Symbiotic with its subject, for the wrong reasons. Review on Valkyrie Movie

Movies about World War II come with a distinctive appeal, by default. They create an expectation for a package that can be quite compelling on several dimensions.

First, through the research on ancillary episodes that are heretofore unexplored, they can share some rare knowledge nuggets about history. Second, they can present an opportunity for us to see the iconic characters, that one only gets to read about, come alive on the screen.

And third, they have plenty of room to take advantage of the backdrop to throw in some great action sequences involving valor and heroism. Valkyrie, much like the subject matter it tries to deal with, of a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944, misses the mark on all fronts.

As for history, the movie opens with Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise), a colonel of the Wehrmacht (German United Forces), getting severely injured in the fight against allied forces in Tunisia, North Africa.

When he is transported to Nazi Germany, he starts actively collaborating with other military officials, such as Major General Henning von Tresckow (Kenneth Branagh), who share the conviction that they are not serving Germany well by being members of Wehrmacht and that Hitler must be assassinated to put a stop to the terrible things the Fuhrer, his Nazi party leaders, and the SS officers were indulging in.

The rather obtuse title of the movie is a reference to ‘Operation Valkyrie’ which is actually an emergency military plan of Hitler that involves the deployment of a Reserve Army in the event of a national emergency. Stauffenberg works with the conspirators to think beyond the tactics of killing Hitler and to plan on using Valkyrie to save Germany from chaos if/when they succeed in their mission.

He uses his access to Hitler and his exalted status as a wounded soldier to get a ‘modified’ Valkyrie plan signed off by Hitler first. Unfortunately, the plot to kill misfires, and it is not tough to guess what happens afterwards to all the conspirators including Stauffenberg.

When the mission fails, the plot doesn't even address such obvious narrative details as to how the conspirators must have been on the run, and the odds they would have faced before being hounded down. Writer Christopher McQuarrie’s story and script are way too narrow and shallow to look for such potential for drama, or do any justice to the ideological, psychological, political, and logistical struggles of Stauffenberg and team, during the planning and implementation phases of their mission.

Instead the movie keeps itself overly busy with the soporific mechanics of smuggling briefcases (the key apparatus of the plot to kill), with pencil detonators and plastic explosives in them, into Hitler’s bunker. It also doesn’t make any references to external developments, thereby failing to create the right ambiance that is representative of the war-torn world. That’s quite a letdown coming from the writer of ‘The usual suspects’.

Moving on to the characters, Hitler (David Bamber) makes only a few cameo appearances. His stupor can be defended as a great touch of authenticity, but Bamber uses it only to avoid the camera and to carefully stay away from an effort to show any well-known expressions and mannerisms.

Such a limited caricature was quite amusing as a comic interlude in the action/adventure of Indiana Jones 3 (The Last Crusade), but in a movie about an attempt on Hitler’s life, one would like the character to be a little more substantive than just be a prop.

For example, they could have shown how Hitler and his inner circle were working on their evil schemes, and how that was in turn motivating the conspirators to push ahead with their plans faster. Tom Cruise does a decent job of looking sincere and grim in the role of Stauffenberg.

But the script doesn’t give him anything heroic or adventurous to do than to smuggle the aforementioned briefcases. In the absence of meaningful character development, the rest of the cast looks quite generic, and not necessarily very German at that, and boringly mechanical as a gang of conspirators. They don’t even indulge in any serious dialog that could lend some context to their stake in the game. The worst blow comes from the action sequences, or the lack thereof.

There is nothing in this department other than a perfunctory aerial attack in Tunisia that lasts just about as long as it does in the movie trailer. The shooting by photographer, Newton Thomas Sigel (of ‘Superman Returns’ and ‘X-Men’ fame, working together with director Bryan Singer), is the only exception to all the misfiring that goes on in this project. His work-product is as crisp, colorful, and bright as ever.

Director Bryan Singer should have known better than to take a hazy script and flounder in it and with it. The movie is actually making some decent money at the box office, just because of the promise World War movies hold, but, sadly, unlike the mission it is about, there is nothing honorable about this undertaking.