Valkyrie: Movie Analysis

Brock Marcotte
Movie Review
2/23/2015

Introduction
In the film Valkyrie, it portrays a large-scale conspiracy within the German Army attempting to assassinate Hitler. The film is based on the closest attempt that there was during WW2 by a coup of people led by Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg. It shows the multiple attempts by the group on Hitler’s life with both how they were able to get in close enough with Hitler, and the ways that their attempts failed or were flawed. The movie brings us into the life of Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg and shows us the side of Nazi Germany that wanted to end the reign of Hitler and end the war in order to save Germany. Although the movie portrays heroic acts of German patriotism and heroism in order to assassinate Hitler, the movie does not accurately portray the true events and personalities of the actual events leading the attempts on Hitler by Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg and his coup.
Time and Place
The movie takes place in Nazi Germany in the midst of World War 2.
The movie is based around the July 20,1944 attempt on Hitler’s life. The main attempt was at the Wolf’s Lair conference room where there was to be Hitler and more than 20 German officers and staff. Originally the meeting was to be in the concrete bunker of the Wolf’s Lair, where Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg had planned to pack explosives in the room and then leave for a phone call. However the meeting was moved into an open room where the explosives did not pack enough power to kill Hitler. The movie also portrays the events leading up to the main assassination attempt. It shows Stauffenberg in Africa and his war injuries bringing him back to Germany, where he begins to plan along with others the attempts on Hitler’s life. The movie takes us through the events in Nazi Germany and shows us the different characters in different parts of Germany that help lead and are involved in the
coup.

Synopsis
The movie begins with Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg in Africa while fighting the RAF, in the midst of the first scenes it brings to light the events that occurred that led Stauffenberg to lose his right hand, left eye and a few fingers on his left hand. Sustaining those injuries he is flown home to Nazi Germany to recover and then will fill a more administrative role off the battlefield. While Stauffenberg is recovering from his injuries, in another part of Germany, Major General Henning Von Tresckow is plotting an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. Major General Tresckow smuggles a bomb onto a plane that Hitler was on, however the bomb fails to go off and he is almost discovered. However he is able to recover the bomb and goes free without knowledge of his assassination attempt. All of these events lead up to Stauffenberg being recruited into the German resistance and is brought into the group that has already attempted multiple attempts on Hitler’s life. Stauffenberg comes up with the idea to use Operation Valkyrie in order to take over Germany. Operation Valkyrie uses the deployment of the reserve army in order to maintain order in Germany once Hitler is assassinated and to keep the SS from keeping control. Operation Valkyrie must be re-written in order for the plan to work, so they try to recruit the head of the reserve army, General Fredrich Fromm. He refuses to work with them or be directly involved. However Stauffenberg is able to get an audience with Hitler himself and presents him with the re-written Operation Valkyrie. Hitler signs the re-written orders without even reading them because he praises Stauffenberg for his heroism in Africa and believes they are good. The plan continues to evolve as they plan to assassinate Hitler, along with the head of the SS, Himmler. Their plan is to use explosives during a meeting in the Wolfs Lair, which is a concrete bunker used as Hitler’s command bunker. The explosives they plan to use are small, however they are told they will work due to the increased pressure created by the sealed bunker. On July 15, 1944, Stauffenberg attends a meeting at the Wolfs Lair with the bomb, however because Himmler is not there at the meeting, Stuaffenberg does not get the go ahead from the political leaders. With the plan in action they still mobilize the reserve army, however when the plan fails to initiate, the reserve army is called to stand down, calling this all a drill. Stauffenberg also safely exits the Wolfs Lair with the bomb. When they return to Berlin, Fromm threatens to have them arrested if they call the reserve army into action again. Goerdeler demands that Stauffenberg be relieved of his duties, but in the midst of his rant he is told that the SS is searching for him and they tell him to leave the country immediately and to return when they take over Germany. On July 20,1944 they again attempt an assassination on Hitler’s life. Staffenberg returns to the Wolfs Lair. Unfortunately after he initiates the bomb, he learns that the meeting has been moved to an outdoor room where the bombs most likely will not create enough pressure to kill Hitler. When the bomb goes off, Stauffenberg believes that Hitler was killed and the rest of the plan is set into action. Unknown to Stauffenberg, Hitler survived the blast but because all communications have been cut off there is no way of knowing what has happened. Operation Valkyrie is a go. Stauffenberg flies back to Berlin where the rest of the plan goes underway, the reserve army is called into action and begins taking over the SS posts. Nazi party leaders and SS officers are arrested. Rumors begin to circulate that Hitler survived the blast, but Stauffenberg convinces everyone they are SS rumors. In the midst of the reserve army arresting S officers and Nazi leaders, Major Otto Remer of the reserve army is handed a phone call, with Hitler on the other end. This stops the plan in action and he realizes that the Reserve Army has been played. Instead of stopping a coup, they realize they have just been supporting one and immediately reverse all their actions. With the plan ruined, all of the coup leaders are sentenced to a firing squad and all are killed that same night. At the very end, Colonel Stauffenberg yells, “Long live sacred Germany” just before he is shot dead by firing squad.

Movie vs. Actual Events
The movie is based upon true facts and events, however there was must that was changed to fit the Hollywood scene. The movie gives a fundamentally accurate portrayal of the events, but changes some of the scenes and leaves out some of the players in the resistance and changes some of the moral characteristics of Stauffenberg. Stauffenberg was not portrayed as manly or macho as he really was. They left out much of Stauffenbergs manly characteristics because the filmmaker said that they would be seen as fake or made up for Hollywood even though they were true to history. Some of the biggest changes from history to the film were those in the location of the first assassination attempt and also the final firing squad on Stauffenberg. In the first attempt on Hitler’s life on July 11,1944 they moved the scene into the Wolfs Lair for the movie even though it was actually at Berchtesgaden. They moved it into the Wolfs Lair for the film to show the setting for the viewer to believe the bomb would have killed Hitler. Another major change in the movie was the firing squad. According to historical references, the shots that killed Von Haeften would have also killed Von Stauffenberg, who was shot shortly after. The film accurately portrays the assassination attempts and Operation Valkyrie, only changing minor details or leaving out personality characteristics in order to best portray the events. The movie dramatizes how closely they actually came to taking over but accurately shows the events and how the plan came to be and was executed. The movie was a combination of history and Hollywood, only using Hollywood to make the events more exciting for the viewer and to emphasize the events more.