Valkyrie

To start, let me just say that if you haven't seen this movie, you might not want to read my review. It's very good, and I'd hate to be the one to spoil such a heart-stoppingly suspenseful story. I don't intend to go into too much detail, but you never know when you might accidentally give something important away.

Now obviously, any film based on World War II brings strong emotional reactions from many people. This is no exception. The suspense created in this film has me sitting on the edge of my seat, even while watching it the second time. The single greatest strength of this film is that inspires hope. Through some miracle of writing that I will never understand, this movie, despite all my knowledge of history, despite the fact that I have already seen it once before, can still make me hope that the ending will turn out differently.

Let's start with the plot. This film is centered around a plot by certain members of the German army, who were outside of the Nazi party, to assassinate Adolf Hitler and in doing so end the war. Now, obviously we all know that this plan must have failed, as Hitler is known, or at least widely theorized (I don't believe there is proof as of yet, but if there is please correct me), to have committed suicide. Though I am not very well versed in the history of this event, I'm told that the movie is fairly accurate in this regard. The story takes us through some preliminary steps, effectively showing the political atmosphere in Nazi Germany as the conspirators piece together a plan for the assassination. This culminates in the actual attempt, which ultimately fails.

Of course, that makes it all sound very depressing. And let's face it, it really is. But as I have said, this film's strong suit is the hope it inspired in me in spite of what I knew to be the conclusion. Even as I watched this movie, having already seen it once, I found myself wondering if this time, just maybe, the plan might succeed. In the back of my mind, I knew it wouldn't of course. The terrible disappointment I felt when the best laid schemes went sour seems almost comical considering I knew how it would inevitably end. Overall, this film gets a ten in the "Emotional Response" department.

Now, let's move on to the acting. I don't mean to rant, but the acting in this film was flawless. The characters were portrayed so effectively, it almost felt as if the footage was real. Maybe that sounds a bit crazy, but I couldn't have asked for better.

There were some minor flaws, however. One which stood out to me was that a majority of the actors playing roles in the German army were British. Sounds nit-picky, but it diminished the atmosphere that the film tried so hard to create. Another was the actor playing Hitler. This might have also had to do with the writing, but it seems as though the film went a bit overboard. True, Hitler was a messed up guy who really was going crazy towards the end....But was he really that creepy?

At this point I have to address what is possibly the most important aspect of this story. There is an important message to consider here. Almost all of these brave men were German soldiers. And believe it or not, they were not evil baby-eating puppy-killing robot zombie monsters. They were good men. They were soldiers, and patriots. The German army was not comprised of exact clones of Hitler, it was comprised of soldiers, and patriots. The soldiers were not evil (mainly...every military force has its crazies), they fought for their country as bravely as our own, even in the face of impending defeat. That's something to consider, and I think that it might not be considered enough in a world where we demonize everything to do with Germany in WWII.

To conclude, I have to say I really just enjoyed this movie. The historical event by itself is interesting enough, and the film presents it beautifully. To be honest this review is really unnecessary, the film speaks for itself. I can't describe the emotions it causes with words. And so, there's only one more thing to say: Go watch it yourself!