Valkyrie (4/5)
Posted on 31 Aug 2009
As a fan of the World War II genre, this high budget, well cast film directed by a Hollywood elite was good cat nip for me. I can see why the concept didn’t fly as high as it could have though, it is a downer sell from the onset. How do you pitch a film based on a failed coup attempt? Titanic could have certainly failed with its inevitable ending, but the fictional love-against-odds story easily superseded the demise of the ship, and the heroine goes on to live a rich life while the a-holes get their comeuppance. They attempted similar narratives with the Pearl Harbor film with pathetic results. I can’t say exactly why The Great Escape or Sophie Scholl eluded the inevitable injustice that mark their final acts. Well, I have notions: Sophia Scholl is Germany’s most celebrated martyr who did not necessarily fail, and The Great Escape is so much fun that you don’t mind watching McQueen ride his Bonneville into a barbwire fence. If anything, this film serves as a well-crafted homage to the German underground resistance, which is rare material and reminds us that many just and defiant people lived and served in the Third Reich.
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