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Unpretentious and dramatically straightforward, valkyrie is a suspenseful yet ennobling story about the last attempt to assassinate adolf hitler prior to the end of world war ii. tom cruise is effective if a little opaque as hero colonel claus von stauffenberg, who channels his anger at hitler s atrocities and mismanagement of the war by joining a secret organization bent on killing the fhrer. when the outspoken stauffenberg hits on the idea of linking hitler s death with an official policy to safeguard berlin during a government crisis--a contingency plan called valkyrie --the group realizes a post-assassination coup could be covered by rapidly implementing the plan. history tells us the plot failed, of course, and hitler killed himself months later. but that doesn t stop cruise or director bryan singer from approaching the film as a thinking person s thriller, told from inside the conspirators camp, where the outcome of their deeds were uncertain for several tense hours.in the tradition of the great escape, valkyrie is a war movie full of famous faces, including kenneth branagh, terence stamp, tom wilkinson, bill nighy and eddie izzard. (the lesser-known david bamber is very good as hitler, hunched and cracking under pressure.) the film s gravity is offset a bit by the fun of seeing all these actors in a factually-based slice of history, and by a few, interesting stylistic flourishes on singer s part, including the peculiarly unsettling image of a mosquito sizzled to death in close-up. --tom keogh stills from valkyrie (click for larger image) SKU:ADIB001TUZG4K.