like flies on this project now that the press has shifted into
“kick 'em when they're down” mode on the controversial star. But
he's in fact quite good as Stauffenberg, investing the hero with the moral
certainty and forward momentum necessary to make us believe he might just
be able to rewrite history. There's a moment late in the game when
his heart audibly breaks onscreen that is truly outstanding. While
he's busy being steely and courageous, Brannagh and Terrance Stamp (as
Ludwig Beck) handle the philosophical weight admirably. Olbrich gets
a bit shortchanged, appearing more cowardly and indecisive than the record
shows, but Nighy is tremendous as a man struggling with the distance between
wanting change and acting to bring it about. Wilkinson nails the
pompous bureaucrat Fromm, who tried to play all the angles but was truly
a checkers player against Deep Blue when it came to the SS. Although
her role seems to have wound up at least partially on the cutting room
floor, Carice van Houten makes a great impression as Stauffenberg's wife
Nina, who looms large in her absence during the third act as Claus tries
in vain to determine her whereabouts while the plot unfolds. And
Thomas Kretschmann does great things with the small but pivotal role of
Major Remer, the field commander of the reserve, who struggles with the
question of how far to go when he realizes that he's a pawn in a coup.
But the movie's most pivotal
role belongs to Bamber, because he must remind us of the single fact that
both motivated and doomed the Plot. Hitler was not just a man, not
just a leader. He was the monster who personified the monstrous Nazi
machine that promised to grind up any German who dared to so much as speak
against it. Yes, many Germans were only too happy to support the
Nazi cause, but I can't help but believe that just as many fell in line
because they feared the alternative. Think about how hard it is to
publicly express an unpopular political or religious opinion. Then
think about how hard it would be if you were 95% sure you would die if
you did so. The desperation with which characters both large and
small remind us that they MUST end up on the right side of whatever happens
on July 20th would be easy to understand even if we had never heard of
Hitler before, because Bamber's slumped, ghoulish, quietly mad performance
makes us feel it.
Singer has crafted a film
that is never flashy, never feels the need to show us what we already should
know about Nazi rule, and never reaches for effect. As such, your
enjoyment will be at least a little bit tied to your interest in history
in general and the period in particular. But because it does such
a good job of quietly establishing what its' heroes and anyone who dared
stand with them were up against, the story also has universal appeal.
One quibble with the screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie (Singer's childhood
friend who won an Oscar for writing his breakthrough hit The Usual Suspects)
& Nathan Alexander is its' need to sometimes organize information in
a way that favors drama over realism. For instance, people just don't
have entire conversations before announcing to the person they're speaking
to that there's a warrant out for that person's arrest and they must immediately
leave the country. At least I don't...
At least as suspenseful and
entertaining as it is good for you, Valkyrie is another notch in
the belt of its' director and unfairly maligned star. The tale of
the July 20th Plot is one that should be better known, but once again we
needed the movies to give history a heart where our educations gave it
only a date. |
