Valkyrie

Bryan Singer returns to the world of non-comic book-based movies with Valkyrie… which turns out to be… a little comic booky. But not in a bad way.

To be fair, Singer’s X-Men heralded the New Era of the comic book genre, and its simple and elegant shooting style has been continued in the decade since. These films are flashy but rarely let the editing get too choppy, lest we miss some of the effects-laden visuals. Singer hasn’t changed his cinematic style at all with Valkyrie, which is probably why it’s so reminiscent of that genre. Also, as has been noted elsewhere, the Nazi visual design does lend itself well to comic book villains. Overall, the film looks great – utilising all the cinematic shorthand we’ve seen before in World War II themed films, and utilising very little CGI.

As a piece of entertainment, Valkyrie is top notch. It takes a certain amount of skill to entertain with a story of which everyone knows the ending, but as Apollo 13 and Titanic have shown us, it is possible. The film details an assassination attempt on Hitler by his own men, and the intrigue lies in the plan itself – I for one had no idea of the particulars of this little moment in history. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) leads a group of men in an inspired coup that makes clever use of the Third Reich’s chain of command in an attempt to shift the balance of power in Germany.

I have heard that this interpretation of history does smooth over the motives of von Stauffenberg, though I can understand why a film such as this needs its ‘good guys’. It is clear, however, that this is a man who wants to save Germany, rather than save those being murdered by the Nazi regime. He knows that once the Allies close in, there’ll be no hope of reaching a satisfactory truce from Germany’s perspective.

Cruise is great in the lead role, despite his American accent sticking out amongst all the English ones. (It’s cute that the audience becomes fluent in German within two minutes, rivalling The Hunt for the Red October‘s rather lengthy Russian lesson.) Despite usually assuming rather bland action movie roles, he can unleash some great thespiating when the occasion demands (think Born on the Fourth of July, Interview with the Vampire, or even Tropic Thunder). He is surrounded by a stunning cast, including Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Terrence Stamp, Eddie Izzard and a woefully under-utilised Kenneth Branagh who nevertheless makes an incredible mark on the film in his short time onscreen.

This is a great thriller – beautifully shot and with a great score by John Ottman (rather reminiscent of the Batman Begins soundtrack and, embarrassingly, ‘Return to Castle Wolfenstein’). The film moves at a cracking pace, and is always entertaining despite being filled with a bunch of men in uniform talking at each other through furrowed brows.

Highly recommended.