Customer Reviews

Operation Valkyrie

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Jo Baier and company did an excellent job (better, I daresay, than Bryan Singer) of resurrecting a very dark period in German history that produced very few heroes--except, of course, the men who are the subject of the film.

By now the story is well known. A disgruntled group of German SA officers, disgusted at the evil entity Germany had become and well aware that Hitler was driving their country into the ground, decide to assassinate one of history's most monstrous figures--Adolf Hitler. On July 22, 1944 a tall general with one eye and one hand decided to do just that while the rest talked. He placed a briefcase bomb next to the dictator and for various incidental reasons the blast killed many in the room but not the target. They were executed some 24 hours later.

Sebastian Koch doesn't do the Tom Cruise "Superman With an Eye Patch" routine. He plays a patriotic and self deluded soldier whose contempt for Nazism and Hitler himself slowly grows into a heroic willingness to risk everything; his life, his family's welfare, and the lives of his comrades.

At the beginning we see a youthful, eager Wehrmacht soldier who seems to feel that Hitler is the second coming. His close friends in the SA believe otherwise, and in one chilling scene a Jewish woman recounts to Stauffenberg and company an incident in which her infant was executed at point blank range along with her mother and sister.

Friedrich Olbricht played elegantly by Rainier Bock, another hero who seems unsung in this now Hollywood packaged piece of history, insists that Germany is no longer waging a war but a campaign of racial genocide. Stauffenberg is at first reticent about any kind of assassination, and has himself reassigned to the Afrika Korps in 1943.

An eager young soldier approaches Stauffenberg while he is stationed on the front, obviously impressed by his prestigious background, and is killed right before Stauffenberg is wounded (losing an eye, an arm, and three fingers.) In a scene that beautifully encapsulates Stauffenberg's growing contempt for the bloodthirsty monster and his disregard for his own people. Holding the young man's body and adominishing him for not escaping, he says, "All this?!?! For him?!", throwing Hitler's picture across the bunker. From hereon out, Stauffenberg is determined to kill him or die trying.

This is a subtle, slowly paced, and masterfully acted little film. Originally a German TV movie, it is not long enough to cover the other assassination attempts on Hitler or to give due credit to the other members of the conspiracy. Jo Baier and company did an excellent job (better, I daresay, than Bryan Singer) of resurrecting a very dark period in German history that produced very few heroes--except, of course, the men who are the subject of the film.

Hitler isn't seen much in the film but when you do see him it makes quite an impression. The scene in which Stauffenberg arrives at Hitler's HQ is bone chilling. Always Hitler's toad, Keitel introduces him to Hitler, whose back is to to Stauffenberg. When he turns around we see the cold, cruel little eyes stare back at the horrified General.

Hardy Kruger Jr. does an excellent job as Werner Von Haeften, Stauffenberg's young adjutant, who at jumps in front of his friend and commander to shield him from the inevitable as he is executed. The best movie about Claus Von Stauffenberg thus far.

OPERATION VALKYRIE (originally titled STAUFFENBERG for its 2004 television release in Germany) is a condensed, powerful, and realistic telling of the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler by his own military supporters on 20 July 1944. Unfortunately now in the shadow of the highly touted VALKYRIE released this past year as the Hollywood version of the incident OPERATION VALKYRIE is getting little attention from viewers. Now that it is available on DVD perhaps it will gain the importance it deserves.

For one aspect, the film is written, filmed and acted by Germans and the result is a different kind of felling than the later VALKYRIE: the tenor of the film suggests a growing lack of hope and a recognition of the insanity of Hitler by the a larger portion of the German populace than we have been lead to believe. It bears more a sense of reality than of a thriller movie.

Sebastian Koch is wholly credible as Oberst Claus Graf Schenk v. Stauffenberg - a devoted military man under the spell of Hitler's influence in the early years of the rise of the Third Reich who gradually pays attention to the rumors and reports of Hitler's aloof response to his murders of thousands of people. In a particularly touching scene a Polish Jew named Polja (Katharina Rivilis) recounts the horrors that the war has imposed on her family and her descent into insanity from Hitler's plan and execution of that plan for the genocide of the Jews. Stauffenberg is so deeply touched by this crowning encounter that he requests immediate transfer to the African Front and it is there that he is nearly killed in action, losing a hand and an eye. From the moment he awakens in a Munich hospital he begins his plan to exterminate Hitler (an impressive mute role by Udo Schenk), a plan that ultimately fails and results in Stauffenberg's assassination - a film clip of which opens the film before the credits.

The cast is excellent and the pacing and forward momentum of the story as written and directed by Jo Baier makes for a film that strikes the viewer in bullets aimed for the mind and heart. If too much of the peripheral activity of the times around the 1944 event is edited, remember that the film was originally a made of television experience to be viewed by the German populace and accepting part of the history depicted is still tainted by the horror of the Hitler guidance of Germany. Well worth watching. Grady Harp, July 09

Having already seen "Valkyrie" in theaters, I thought I'd check out this version of the story, filmed in German, in 2004 (the 60th anniversary of the 2o July 1944 plot). The film does a good job of filling in some gaps and modifications to several details in "Valkyrie" (Stauffenberg's life 10 years prior to his first attempt to kill Hitler on 25 December, 1943, Witzleben arriving at the Benderblock and getting into a heated argument with Stauffenberg and Olbricht, Beck's failed attempts to kill himself, followed by his off-screen death), but is too short, at 90 minutes, to be an in-depth look at the men behind the conspiracy or, as another reviewer posted, at the other 14 previous attempts to kill Hitler (two or three of which were carried out by Stauffenberg). Personally, I thought that
"Valkyrie" was a better film version, but it's no substitute for reading the extensive amount of material on the 20 July 1944 plot. Rated PG-13 for brief language and some violence.

This movie brings to four the total number of films I've seen which were wholly or partially devoted to Count Stauffenberg's attempt to kill Hitler. It is not the best of these - ironically that honor goes to, of all things, an episode of the TV miniseries WAR & REMEMBRANCE - but it is not the worst either, and it is arguably better than the much-ballyhooed Tom Cruise picture which came out last year.

Tackling the subject of the military resistance against Hitler is a ticklish job, particularly for the Germans themselves, who, in their clumsy and desperate search for postwar heroes, have elevated Stauffenberg to a weird kind of sainthood. I say "weird" because the man's character is very difficult to bring into specific relief. Was he the "Christlike" figure depicted by some of his fellows, determined at all costs to destroy Nazism, save Germany and end the war? Or was he, as the others maintain, simply a reactionary seeking to impose a aristocratic military dictatorship which would run the war more efficiently that the delusional Hitler ever could? I'm not sure that OPERATION VALKYRIE comes close to answering that question, but it certainly does a better job of emotionally connecting with its subjects than Cruise's VALKYRIE did.

The film opens with a few terse scenes, spread over several years, which illustrate how Stauffenberg became disenchanted with Hitler's regime and involved with the military resistance movement in Germany. Maintaining its rather dizzying (and somewhat disjointed) pace, it moves quickly to the fatal day itself, July 20, 1944, without getting much involved in the mechanics of the planning or the deeper, longer-term motivations of its plotters. Perhaps assuming a certain knowledge from its German audience, it spends most of its time with the aftermath of the bomb attempt, as Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators make their desperate and amateurish effort to seize power. Watching this clumsy bit of intrigue fly apart from a mixture of incompetence, bad luck and lack of foresight is horribly entertaining - sort of like watching a car bust through a guardrail and over the Grand Canyon, but does it actually make for a good movie?

From a techical standpoint, by which I mean pace and editing, the movie leaves a great deal to be desired: never completely finding a rhythm, it moves slowly when it ought to be running and often sprints when a deliberate march would have been more effective. Important questions, such as what Stauffenberg really intended for post-Hitler Germany are left unanswered. And what about the terrible injuries he sustained in North Africa, which cost him one eye, one hand and several remaining fingers? Being crippled or mutilated often turns a man against the cause for which he sustained the wounds; did the colonel turn on Hitler out of anger over his own personal catastrophe?

Nor are many of the trickiest ethical quandaries explored. The holy oath of allegience to Hitler by all German soldiers is briefly discussed, but the agonizing ethical struggle which many officers had to go through before signing on - or rejecting - the plot is hardly touched upon, whereas it was a centerpiece of the Cruise film. The morality of killing a roomful of people to get one man is never discussed. (One would scarcely know, watching this movie, that Stauffenberg killed four men that day, including one who was an ardent opponent of Hitler and also involved in the resistance against him). Worst of all, the film fails, if, to penetrate the soul of the Count, and again, one has to ask, was this actually a failure, or were the German film-makers simply unwilling to push too deep into their subject in fear of what they might find? Was it easier to turn the man into an icon than it would be to smash the icon and go looking for the man?

Weighing against this are the film's strongpoints, and there are several of them. In the Cruise version, one never gets a sense of the relationship between the Count and his wife, nor of any tensions which might exist between them as a result of his role in the plot. Here we see the terrible toll which conspiracy takes on the conspirator; the scene where Stauffenberg's wife asks him to promise he'll come back from his mission and he refuses, prompting her to simply walk away without a goodbye, is a subtle masterpiece of acting: tense, uncomfortable and heartbreaking. When he asks, with a kind of tremulous stoicism, "Is this how we part?" without getting a reply I was right there emotionally with the man torn between family and duty.

Likewise, there's a sense here that while Germans with zero love for Hitler made this film, they had a keen understanding of the men who remained loyal to the dictator, at least in the chaos and uncertainty that followed the explosion. The scene where the Hitler loyalists band together, arm themselves and then retake the headquarters building one room at time, demanding of everyone they encounter, "For or against the Fueher?" is weirdly heroic and effective all the more because no judgement is rendered. In German movies about Nazis, this is rarely the case; the audience is nearly always told precisely what to think and how to feel, and hey, if I wanted to be told those things, I'd live in Nazi Germany.

Obviously any movie about Stauffenberg & Co. is bound to be a bit depressing. Here was a small group of brave men who might have changed the course of human history in ways we can't begin to imagine, but who ended up ensuring that Hitler would remain in power until Germany was destroyed out from under him. Whether they deserve to be feted is an important question, and unfortunately one not answered by OPERATION VALKYRIE.

[On a sillier note, this movie features in a modest role Hardy Krüger, Jr., who bears such an astonishing resemblance to his father that for a minute I thought I'd put A BRIDGE TOO FAR in by mistake.]

An excellant movie. As good if not better then the Tom Cruise movie. The acting and directing were top notch, and the history was accurate and quite similar in both movies.

I've always thought Stauffenberg is one of the greatest heroes of world history. The man sacrificed everything so that Germany and Europe could be free of Adolf Hitler, the man Stauffenberg deemed, "the Antichrist."

I actually think there should be a movement to canonize Stauffenberg in the Catholic Church.

Now, on to the film. Sebastian Koch really comes off perfectly as Stauffenberg in the film. After seeing Koch, an actual German play the man, you realize how really "marginal" Cruise's performance was. That being said, I think Valkyrie had a better supporting cast overall and it certainly had much better production value.

Jo Baier's screenplay is pretty good, but it jumps around at times and for those who know nothing of the story, it would be hard to just jump right in and watch.

These Stauffenberg movies always leave the viewer with a multitude of questions. How many millions of lives would have been saved had Valkyrie been successful? Would the Americans and British really have contined their unconditional surrender policy? What would the post-war map of Germany have looked like?

It's almost overwhelming to think about. But, think about this...would you have had the courage von Stauffenberg, von Haeften, von Quirnheim, Olbricht and the others exhibited?

I grabbed this DVD thinking it was the Tom Cruise-Hollywood version of the 1944 plot to kill Hitler. However I soon realized this DVD is actually a European made-for-TV movie on the subject. So you need to distinguish between Cruise's "Valkyrie" and this European dramatization "Operation Valkyrie."

This disc automatically started to roll with English dubbing and no subtitles. But you can play it with a variety of other option combinations - original German audio with English subtitles, vice versa, etc. The dubbing is skillful, so I just left it on that automatic option. Still, that didn't allow me to hear the real voices of the actors. Sebastian Koch, who was so compelling a presence in "Other People's Lives," definitely lost something in the dubbing process.

In general, this dramatization of the conspiracy to plant a bomb in Hitler's conference room really didn't grip me. Count von Stauffenberg's conversion to the cause was just too easy. Early in the film, we see him expressing typical Nazi disdain for all Poles. Then cut to a Polish girl wrenchingly describing the atrocities she has seen and suffered. Then cut to von Stauffenberg entertaining an invitation to join in the developing plot to kill Hitler. The emotion doesn't flow logically.

This whole film generally shows too much effect and not enough cause - too many ends and not enough means. It does contain some telling scenes of von Stauffenberg's family life. It also shows the awful ping-pong between hope and fear, between triumph and dread that the conspirators experienced after the bombing. "Yes, we got him! - Wait, a body was carried out, but its face was covered. - Of course he's dead. He couldn't have survived. - Wait, there's a report he just phoned..." However, most of the tension and terrible risk involved in enlisting the members of the conspiracy and in meticulously overcoming the difficulties involved in assembling and placing the bomb - all get painted with too broad a brush, in too much of a slapdash from scene-to-scene, setting-to-setting.

An earlier movie starring James Mason as "The Desert Fox" Rommel included an account of this plot that is probably more fictionalized, but that is more moving. The ending of Mason's film led me to more poignantly, more personally feel the sacrifice that the members of the plot made in their attempt to get rid of Hitler. I recommend checking out "The Desert Fox."

Perhaps the most interesting recent account I've found of the assassination attempt is the purely documentary one given by Traudl Junge, Hitler's secretary. She was in another wing of the bunker when the bomb exploded. To learn more about this episode in history, I recommend you check out the filmed interview with Junge called "Blind Spot" and the book made of her writings, "Until the Final Hour."

Here she tells about hearing the explosion, about the chaotic comings and goings from the bunker afterwards, and about the changes she saw take place in Hitler as a result of the failure of the plot. Junge's rare insider account reveals the ultimate tragedy of this episode in history - a tragedy not even touched on in "Operation Valkyrie." Junge affirms how Hitler interpreted his survival of the explosion as a sign that he and the Third Reich were indeed invincible and fated for triumph. The bomb only confirmed Hitler in his mission of conquest and extermination.

We had just finished watching "Valkyrie" with Tom Cruise. Interested in learning more about this period of history, we found "Operation Valkyrie". We watched the trailer, and it indicated that it was a film with period film footage and interviews with historians and others from the time period. We watched the movie, which was not well-acted, waiting and waiting for the real meat of it--the historical footage and interviews. They never appeared.

If the movie trailer had shown the video we actually ended up getting to watch, we would not have wasted our time. Very disappointing.

Where is the historical footage and interviews promised in the trailer?

This is a German version of the story of the failed attempt by Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and others to assassinate Hitler at the Wolfs lair in 1944. It will inevitably be compared to the US version starring Tom Cruise, so let me say right up front they are very different telling.

I actually like both films, this however had a much more modest budget and some may feel has suffered because of that. However, the entire cast is excellent maybe not the stellar performances you could expect from Brannagh and Nighy, but I found it hard to fault them.

It does seem to assume that you know a fair bit about what actually happened and the whole plot is not as well sign posted as in the US version. However, I think that just shows that the makers actually felt their audience did have foreknowledge and decided to treat them as grown ups.

It starts as early as 1939 Poland when Staufenberg gets disillusioned and that part of the story is told through letters to his wife Nina. It tracks his time in the Afrika Korps and injuries in a very human way leaving out the Prussian stiff upper lip that is so often favoured. It dwells much more on the actual events rather than build up to the plot and then the aftermath.

This is a thoughtful production from Jo Baier who clearly portrays the plotters as heroes and wants to give a message; it is not preachy except for a short burst towards the end, which is entirely forgivable.

It is obviously in German, with quite good English translation in the form of sub titles and runs for 90 odd minutes. This is not an actioner, but a drama so if your taste is for war footage and violence you would be advised to avoid. I really enjoyed this and would recommend to fans of historical films. There is a lot of attention to factual detail and a very good portrayal of Major Remer, who many could say played a pivotal role in the actual outcome.

This movie about the plot to kill hitler in July 1944, is perhaps the closest to the real event that you can get. And is in german. Perhaps not as so action packed and complicated as the Tom Cruise film, this one delivers, it goes straight to the point. One version of history you should see.