When I scheduled this film at Butt-Numb-A-Thon 10, I paired it with the Bogart classic WWII film SAHARA, a thrilling adventure in the desert during the heat of Panzer attacks and tank warfare. Well, VALKYRIE kinda picks up right at the end of SAHARA. Going from classic Black & White to digitally projected eye-popping color... well, the MGM logo had never seemed so crisp or so colorful... ever. The Nazi red leapt out of the screen. And the sound - well, that opening attack in the desert was just brutal.

VALKYRIE is one of those stories where you know that this plot didn't work out. We know that Bryan Singer and crew went through pain-staking efforts to stitch every detail to the history of this event. But ultimately what is AMAZING about the film is just how successful this attempted coup was. I mean. Damn. They not only got close, but... well, you'll see.

This film isn't about happy endings, ultimately we know Hitler killed himself, the Nazis lost and Hitler's regime is pretty much shit in every history book written. So the bad guys got theirs. What isn't so well known to the world outside of Germany is the story of the German underground. We know all about the various Underground movements in the various conquered countries, but what about the Germans that refused to be the Good Germans? That story, I'm not familiar with.

The cast of this film is very strong, almost too strong. There's a part of me that wishes that McQuarrie's screenplay had been translated into German and been shot ala THE DOWNFALL with Bruno Ganz reprising his role as Hitler, but that wasn't the fate of this film. Singer's involvement attracted Cruise - and at that point, the cast became sterling.

The result became something that I haven't seen in a while. A World War II movie that kinda felt like those late 60s WWII movies. You know the ones with cast lists of the best and brightest. The films never felt 100% authentic, but they sure were great yarns about WWII and frankly, I grew up loving them.

This film isn't necessarily a WAR film - other than the opening Allied ambush attack, there isn't really another 'battle'. This is more of a CAPER film. This is like THE STING or GAMBIT or a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movie.

You know the set-up. Michael Crichton did it best with THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. You have the set-up where you have the problem that needs to be solved. In this case, KILL HITLER. However, it is always more complicated than that. You need to not only Kill Hitler, but disable the zealots that surround him and take over Nazi Germany.

Ok - for those in the cheap seats - that's a HOLY FUCK, HOW DO WE DO THAT?

Bring in... THE PLAN, the plan is surprisingly simple though. You see, the Nazis were so diligent in setting up their power structure that they had automatic plans for what to do if Hitler got killed. So all they had to do was modify those plans, get Hitler to approve them, then Kill Hitler and Take over Nazi Germany and surrender to the Allies.

Well gosh, that was simple.

Problem is... as we fans of this genre know... nothing ever goes as scheduled and it is never as simple as 1.2.3.

What we do see is how close they came to ending World War 2, even though they DIDN'T kill Hitler. The story is fascinating.

So how's the film?

I found it riveting. Singer does a great job of just shooting a solid movie. No fancy smancy Michael Bay follow the explosion shots. No, Wachowski - freeze the action and show where every bit of the explosion went and who did die. No - he shot the film very straight forward - and John Ottman's editing and score drive the film home.

All that said, right now I'm so excited to see INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS because it isn't based in history and isn't beholden to the way things went. It is more akin to fictional WWII films than the historical ones, and I feel it'll be a nice relief to let go of the historical accuracy in lieu of fun story telling and a good romp beside the point.

VALKYRIE is an exceptional film with an even better story to tell.