Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Valkyrie: C


Valkyrie Poster, originally uploaded by AsceticMonk.

Yet another long delayed mini-review. Tammam, Scott Mom, and I saw Valkyrie (IMDB.com) the weekend before last. It wasn't a terrible movie, but it wasn't outstanding either. Like the previous historical movie I saw, Valkyrie's suspense was undermined by the disappointing ending we all knew the story would have. However, unlike Sean Penn in Milk, Tom Cruise's performance didn't make the lead character very interesting or compelling. While I imagine Nazi military officers may have been stoic, it seems Cruise could have elaborated on his character's motivations.

I can see the appeal of portraying Valkyrie's story in movie form, but not all historically interesting stories make good movies. Valkyrie does bring some interesting hypothetical what-ifs, but it a History Channel special may be a more suitable place to explore such questions.

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