VALKYRIE IS PROBABLY THE LEAST extravagant blockbuster Tom Cruise has ever made. Dropped from last summer's release schedule, its modest scale could be read as a further sign of Cruise's withering star power were it not for the fact that the lack of
explosive set-pieces suits the pulpy nature of the material. Based on the true story of the last known plot to kill Hitler, as led by Col Claus von Stauffenberg, the film feels like a throwback to the kind of Second World War Hollywood thrillers of old, with Cruise (Stauffenberg) functioning in much the same way as Clint Eastwood or Lee Marvin once did: deploying a specific brand of movie star appeal to bring the audiences in and to ensure the plot moves from A to B without too many distractions.
That's why his presence as an American-accented German officer doesn't feel as incongruous as it should. This is not a film out to win awards; it's not a prestige picture where historical veracity needs to be scrutinised at every turn. It is, first and foremost, a piece of entertainment, one that just happens to be based on a great "if only" scenario. Thus we learn next to nothing about Stauffenberg. He's presented from the off as a staunch Hitler-hater who despises what Germany has become and, as the film opens, has already been dispatched to the Tunisian dessert as punishment for making dissenting comments regarding Hitler's war effort.
When Allied bombs relieve him of an eye, a hand and most of his fingers, his fury at the Führer hardens into a resolve to do something about it. Becoming a member of the German resistance, which recruits him to aid its ongoing effort to assassinate Hitler and negotiate a truce with the Allies, he comes up with a dizzyingly intricate plan to blow up Hitler, then put into effect Operation Valkyrie, a contingency plan designed to set up a shadow government in the event of Hitler's death. If pulled off successfully, the plot will allow the resistance to seize control of Berlin and take the SS out of the equation.
Director Bryan Singer (here reunited with his Usual Suspects screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie) does a good job of ratcheting up the tension in the early stages of the film, but when Stauffenberg's plan starts falling apart, so does the film a little, mainly because it never fully convinces us that the plan might actually have worked – which is essential given that we already know its outcome. Still, Valkyrie is no disaster, and while Cruise's star may have dimmed a little, he can still carry a film, even one that requires a silly haircut and an eye-patch.
There's another true-life story in Milk, Gus Van Sant's biopic of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician elected to public office in America, whose life was brought to a bizarre and violent end by fellow San Francisco councillor Dan White. Sean Penn won an Oscar for his titular portrayal and he's the best reason to see the film, which is disappointingly straightforward, given Van Sant's recent batch of beautiful and brilliantly experimental films (Elephant, Last Days, Paranoid Park). Diligently running through all the main moments of Milk's life, Van Sant may do a good job of recreating the spirit of San Francisco in the 1970s, but much of this has already been covered compellingly (and in much more depth) by Rob Epstein's 1984 documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk.
