The Valkyrie
conspirators, left to right: Kevin McNally, Christian
Berkel, Bill Nighy, Tom
Cruise, Terence Stamp, David Schofield
and Kenneth Brannagh.
Die Welt,
Germany
Tom Cruise's Valkyrie:'Intimidated By History'
"If he's shooting for an Oscar with Valkyrie, Cruise is going
to miss the target. … The film is designed to mean something entirely
different to Americans than it does to us. For Germany, July 20th 1944 is one
of the moral foundations of a new, democratic Germany. For the rest of the
world the film is simply a thriller. … The entire Valkyrie project seems
a little intimidated by history, by its exact reconstructions and by German
sensitivities."
Long ago labeled a
leader of a dangerous cult by German authorities, American actor Tom
Cruise failed to impress Die Welt
with his portrayal of Claus Graf Stauffenberg in the film, Valkyrie. However Sueddeutsche Zeitung's reviewer,
Tobias Kniebe, praised the movie as a 'near triumph.' The film shines a
light on Stauffenberg's failed attempt to murder Adolph Hitler.
It was a long,
hard struggle. On Monday evening, the film Valkyrie had its New York
premiere. Tom Cruise in the role of Hitler assassin Stauffenberg
is unlike anything his career might have suggested. The elements of a thriller
are all in place as expected, but it falls short of being the sought-after
masterpiece.
At least they
didn't mix up the eye-patch. In The 20th of July [Der
20 Juli], the first film
adaptation of the assassination attempt on Hitler's life, actor Wolfgang Preiss in the role of Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg wore
the eye patch over the right eye. Tom Cruise wears it, correctly, over the
left.
No, Valkyrie
doesn't play into the hands of many opponents of the film, who began lining up
before the first scene was shot, by simply portraying historical inaccuracies.
But neither has it turned out to be the definitive portrayal of one of the key
events in recent German history.
It would be quite
enlightening to linger on historical accuracy for a moment. Right at the
beginning there is Stauffenberg in Northern Africa amid the turmoil of battle,
military equipment in motion, soldiers scurrying about - and right there,
within earshot of anyone, there he is trying to win a General over to his plan
to topple Hitler. This is of course absurd; amateurish behavior like this
wouldn't have escaped the suspicion of the Gestapo for six weeks, let alone the
six years the operation took to arrange. This is inaccurate. But does it
matter?
Even more
striking, is the scene in which Stauffenberg visits
Hitler at the Berghof [Hitler's home in the Bavarian Alps ]
a few weeks prior to the assassination attempt. In the film he [Stauffenberg] carries a briefcase that holds the
centerpiece of his plan: the conspirators had revised a series of precautionary
measures called Operation Valkyrie- which the Nazis had devised in the event of
domestic unrest. The insurgents re-wrote the plan in order to seize power
themselves.
Director Bryan
Singer stages this visit as an ominous, rather hauntingmeeting during which Hitler ultimately signs
the papers - and thus Singer suggests his own death sentence. In reality,
Hitler never signed the modified plan for Valkyrie. He didn't have to. Imprecise, yes. But is this upsetting?
To best
understand the formula of OperationValkyrie, one must realize
that the film is designed to mean something different to Americans than it does
to us [Germans]. For Germany, July 20th1944 is one of the moral foundations of
a new, democratic Germany. For the rest of the world the film is simply a
thriller, albeit historical, and one whose outcome is as well known as the
assassination attempt on De Gaulle's life, depicted in Fred Zinnemann'sThe Day of the Jackal.
Therefore, Bryan
Singer introduces the elements of a thriller whenever plausible. Von Tresckow for example (played by Kenneth Branagh), is
attempting to retrieve an unexploded bomb after an earlier assassination
attempt. Singer places the package center stage and has two uniformed arms
reach for it, one from the left and one from the right - and after what feels
like an eternity, the hand that was about to open the package pulls back while
the other hand grabs it.
Cruise, Claus Graf Stauffenberg and Stauffenberg's son,
Berthold Graf: Berthold Graf Stauffenberg
is not pleased
about the Cruise production.
Such attempts to
ramp up the tension where in fact there can be none - since after all, we all
know the outcome - are employed throughout OperationValkyrie. If
one were to listen to the soundtrack on its own, ominous drumming and all, this
would become even more obvious. John Ottman's music
could easily be used as the soundtrack for a psychological thriller, with bleak
houses and wet, glistening nighttime streets.
In addition to the effort to inject some real tension into the story, Operation
Valkyrie is fighting another battle: how to explain the German resistance to an
international audience that for the most part has never heard of the 20th of
July, 1944. In this second battle, Singer is somewhat more successful. The
moral conflict of swearing an oath of allegiance to "DerFührer," the reservations the older conspirators
had about Stauffenberg, the inner workings of the
Valkyrie plan - moviegoers in Dallas or Jakartawill be able to grasp all of this inside two hours.
For OperationValkyrie, Hollywood
actually threw a few dearly-loved habits overboard. It has a more sophisticated
way of explaining history. It replaces the traditional foaming at the mouth
Hitler with a dithering, almost absentminded character ("What invasion?
Normandy? Oh, alright!"). And the family, usually supportive and a source
of motivation for any Hollywood hero, is kept very much in the background. So
much so that Nina von Stauffenberg (played by Carice
van Houten, Sebastian Koch's partner, who last played
Stauffenberg on TV) end up with just a few scenes.
Tom Cruise, on the other hand, is in almost every take. Tom Cruise,
everyone in the industry agrees, has real on screen charisma and draws huge
amounts of attention when he enters a room in Top Gun, MissionImpossible or Collateral. In OperationValkyrie, he enters a
lot of rooms with a lot of people, but it simply doesn't happen. His Stauffenberg
is honorable and serious and firm - but Cruise's portrayal doesn't convey why
this young count captivated so many people.
If one looks back at the list of roles he has played over the last 25
years, one thing stands out: Cruise is best when cast as an upstart; fighting
for respect with aggression and energy, an American hero by all accounts.
Stauffenberg however was a German hero of aristocratic bearing, which is a
dimension Cruise completely lacks.
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The many Britons surrounding Cruise in the cast of Valkyrie, however, (ranging from Branagh as Tresckow and Bill Nighy as Olbricht
to the wonderful Tim Wilkinson as Fromm) exude an air of military noblesse and
grandeur - which Cruise does not.
One need only recall The Last Samurai to recognize
when Cruise is at his best. There, Ken Watanabe is the distinguished yet doomed
samurai and Cruise the ambitious, meritocratic mercenary - the latter perfectly
cast in this contrasting role. If he's shooting for an Oscar with Valkyrie, Cruise is
going to miss the target.
One could credit OperationValkyrie for being a
film that doesn't fall into the traps of many Hollywood epics, namely the
creation of a larger-than-life central character. But they could have made Stauffeberg just a little bit larger, simply because he is
the central character in both the conspiracy and the movie. At the very least,
they could have made him as big as the Edward Fox character in The Day of the Jackal - a
character so strong that at some point the audience finds itself wishing for
him to succeed, simply because of his cleverness and tenacity.
The entire Valkyrie
project seems a little intimidated by history, by its exact reconstructions and
by German sensitivities. There is one
scene that reveals the fingerprints of an extraordinary director - and that is
when, after the assassination attempt, news of Hitler's alleged death reaches
the telegraph office in Berlin.
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BRITISH DOCUMENTARY ON PLOTS TO KILL HITLER
The first telegraph girl is dazed and lifts her hand, calling for her
superior. And as he reads the telex in disbelief, more and more hands around
the room are raised until finally, the entire room is standing still,
perplexed. In this moment - significantly one of the few without Cruise - one
begins to sense what OperationValkyriecould
have been, if only the desire of not wanting to offend anyone hadn't stood in
the way of its cinematic ambitions.
The film opens in the United States in
selected cinemas Christmas Day. In Germany, the film opens January 22nd. The
European premiere is in Berlin two days before, on January 20.
], the first film
adaptation of the assassination attempt on Hitler's life, actor Wolfgang 
