Valkyrie is a sobering overview of the failed July 20th, 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Directed by Bryan Singer, Valkyrie follows the story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) and features notable performances from Kenneth Branagh (Major-General Henning von Tresckow), Bill Nighy (General Friedrich Olbricht), Tom Wilkinson (General Friedrich Fromm), David Schofield (Erwin von Witzleben) and Eddie Izzard (General Erich Fellgiebel).

After being wounded horribly in Tunisia, von Stauffenberg returns to Nazi Germany. General Henning von Tresckow (Branagh) who has already failed in an attempt to assassinate Hitler, recruits von Stauffenberg to help.

Following a bombing raid on Berlin (accompanied by Richard Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyrie on the record player) von Stauffenberg realises he may be able to use a revised version of Operation Valkyrie, which allows the deployment of Germany’s Reserve Army should a national emergency occur. Fromm, the head of the Reserve Army is unfortunately the only one who can initiate Valkyrie, but he is a slippery customer and whereas von Stauffenberg and co. are selfless and will ultimately die for what they believe in, Fromm has no such belief system.

Attempts on Hitler’s life culminate with an order for von Stauffenberg to blow up both Hitler and Himmler inside Wolf’s Lair, a bunker where they are to hold a strategic meeting. Von Stauffenberg is not to go ahead if Himmler does not show, but ignores the order and the explosives he plants go off anyway. Sure that Hitler is dead, von Stauffenberg and the other allies set about taking control and rebuilding Germany.

Cruise gives an adequate performance but you never really get into the head of Stauffenberg – some German critics complain that he’s missing the wit and charisma of his real-life counterpart. Also, there’s Cruise’s American accent and many British accents in the film, then there’s Hitler’s German accent which jars. Perhaps they should have gone with all German accents or left them out completely.

Overall Valkyrie is highly watchable but often leaves you feeling detached, as if a great deal more besides went on and that you’re only scratching the surface by watching the film. I did come out of the cinema in a thoughtful mood however, wondering how these few people may have changed the course of the war (even in its late stage) and perhaps the way Germany was viewed for a number of years after the war. What if Germans had won the war by killing Hitler and dismantling Nazi Germany themselves? Maybe perceptions would have been no different given all that had happened, but who can reasonably say?

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