There really
wasn't a worse time to be alive in
the past two hundred years than
WWII. Millions of people died for a
few different reasons. The main one
being because a nation idealized a
man who wanted to commit genocide.
Germany during WWII is the enemy,
that's what we're taught in schools.
But
Valkyrie
teaches a different lesson.
Valkyrie
tries to show the world that all of
Germany wasn't like Adolf Hitler.
The main
character in
Valkyrie,
Count Claus von Stauffenberg played
by Tom Cruise was in deployment in
Africa. The allied forced hit Africa
hard with an air strike and
Stauffenberg was left with one hand
with two fingers and a thumb on that
hand, and one eye.
He
already hated Hitler, at that point,
he really hates Hitler. So upon
returning to Germany he joins an
underground group that is trying to
assassinate Hitler and he thinks of
a plan to do it.
Suspense
abounds as Stauffenberg
leads
the plot to kill Hitler and take
over Germany. But here's the thing.
With historic movies you know how it
ends. This is a little bit more of a
bummer though, because you really
know how this movie ends. Hitler
lives, and the uprising dies for its
efforts in trying to overthrow the
Socialist party.
Cruise's
performance as Stauffenberg is
possibly one of his most intense
performances. This is one movie in
his past 10 that doesn't come over
as him being totally over the top.
He does
a good job as Stauffenberg and his
supporting cast also does a good
job.
This is a story
that obviously needed to be told.
And it was told well by Cruise and
director Brian Singer. However,
there might be a little too much
suspense to a story where you
already know what's going to happen.
What you're left with at the end is
how close this group actually came.
If one or two things had gone
different with their uprising the
end of the war would have been far
better for Germany as a nation and
even the Cold War would have changed
for the U.S. and Russia in the grand
scheme of things because the Soviet
Union doesn't get any access to
Germany and the Berlin Wall is never
built.
Valkyrie tells
a great story, just one where you
know the ending. That's not a bad
thing, it just turns it into a 'what
if' movie.
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