Valkyrie

Release Year: 2008
Review: Based on a true story of a Nazi resistance movement from within the German army, 'Valkyrie' is more a political suspense than a thriller. The historical context is interesting and the Nazi resistance in Germany is under reported. The true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and his associates is fascinating. Unfortunately the transition of that story to film just isn't that exciting. Even though it has a standard two hour running time it seemed to drag on. For a film surrounded with such interesting material the film was fairly dull. It's obvious that it wants you to bring in a good amount of knowledge about the Nazis, which while fine, it needed to set a more distinct atmosphere. The war that was taking place around them and the atrocities of the Nazi regime seemed distant and unimportant to the film. There was a distinct feel of bureaucracy above anything else. It seems to want to be a political suspense film, which is hard enough to do when the audience ultimately knows the outcome, but is hurt even further by it continuing to kill tension with dull dialog scenes. Adding to the odd, placid, atmosphere created by the film, was the casting. The acting was fine, but casting Tom Cruise as the lead character as a Nazi makes it hard to connect to the character as a German Nazi who is doing these actions and not Tom Cruise. The handling of the transition of the character from speaking in German to English with an American accent, went fairly well, not brining much attention to it. I don't have a problem with the fact that its an English spoken film, but the casting choices definitely hurt the already lacking atmosphere in the film. I can appreciate the story its trying to convey, but it delivers it in such a mundane package that it's difficult to really enjoy.
Rating: 3/5