Sunday, January 25, 2009

Movie: Valkyrie

Last week we went to see Valkyrie, the movie about the July 20th plot, undertaken by some German military leaders, to kill Hitler and take over the government in the summer of 1944.

The movie was much more historical documentary and much less Hollywood rewrite than I expected. No extra love interests were added, nor was history rewritten to make the plot a success. Much of the movie actually revolves around the playing out of the coup attempt in Berlin after the bomb went off; this was largely new material to me and quite interesting.

Tom Cruise is not the best pick for Stauffenberg, not least because you keep expecting him to appear in his underwear doing air guitar, but not the worst either. The supporting cast is uniformly excellent.

Recommended for history buffs.