Valkyrie By Bryan Singer: Film Analysis

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Recommended: Hitler's rule of Germany

Rook Meacham
HIST 346
Film Review: Valkyrie The film Valkyrie was directed by Bryan Singer, written by Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander, composed by John Ottman, and released in 2008. Valkyrie won the BMI Film Music Award, the Bambi Award, and received nominations for several Saturn Awards. The historical thriller features actor Tom Cruise as Colonel Stauffenberg, supported by actors Bill Nighy and Kenneth Branagh. In western culture, there is a tendency to consider the individuals of the German state during Hitler’s Nazi regime as universally evil, tainted by the rule, and totally committed to a idolized Adolf Hitler. Valkyrie offers a different perspective. Utilizing brilliant set design, impactful imagery, thoughtful dialogue, and a constantly suspenseful narrative, the film develops a fuller understanding of the discontent in the Nazi rule and of Hitler as a terrifyingly powerful, but human, leader.
The piece’s focus are the events surrounding a failed assassination attempt of Adolf Hitler in 1944, and sheds light into the organization of leading Nazi men who did not support the Hitler regime. Valkyrie begins with Colonel Stauffenberg keeping his diary, he immediately establishes his distaste for Hitler and his feelings that …show more content…

The ideas and emotions associated with Nazi imagery, such as the swastika, are intense. The society which is presented in the piece is dominated by these types of charged symbols and concepts, and their connection to Hitler makes them enhance the control he seems to weild. Without even speaking, the Hitler presented by the imagery presented in Valkyrie, including the famous german shepards, Nazi saluting, and posse of surrounding aids, has an aura of villainous strength. These powerful associations translate into the portrayal of Hitler in the film as a menacing leader that does not require grand shows of

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