The plot to kill Hitler becomes a Tom Cruise thriller

“Valkyrie” is a historical thriller of considerable merit that mines the seemingly inexhaustible supply of movie plots rooted in Hitler’s reign and World War II.

Directed by Bryan Singer and loaded with Tom Cruise’s star power, as well as exploding ammunition, the film reconstructs the July 20, 1944, assassination attempt on the Fuhrer’s life, which, had it succeeded, would have spared the lives of untold thousands of soldiers and death-camp inmates.

The carefully planned assassination and coup involved some 200 high-ranking German army officers and civilians and was energized by a dashing young aristocrat, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg.

He and a number of generals, descended mostly from the conservative landed gentry, concluded that only Hitler’s elimination could save the honor of the German army and prevent the complete destruction of their country. They were also appalled by Nazi crimes against Jews and the people of the occupied countries, and blueprints for a post-Hitler Germany called for the closing of all concentration camps.

Despite the conspirators’ meticulous planning, the assassination attempt miscarried because of a fluke. Von Stauffenberg carried a briefcase containing high-powered explosives into a staff meeting with Hitler at his East Prussian Wolf’s Lair and exited shortly before the carefully timed explosion. At the last moment, however, an orderly casually pushed the briefcase away from where Hitler was standing and the Fuhrer survived the explosion — shaken but alive and functioning.

So much is widely known, but what happened afterward gives the film its historical freshness, ratchets up the tension and allows the mixed American-British cast to display its emotional range.

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