Movies In History: Valkyrie

Valkyrie

Tom Cruise was criticized for starring and backing this project, which depicts the July 20 Assassination attempt on  Adolph Hitler but the film is excellent.  It includes the most accurate depiction of an fighter strafing run right at the start of the film, which is so well done that it's incredibly scary to watch in a movie theater.

The film gets the tone of the assassination attempt, including its internal divisions, down about as well as a film of this length could.  Suffice it to say, the actual plot was somewhat more complicated, or actually a great deal more complicated, but there's only so much that can be done on film, and even today people debate who all may have been involved in the plot, knew about it, or had a role of some kind. 

In terms of material details, this movie was quite good.  The equipment and the uniforms are all correct for the period shown, with the movie makers having gone to the extent of showing the qualitative differences in various German uniforms and the tailored nature of officers uniform.

A very fine effort, well worth seeing, and historically correct within the confines of the movie's length.