I didn't think this movie can be that good, Tom Cruise doesn't strike me as a very solid actor, and let's face it, we knew that his character wasn't going to succeed in killing Hitler. But the thing is we see in Valkyrie that Cruise almost succeeded. The suspense was great, I was in the second part really on the edge of my bed. The story of colonel Stauffenberg is really one good made and put into images. Hitler was hell of a lucky one, surviving that C4 blast. Thank god he killed himself months later, probably he got bored with all the failed assassination attempts. It was quite fascinating to see how well organized and in place was the german power machine, especially the highly trained SS army. How many failover systems and triggers (like the Valkyrie operation) they designed, in order to restore power.
I liked Tom Wilkinson' character very much, the general Fromm, he was like a snake, very careful taking sides, not taking any action but waiting on the outcome. I think he knew the whole time what Stauffenberg has in mind, but kept quiet about it. In the end, seeing that the outcome is not favorable, he switched sides, and put the coup members to the firing squad. Great surviving skills, I might say, general Fromm did survive this, but not for long, luckily it was still war going on, and the allies were on their way.
Again I thought about visiting the well-known Hitler residences, the palaces in Austria and the bunkers in wolf's lair. The imagery in the Valkyrie film is great.
Don't see the movie on a Sunday, it's kind of deep, Valkyrie is not a popcorn movie.
here's the trailer:
