DVD Review: Operation Valkyrie: Sebastian Koch, Jo Baier: Movies & TV
DVD Review: Operation Valkyrie: Sebastian Koch, Jo Baier: Movies & TV
Amazon.com
Operation Valkyrie tells the astonishing true story about a bold German plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler — and the man who risked everything to make it happen. Sebastian Koch (The Lives of Others) stars as Clause von Stauffenberg, a once-idealistic German army colonel whose exposure to wartime atrocities and personal battle injuries move him to conspire to eliminate the power-crazed Fuhrer. The heroic tale remains a fascinating, must-see example of the German resistance to Hitler’s oppression.
Stills from Operation Valkyrie (Click for larger image) 
Product Description
In 1944, a group of high command officers plot an attempt against Hitler, and one of the leaders of the conspiracy, Stauffenberg, goes to a meeting with the Fuhrer in charge of exploding the place. However, Hitler survives and the officers are executed.
“Mein Fuhrer, Colonel Von Stauffenberg.”,
By J from NY (New York) -
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)
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.
Interesting German-Language Version Of The 20 July 1944 Plot.,
By HAMLET -
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.
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