Stauffenberg

It is important to bear in mind, that this German version of the Stauffenberg attempt to save Germany was made four years before the great American film with Tom Cruise. They complement each other. The German version is more concise and precise, more approaching a documentary telling the facts with efficient exactness, while the Hollywood version is more dramatic, has a more elaborate dramaturgy, is more efficiently made and is humanly more interesting, so both versions are vital. Sebastian Koch is a little too good-looking to be quite convincing as the scarred and crippled veteran of many battles and hardships, while Tom Cruise made one of his most convincing performances in all his vulnerability. Nothing bad can be said about either of the versions, it's an important chapter in modern German history, as an evidence of the fact that the national resistance against Hitler was only the greater and more bitter for being constantly suppressed, as there were any number of attempts against his life, of which at least one statistically ought to have been successful, but the bitter tragedy was that they all failed, and especially the greatest and final one, which was the most urgent one, because of unpredictable human factors.

OPERATION VALKYRIE (originally titled STAUFFENBERG for its 2004 television release in Germany) is a condensed, powerful, and realistic telling of the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler by his own military supporters on 20 July 1944. Unfortunately now in the shadow of the highly touted VALKYRIE released this past year as the Hollywood version of the incident OPERATION VALKYRIE is getting little attention from viewers. Now that it is available on DVD perhaps it will gain the importance it deserves.

For one aspect, the film is written, filmed and acted by Germans and the result is a different kind of felling than the later VALKYRIE: the tenor of the film suggests a growing lack of hope and a recognition of the insanity of Hitler by the a larger portion of the German populace than we have been lead to believe. It bears more a sense of reality than of a thriller movie.

Sebastian Koch is wholly credible as Oberst Claus Graf Schenk v. Stauffenberg - a devoted military man under the spell of Hitler's influence in the early years of the rise of the Third Reich who gradually pays attention to the rumors and reports of Hitler's aloof response to his murders of thousands of people. In a particularly touching scene a Polish Jew named Polja (Katharina Rivilis) recounts the horrors that the war has imposed on her family and her descent into insanity from Hitler's plan and execution of that plan for the genocide of the Jews. Stauffenberg is so deeply touched by this crowning encounter that he requests immediate transfer to the African Front and it is there that he is nearly killed in action, losing a hand and an eye. From the moment he awakens in a Munich hospital he begins his plan to exterminate Hitler (an impressive mute role by Udo Schenk), a plan that ultimately fails and results in Stauffenberg's assassination - a film clip of which opens the film before the credits.

The cast is excellent and the pacing and forward momentum of the story as written and directed by Jo Baier makes for a film that strikes the viewer in bullets aimed for the mind and heart. If too much of the peripheral activity of the times around the 1944 event is edited, remember that the film was originally a made of television experience to be viewed by the German populace and accepting part of the history depicted is still tainted by the horror of the Hitler guidance of Germany. Well worth watching. Grady Harp

The picture is a Staufenberg mini-biography and focusing the July 20 plot of 1944.His life and the famous event from how was orchestrated the dangerous,risked plot has been splendidly directed by Jo Baier.The film is correctly based on true events and real Nazis characters and well played by a sensational plethora of German actors.The real deeds are the following: Claus Schenk Graf Von Stauffenberg (Sebastian Koch)served as Lieutenant Colonel on the General Staff ,in the early part of WWII got distinction as an officer in a Bavarian cavalry regiment in Poland,France and North Africa.In April 1943 he was wounded in the face,in both hands,and in the knee by fire from a low-flying Allied plane,he kept one eye and lost his right hand and part of his leg.During his convalescence revised his attitude.He made no secret of his utter contempt for Hitler and Nazism,then he decided to join the conspirators with the goal of liquidating the Nazi regime and replacing it with a new social state that would maintain the good name of the fatherland.At the center of the plot were seniors officers Gen.Henning Von Tresckow(Ulrich Tukur,starring in Amen by Costa Gravas),,Fielf Marshall Erwin Witzleben((Joachim Bissmeyer),General Olbricht(Rainer Bock),General Beck(Remo Girone),General Friedric Fromm(Axel Milberg).Added to these seniors were a number of younger officers who believed that the third Reich was a catastrophe for Germany and were willing to gamble their lives on the outcome of the plot,among them was Werner Haeften(Hardy Kruger Jr).Other knew of the plot but did not take an active role in it,among them were Field Marshal Erin Rommel popular war hero and Field Marshal Hans Von Kluge ,army group of France.Hitler(Udo Schenk) called a conference of his close military advisers at headquarters at Ratenburg.The compound was protected by numerous electric fences and barbed wire,with blockhouses and checkpoints.Stauffenberg arrived at Rastenburg ,in his briefcase along with papers and reports, was a British time bomb,he set the timer on the bomb and brought it into the conference room and he placed it on the floor and then excused himself but he would must make a telephone call.Several minutes passed when at this moment a tremendous explosion blasted the room and several bodies flew out of the smashed windows and wrecking the ceiling.Meanwhile,Stauffenberg,certain that all in the hut had been killed was a plane bound for Berlin,but he learned to his amazement that Hitler had not been killed by the blast .Officers who were in the plot were dismayed and virtually paralyzed into inaction.Officers loyal to Hitler as Otto Remer(Muti) had taken control of the War Ministry and arrested the conspirators.General Fromm hurried to cover his tracks,he had four officers shot by a firing squad in the courtyard below.Beck was killed with a coup de grace.Hitler's vengeance was terrible .The conspirators were handed over to the tortures of Gestapo,many more were killed in a a massive blood purge.Some were strangled with piano wire and their bodies hanged like animal carcasses on huge hooks.General Fromm,who had been active in ordering the executions could not save himself,principal leaders met a barbaric death, among them the Adm. Wilhelm Canaris.Field Marshal Von Witzleben 's execution was typical,the old man was pushed into a cellar prison,placed under the first meat hook and stripped to the waist,a running noose was placed over the hook and wound around his neck,he was lifted and allowed to fall with the whole weight of his body ,young cadets ,forced to view the gruesome spectacle ,fainted.

It seems that most of the reviews here believe that this German version is somehow "better" than the Cruise version. Whether this is simply anti-Tom Cruise, or anti-Hollywood bias is debatable. I think this version is quite good from the acting, directing, production value standpoints, but really misses the mark on the intricacies of the plot itself or the character development of the other major conspirators, not just von Stauffenberg. The Cruise version is superior in showing the motivations of all the major conspirators and the slow buildup in the plot where the plan to assassinate the monster foments, and how the attempt crumbled due to fate and ineptitude. This German version is good, but in my mind, it is "Operation Valkyrie-Light" and not very satisfying to a history buff and especially a WW2 buff.

The first temptation was to see it as a sort of ad usum Delphini version of Valkyria plot. But the first part, the presence in cast and impecable performance of Remo Girone , the fair crafted tension of the second part are virtues changing this superficial opinion.

It is a correct exploration of one of key moments of resistence against Hitler dictatorship , one of expressions of reaction of army to the fall in disaster initiated by Fuhrer.

And , more important, it is a german version , sebastian koch being the inspired option for the role of Claus von Stauffenberg. In short, interesting and useful and correct and honest . Including for its presumed modesty. One of impressive parts - the high loyalty for colonel of his adjutant and the reduced by nice crafted family scenes, including the first.