“We have to show the world that not all of us are like him. Otherwise, this will always be Hitler’s Germany.”
– Major General Henning von Tresckow (Valkyrie)
Valkyrie is another movie that you would not expect from Tom Cruise. It wasn’t action-packed, no death-defying stunts, no romantic twists, and like any movie based on a true story, the ending is out before you set foot in the theater or press play. This incident was a tragedy from the get-go. Things started going wrong almost immediately and it was a complete disaster for everyone involved. Why the heck would this inspire anyone?
It is simple really. If ever there was an example of true courage, this would be it. Valkyrie takes place during World War II when the Allies were on the move and any reasonable military commander, Allied or Axis, could see the writing on the wall. The war was lost for the Germans, but the Nazis refused to accept it. By this point, it was destruction for the sake of destruction. But not everyone felt that way.
Valkyrie is about a group of men and women that came together and decided to act. They could have easily stayed behind the scenes for the rest of the war and survived. Most were nowhere near combat and had little to no involvement with any of the war crimes the Nazis committed or would continue to commit. They could have lived long, happy, healthy lives postwar. Instead, they chose to do something about the situation.
The operation was doomed from the beginning, but at the time, it still looked like there was a chance it might have worked. The goal was to use a plan that was developed by the home guard units for civil unrest response and turn it into an unwilling coup to seize control before the Nazis could respond. It also relied heavily on the successful assassination of Hilter himself. It was a bold plan, but the operation, called Valkyrie, failed miserably.
These men and woman gave their lives in an effort to show that not all Germans were as bad as the Nazis. They gave their lives trying to save what was left and prevent the destruction that eventually resulted from the Nazi party’s unwillingness to see reason. They showed all that it is not the uniform that makes you bad. It is the choices you make.
Journeyman's Legacy 