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List Price: $29.98 | | Label: United Artists
Salesrank: 165
Released: May 19, 2009 |
| Our Price: $9.89 |
| Used Price: $3.96 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
BASED ON ACTUAL EVENTS, A PLOT TO ASSASSINATE HITLER IS UNFURLED DURING THE HEIGHT OF WWII.
Description of Valkyrie (Single-Disc Edition):
Unpretentious and dramatically straightforward, Valkyrie is a suspenseful yet ennobling story about the last attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler prior to the end of World War II. Tom Cruise is effective if a little opaque as hero Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who channels his anger at Hitler's atrocities and mismanagement of the war by joining a secret organization bent on killing the Führer. When the outspoken Stauffenberg hits on the idea of linking Hitler's death with an official policy to safeguard Berlin during a government crisis--a contingency plan called "Valkyrie"--the group realizes a post-assassination coup could be covered by rapidly implementing the plan. History tells us the plot failed, of course, and Hitler killed himself months later. But that doesn't stop Cruise or director Bryan Singer from approaching the film as a thinking person's thriller, told from inside the conspirators' camp, where the outcome of their deeds were uncertain for several tense hours.
In the tradition of The Great Escape, Valkyrie is a war movie full of famous faces, including Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy and Eddie Izzard. (The lesser-known David Bamber is very good as Hitler, hunched and cracking under pressure.) The film's gravity is offset a bit by the fun of seeing all these actors in a factually-based slice of history, and by a few, interesting stylistic flourishes on Singer's part, including the peculiarly unsettling image of a mosquito sizzled to death in close-up. --Tom Keogh
Stills from Valkyrie (Click for larger image)
Valkyrie (Single-Disc Edition) Reviews:
assassination is the worst way to change governments 
2009-11-21 - This assassination attempt is as close as they got to Hitler at the end of the war.
In 1933 an attempted assassination of Franklin D.Roosevelt by Giuseppe Zangara took place.
The Assassination of Winston Churchill was a book from the late 60's.
With hind sight we think that such an attempt had it been successful might have shortened WWII.
My opinion is that means mostly become the ends and killing even of such a monster
illegally is probably wrong. That traitors /murderers would have come to power
couldn't have been a good result historically long term.
Valkyrie 
2009-11-20 - Very good movie. I felt Tom Cruise did an excellent job of re-creating Von Stauffenberg's role in the attempt on Hitler's life. This film gave more information than I have found from other sources. There may me variations from the facts, but it is still very informative.
YAWN! 
2009-11-18 - Honestly, I could not stay awake; and, I tried to watch it twice! Boring...
Gripping film, but - 
2009-11-13 - Plays into the stereotype - not to see whitewash - of the "good" German Army vs. "the bad" Hitler/SS/Nazi Party. Colonel von Stauffenberg's motives may have been personally the highest, but the attempt to drape the whole German Army in the rightousness of his protest goes too far. The Wehrmacht's role in war crimes is too well-documented. The motive for most of the plotters (and the film does allude to this) were to scrape Germany's wartorn nuts out of the fire by assassinating Hitler, make peace with the Western Alles, and prevent the occupation of Germany, repeating the successful diplomacy of WW I. No doubt the outcome for Germany would have been happier if the plot had succeeded.
Cruise does an excellent job portraying the Colonel, and even bears a striking physical resemblance to the real man. A lot was crammed into two hours of film, which might make it uneven and perhaps confusing for those unfamiliar with the story. This is compensated by its swift to-the-bone pace, making for a gripping film that is best watched complete from beginning to end. The reconstruction of period detail is impeccable throughout.
A revealing afternote to the story: Wehrmacht war criminals sentenced at Nuremberg were released from American custody at the insistence of Federal Chancellor Adenauer in 1955, to gain the officer corps' cooperation in forming the new NATO-led Bundeswehr. This included their amnesty and complete rehabilitation. Many of these officers returned to active duty, justifying their wartime deeds with highly revisionist accounts of Germany's wartime "struggle" and "sacrifice," while draping themselves in the mantle of von Stauffenberg's attempted redemption. Fortunately for the modern Bundeswehr that he was executed, as he would have doubtless taken aim next at its self-serving mythology.
Ironic, too, that this story of an act of terror is released and receiving highly-deserved acclaim during a self-described "War on Terror." Apparently there is "good" terror and "bad" terror, like "good" soldiers and "bad."
Ok Movie
2009-11-06 - the movie was ok if you like war movies....though it's not about fighting in the field...not one of Cruise's best performances..but worth a view anyway
