Valkyrie (Bryan Singer, 2008)

[Antoine Doinel]

Wondering about the lack of German accents? Bryan Singer didn't want to make an "accent movie".

[Antoine Doinel]

Some new stills.

[Antoine Doinel]

New trailer.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

MTV interviews Bryan Singer.

[Haggai]

Anyone else seen it yet? I actually thought it was terrific. I was just hoping it would be solid, based on the mostly strong cast and crew and my interest in the historical period, but it exceeded my expectations. As a thriller based on real events, it succeeds very well, without particularly trying for Oscar bait or anything like that.

Cruise is decent enough, as a determined man of action. The supporting cast is excellent, although Eddie Izzard might have been leaning a bit much in the direction of stunt casting (though he does a decent job). Singer gets the most out of the suspenseful setups, and the story focus is quite interesting. I only vaguely knew the historical details going in, so I roughly assumed (as you might from just seeing the trailers) that "Operation Valkyrie" simply referred to the assassination plot, but it was actually a much more intricate thing--a scheme to turn one of the main plans for the defense of Berlin into the service of taking over the government after Hitler's death. The criss-crossing plots and loyalties necessary to pull that off--requiring the involvement of far more people than the 3 or 4 who participated in the actual assassination attempt--are largely what the script focuses on. Overall, the structure and the approach reminded me of Okamoto's Japan's Longest Day.

[Antoine Doinel]

Can you copyright a globe?

[moviscop]

"He says he will propose that Cruise buy Pritikin's Hitler artifacts, including the globe, and donate them to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which focuses on studying the Holocaust. (There is no mention of Hitler's policies toward the Jews in Valkyrie.)"


I would pay to see Tom Cruise's reaction to that.

[Polybius]

I believe this will be Mr. Cruise's first experience of being on the sharp end of an absurd lawsuit.

[filmnoir1]

I saw this with my brother the day after Christmas and I have to say that I found the film to be simply awful. It seems that Bryan Singer has taken a step back as a director rather than forward. There is way too much use of racking the focus of the camera,which shows an anxiety about the camera and the viewer's ability to discern what is important between the foreground and background. An illustrative moment in the film that displays this is the conversation between Stauffenberg's wife and the doctor as he lies in a bed in the background. The scene begins with her and the doctor in sharp focus as they discuss his condition and as the scene progresses the focus is shifted so that Cruise is in sharp focus and the doctor and his wife are blurred. While I recognize that this is a respectable technique, in this film it becomes cliche and overused much like McG's use of it in We Are Marshall.
In addition to problems of cinematography, the music, the editing and the performances are equally uninspired. Cruise's overacting and misplaced emotive moments dwarf the other fine performances. Yet, it is grossly apparent that this film did not have the full support of the German people because it lacks any presence of contemporary German stars.
The story is a fascinating and important one but this film does not do it justice.

[Antoine Doinel]

Yet, it is grossly apparent that this film did not have the full support of the German people because it lacks any presence of contemporary German stars.

Thomas Kretschmann might want to have a word with you as well as the crews who worked on the film in Germany.

[exte]

The first six minutes are available to download on apple.com.

[cdnchris]

Eh, I liked it. Everyone else (Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard, Kenneth Branaugh, etc.) made up for Tom Cruise being miscast.

That's about the extent of my praise.

[Antoine Doinel]

Saw this tonight and completely agree with cdnchris. It's an efficient, if unremarkable film with some great supporting work and Tom Cruise doing another variation of himself in the lead role, except it doesn't quite work this time around. It would've been interesting to see a much more subtle actor (and a script with a bit of a broader scope) take on the lead. As for Bryan Singer, I still have hope for him, but he has to get away from doing big-budget stuff for awhile and get back and do a low-key, smaller film.