The story of the most famous plot against Adolf Hitler, that nearly succeeded...
Tom Cruise leads an all-star British cast in this re-telling of the story, about a group of German officers who attempt not only to kill Hitler, but also launch a coup against the Nazis.
To do this, they aim to exploit Operation Valkyrie, an existing contingency plan for the defence of Nazi Germany in the event of Hitler's death. The only thing is, not only does the official plan need amending for the coup to succeed, they must get Hitler to personally approve the changes...
And then assassinate him.
As expected, the film has good production values, and there's a lot to recommend it. I tend to enjoy Tom Cruise films, but his supporting cast frequently threatens to over shadow him, not least Bill Nighy and Terence Stamp.
Still, the film competently carries the story of Stauffenberg, and there are a couple of especially tense scenes.
But competent is about the most that can be said about the film.
It doesn't do anything particularly wrong, but I couldn't help feel there was something missing.
Perhaps it was the lack of development between Cruise and his wife and children. Bryan Singer spends so much time focused on the political stakes that we don't easily get a sense of the personal ones.
Yet it's a matter of knowledge that Hitler was not assassinated, so it was always difficult to buy into the premise that the plot might just work. Knowing - and fearing - the consequences of failure might have been more effectively for drawing the audience in.
Still, it's not a bad film, but neither is it a great film. Perhaps it needed a little more than "Will this plot against Hitler succeed?" as a hook.
Either way, at least it makes the story more widely known, and makes a point of showing just how close it came to succeeding.
Here's the trailer:
