Valkyrie reviewed

Somehow the movies made around the events of the second world war are all a class apart. I dont know if it is the drama that surrounded those times, the stories of heroism and villains that came out or the fact that our mundane lives cant match up to that of those who lived through those days.

Valkyrie is another attempt to unearth and bring to light some of the lesser known stories of the war. Most of us have heard somewhere that there were numerous attempts to assasinate Hitler. What some of us do not know is that there were 15 attempts in all and all of them were by Germans themselves. This review is not a historical debate so I'm not going to get into whether Hitler was a hero for his people or a villain for the world.

Valkyrie is the name given to Hitler's reserve army. He had planned everything through. If there was ever a coup or if something happened to him, he suspected that some people from the SS would take over the government. To avoid this, he made a reserve army whose job would be to protect his interests.

The movie revolves around the last known assasination attempt on Hitler's life narrated through the eyes of a disillusioned soldier. It is a tightly held together screenplay and a gripping drama. The characters have been well formulated and you can see their inability to take a call of whether to do the correct thing or keep quiet for the fear of Hitler. The only thing I saw as a drawback was the portrayal of Hitler himself. He should have been shown as someone so packed with power that his presence in the room would make people tremble. This aura was missing around him in the film.

It is one of those movies which are a great watch and provide food for discussion over the dinner table. I watched it on DVD and would suggest the same to you as well.

Rating: 3 on 5