365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 74 - Valkryie

I stayed with Tom Cruise and watched the 2008 WWII film Valkyrie. Directed by Bryan Singer and starring Cruise and and a stellar cast of supporting players, the film is very good but I can't help wondering what it could have been.

Before Bryan Singer signed on as a director, the film was smaller in scale and Thomas Kretschmann was chosen for the Cruise role of Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg. Once Singer took the reins, then a big named star was added, hence Cruise joined the production. I think on a smaller budget a much more dramatic, character driven film would have been made. Instead we ended up with a very slick Hollywood suspense thriller.

While Cruise performs the part well I can't help feel he was miscast. He is too "American". Stauffenberg was German nobility, a literate, well educated man, an aristocrat. None of that comes through with Cruises portrayal. The film needed someone that looks noble, Ralph Fiennes perhaps. If the film had been made 35 years ago you could cast Peter O'Toole. Now I understand why they always cast British actors to play Germans in old war movies. But Cruise does bring that same intensity he brings to every film. He never gives a false not in his performance and he carries the film.

The film revolves around a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Since everyone knows Hitler wasn't assassinated (was there anyone watching this movie who thought the plot would work?) the major challenge of the film is to keep the viewer engaged in how the plot was formulated and the aftermath. At that the film maker succeeds. Singer also does a good job of helping the audience understand who is who in the large cast of characters, and like Hunt For Red October, it handles the transition from German language to English very well. Notable in the cast is Billy Night, Kenneth Brannagh, Tom Wilkinson and Thomas Kretschmann.

For me it was the script that fell short. The film was a fast paced thriller and really didn't capture the moral turmoil these people must have been in. they were committing a massive act of treason and everyone seemed to talk about it openly, like it was the worst kept secret in Germany.

At the Movie House rating *** stars