FILM REVIEW: Valkyrie

Some stories need to be told. The stories of the unsung heroes of World War II, the Germans involved in the uprising against their own government, are certainly among the tales that need to be brought to light.

Enter Valkyrie, a film that merely points to such a story, without really telling it.

It's hard to get too invested in a film where you know the outcome, and the ending of this period drama should be obvious to anyone who's ever cracked a history book. It's not a matter of if or how, it's simply a matter of when. And in this film, the when doesn't seem to come fast enough.

Valkyrie is the story of Col. Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise), a career military man devoted to Germany, but disheartened by the country it has become under the rule of Hitler and the Nazis. Stauffenberg is recruited by a group of likeminded officers who want to remove Hitler from power. After several failed attempts, Stauffenberg enters the picture and comes up with a risky plan known as "Project Valkyrie."

The plan will eliminate Hitler, not only from power, but from this world as a bomb will be delivered to a military briefing. Stauffenberg will personally carry the explosive into Hitler's lap. In the confusion following the assassination, Stauffenberg will feign a coup by the SS, leaping into action with the German reserves to save the motherland from the crooked secret police. Stauffenberg and company will then sign a treaty with the Allies, saving Germany and the rest of Europe from certain doom.

Does it work?

If you don't know the answer to that, your 8^th grade history teacher will be smacking his forehead, but the inevitable spoiler isn't what haunts this film. It's simply the construction.

Valkyrie doesn't allow the audience to identify with its characters. These men are heroes, with so much at stake, yet the film barely scratches the surface of what it is they have to lose. We see Cruise writing in a journal about how he's experiencing dissent among the officers. WHY? WHERE? WHO? This brief voiceover isn't enough for anyone to really understand why Stauffenberg believes the way he does. It's a half hearted lecture on what we should already know, Hitler is bad. Yes, well...

Hitler was one of the worst villains in history. If you have, in fact, done your homework, you know the atrocities that he and his inner circle committed. However, in this film, Hitler's worst quality seems to be a bit of social awkwardness. It would have been nice to somewhere in here make the audience hate him. Instead viewers are simply forced to recall lines from historical texts read during sophomore year. We need to SEE his evil. We need real motivation for this assassination to take place. We need to WANT it to succeed.

Valkyrie also fails in illustrating just how dangerous this mission was. It depicts these officers as boys in a tree fort plotting a water balloon raid on the girls next door. The phrase "high treason" is thrown around like the buzz word of the day, but the viewer never really gets a sense of the direness of that accusation. This is life and death. These men are gambling their lives, their families, their reputations - EVERYTHING. They're betraying Hitler, and no one knows what this mad man is capable of doing to someone who crosses him. Death could be a blessing.  

I honestly have to stop myself. I could continue with how Cruise can't be taken seriously in a period piece. Would you be distracted if Angelina Jolie played Helen Keller? It doesn't work. I could go on about how this film's main source of action is via phone calls. People waiting for confirmation through a phone call. People pretending to be other people on the phone. People needing to get through to family on the phone. Half this film is about the phone.

But the main thing that bothers me about this film is that this was a shot to glorify the actions of a handful of martyrs, trading life and liberty for a chance to do the right thing. And history didn't need to be changed for this to be a success. But this film fails, on so many levels, to honor those who did stand up. It's the cliff notes, the historical lecture or the slide show of the story. But where is the emotion? Where is the sacrifice?

Where is the real story?

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Josh Gloer, Movie Correspondent

You can find Josh's column One Harsh Critic, published every other Sunday. Tuesday, Friday... Who can tell at this point? at http://oneharshcritic.gather.com.

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