Valkyrie

• If you know me, you know I’m not a huge fan of Tom Cruise movies. Typically, they consist of
• I think one of the most interesting aspects of Valkyrie is that it is entirely in English yet all the characters except Tom Cruise’s has a German accent. I don’t know if this is because Tom Cruise can’t do a good German accent (I doubt it, Tom Cruise seems to be good at playing outside his typical roles) but I like to believe it has to do with how we, the audience, view the characters on the screen. As viewers, we are inclined to associate stereotypes with certain characters and the director will take advantage of that. She or he, when applicable, would rather defer to stereotypes than spending screen time to convince you to hate a character. After all, they need all the screen time to tell the story at hand. All the Nazis in the movie have a German accent except for Cruise. In fact, Cruise has an American accent throughout the movie. It’s familiar and therefore, we are more likely to throw a little more trust and empathy his way. Furthermore, Cruise’s character is idolized and attached with honorable motives making us like him more.
• The rest of the movie is a typical Tom Cruise movie. There’s no reason to not like his character. He’s doing everything for the right reasons. The only difference this time is that he doesn’t come out on top.
• As far as historic accuracy is concerned, I believe the general story about Operation Valkyrie and Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is there. But the entirety of my knowledge on this particular event is based on hours of History Channel episodes on the event, in between episodes of Histories’ Mysteries when I was in middle school.
  • oh Histories’ Mysteries, constantly reminding us that those hieroglyphics are etchings of extraterrestrials pit-stopping on Earth for some good ol’ crop circle fun.
• 6/10