Valkyrie (film): Difference between revisions
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[[File:valkyrie-poster-cruise.jpg|frame]]
'''''Valkyrie''''' is a 2008 historical drama film about the [[What Could Have Been|attempted]] assasination of [[Adolf Hitler]] by a dedicated cabal of [[Nazis With Gnarly Weapons|German military officers]], as well as some non-military personnel. It stars [[Tom Cruise]], [[Kenneth Branagh]], Bill Nighy, [[Eddie Izzard]], Terence Stamp and Tom Wilkinson.
Part of what got interest in this film going is that popular consciousness doesn't readily identify any WWII Germany resistence against the Nazi party, in part due to the fact that Hitler remained in power (and alive) until the Allied forces came calling at Berlin's edge. Operation Valkyrie was actually the last of over 15 attempts (and closest to being successful) on Hitler's life by different factions within Germany before the end of the war. Even though the outcome of this assassination attempt is [[Foregone Conclusion|rather obvious]], it serves as a reminder of [[Black and Gray Morality]].
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Not to be confused with the [[Valkyries|mythological characters]] from which this movie takes its name.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Action Prologue]]: The movie opens with the Afrika Corps being attacked by the British in Tunisia.
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* [[Cyanide Pill]]: The Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels put what is obviously a suicide pill in his mouth before being confronted by the German army coming to arrest him, just in case he wasn't able to get out of that situation.
* [[Dirty Coward]]: Friedrich Fromm.
* [[Doomed
* [[Downer Ending]]
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Ludwig Beck}}. In [[Real Life]], he [[Nightmare Fuel|shot himself in the head twice and still didn't die]].
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* [[Hanging Judge]]: Judge Roland Freisler.
* [[Historical Beauty Update]]: Interestingly enough, the reason Tom Cruise got interested in the project is because a picture of Stauffenberg bore an uncanny resemblence to himself. That was about where the physical similarity stopped<ref>Stauffenberg was taller almost by a head</ref>, but in general Stauffenberg was considered a handsome man.
* [[Historical Hero Upgrade]]: The plotters are portrayed as this in the film. Apparently the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130420102824/http://www.verbrechen-der-wehrmacht.de/docs/home_e.htm German officer corps actually cared about Jewish people, was disgusted by their slaughter], and masterminded a plot to assassinate Hitler that would include the closing of concentration camps. In reality the German officer corps, especially the aristocratic elements that made up a fair chunk of it and the plotters, were primarily monarchist and extremely conservative. Tolerant democrats who believed in equality they were ''not''. In many cases, the plotters only turned on Hitler because he was losing the war, and had every intention of fighting on against the Soviet Union. It is however true that it would have been difficult for the audience to get behind protagonists who only disagreed with 40% of Hitler's ideals.
** Stauffenberg's [https://web.archive.org/web/20130630093921/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/GENOCIDE/reviewstr12.htm viewed Poland as "an unbelievable rabble" best under the whip, and as a country filled with "a lot of Jews and a lot of cross-breeds"].
** They weren't ALL so cynical. Tresckow in particular had genuine moral objections to Hitler and believed the plot had to go forward even if it was doomed to fail just to show that there was a resistance (not surprisingly, the movie includes this).
** Curiously, one of Stauffenberg's colleages said that he intended to declare Germany a worker's state, make a deal with Stalin, and fight on against the Western allies, with or without the Red Army. Stauffenberg, according to this source, thought that the Americans and British would be easier to beat.
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* [[Nazis With Gnarly Weapons]]: The film's main protagonists, minus the "Nazi" bit.
* [[No One Could Survive That]]: Throughout the short-lived coup, Stauffenberg insists this despite the fact that, as in [[Real Life]], Hitler is [[Not Quite Dead]].
* [[Not Even Bothering
* [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]: The central communications officer handling the military orders during the coup. He refuses to take a side and is so bent on remaining neutral that when presented with a [[Morton's Fork]], he ''sends through both orders''. Finally, he blocks communications [[Neutral No Longer|from Stauffenberg]].
* [[Playing Against Type]]: Jokes aside, this is Tom "[[Top Gun]]" Cruise playing a Wehrmacht officer with an eyepatch.
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* [[La Résistance]]: The main protagonists are part of this.
* [[Recycled Trailer Music]]: The music used in the trailers was the main theme from [[Saw]]. "Hello, Zepp."
* [[Rewarded
* [[Shell-Shock Silence]]
* [[Suspiciously Apropos Music]]: The Wagnerian record in Stauffenberg's house, which serves as the inspiration for the operation's title. Semi-[[Justified Trope|justified]], as the {{spoiler|bombing of Stauffenberg's house}} would logically push back the needle on the record, bringing it to the start again.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Film]]
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