In the film that marked the beginning of Cruise’s collaborations with his recent Mission: Impossible writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise plays Claus von Stauffenberg, the German Colonel who led the near-successful attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Initially restrained, Cruise’s performance grows in intensity as the tension increases. He leads an all-star cast of British thespians and the result is a richly detailed, well-constructed and often unbearably suspenseful historical thriller.
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Before shooting had even been completed on director Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie – an account of the failed attempt by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and members of the German resistance to assassinate Hitler – the film threatened to become overshadowed by the storm of controversy it had provoked in the German media. Much of the furore centred around the casting of Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg, with the actor’s professing of scientology (categorised as a ‘dangerous cult’ by the German government) central to most concerns. A spokesman for the German Protestant church went so far as to say Cruise’s involvement would ‘have the same propaganda advantages for scientology as the 1936 Olympics had for the Nazis’. Stories circulated that filming had been hampered by restrictions, with permission to shoot at Berlin’s Bendlerblock initially denied. A relative of Stauffenberg was quoted as saying, ‘I fear that only terrible kitsch will come out of this project.’
‘The press reaction did surprise me,’ recalls Singer. ‘But I could understand the hesitation: it would be like a German coming over here and making a film about Lincoln. The immediate reaction was “Here’s the director of X-Men and Superman, and the star of Mission: Impossible, what kind of film will they make?” But once people saw our attention to historical accuracy, the controversy calmed, even if it still echoed in the press. It didn’t have any practical impact on the production.’
Fears that the film would sensationalise the plot as a kind of Mission: Impossible-style exploit are wide of the mark, for, if anything, the film is at times an overly linear and sober depiction of the events that led up to the attempt. Aside from some compression of the chronology and the omission of some of the minor figures involved in the plot, the script by Nathan Alexander and Christopher McQuarrie is meticulous in its fidelity to the historical facts.
‘I had meetings with members of the Stauffenberg family and with experts in the German resistance,’ Singer explains. ‘I had lunch with Hitler’s bodyguard, who was also the communications man who reestablished contact between the Wolf’s Lair (the Nazi base where the assassination attempt took place) and the propaganda ministry following the assassination attempt. As eerie as it was, we had first-hand conversations about that day.’
‘Mostly the references I used weren’t other films; I looked more to old newsreel and photography of the time. I was very keen that the film should look vibrant. So often films set during the Nazi-era are desaturated because filmmakers want to make it look like black-and-white images. I tried to make a film that looked like it would have to people at the time.’
The first half of the film is careful to explain the background influences that led Stauffenberg and the other members of the resistance to risk the assassination attempt. There was a strong class aspect to the resistance. Men like Stauffenberg were drawn from the aristocratic Prussian military class and viewed the Nazis as a bunch of thugs led by a lowly Austrian corporal. ‘Stauffenberg came from a 900-year-old family who had served kings,’ says Singer. ‘He had great pride in the longevity of Germany as a great nation. These people were not Nazis, they had never been party members.’
Stauffenberg was also a Catholic, something only touched on in the film. ‘I wasn’t making a biopic,’ Singer clarifies. ‘It was important for me that the film be a thriller about the assassination attempt. I left out anything that didn’t help to get us to the assassination. His Catholicism was just one facet of his drive.’ Was Singer worried that such a complex figure would be smothered by the star baggage Tom Cruise inevitably brings to any film? ‘We made a conscious effort for Tom to give a contained performance, to embrace the reputation for calm, cool grace under pressure that Stauffenberg had. The action and the deed are so great that the performance should be as contained as possible.’ Alongside Cruise is a who’s who of heavyweight British talent: Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson and an unusually restrained Bill Nighy among them. ‘I was looking for the best actors,’ says Singer, ‘and I have a history with British actors like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.’
Early previews of the film have met with a mixed response from German critics, with many claiming that Cruise’s performance fails to capture Stauffenberg’s aristocratic bearing, but Singer has shown it to members of Stauffenberg’s family, who expressed their approval. ‘It went extremely well. People thought we were going to make some other kind of movie, but the story is so tense that we didn’t need to change any of it.’
James Bell, Sight and Sound, February 2009
Valkyrie
Directed by: Bryan Singer
©: United Artists Production Finance LLC
Production Company: Bad Hat Harry Productions
Co-production: Achte Babelsberg Film GmbH
Presented by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists
Production services in Germany provided by: Studio Babelsberg Motion Pictures
Supported by: DFFF - Deutscher Filmförderfonds
Executive Producers: Chris Lee, Ken Kamins, Daniel M. Snyder, Dwight C. Schar, Mark Shapiro, John Ottman
Produced by: Bryan Singer, Christopher McQuarrie, Gilbert Adler
Co-producers: Nathan Alexander, Henning Molfenter, Carl Woebcken, Christoph Fisser, Jeffrey Wetzel
Line Producers: Chris Brock, Oliver Lüer
Line Producer (Additional Photography - US): Robert F. Phillips
Executive in Charge of Production (Additional Photography - US): Steven Harding
Unit Production Manager: Chris Brock
Production Manager (2nd Unit): Gerry Toomey
Production Supervisor (Additional Photography - US): Jennifer Campbell
Production Co-ordinators: Judy Britten, Tine Hoefke
Production Controller: Gavin Behrman
Location Manager: Klaus Große Darrelma
Post-production Supervisor: Isabel Henderson
2nd Unit Director: Eric Schwab
1st Assistant Directors: Jeffrey Wetzel, Lee Cleary
2nd Assistant Directors: Peter Soldo, David K. Arnold
Script Supervisor: Gabriella Gobber
Casting by: Roger Mussenden
Written by: Christopher McQuarrie, Nathan Alexander
Director of Photography: Newton Thomas Sigel
2nd Unit Director of Photography: Ross Emery
Aerial Unit Director of Photography: John Marzano
B Camera: P. Scott Sakamoto
Camera Operator (Additional Photography - US): David Luckenbach, Paul Babin, Greg Schmidt
Steadicam Operator: P. Scott Sakamoto
Visual Effects Supervisor: Richard R. Hoover
Visual Effects Producer: Maricel Pagulayan
Special Visual Effects/Animation: Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc.
Visual Effects by: Imageworks India, Savage Visual Effects, Frantic Films, Pacific Title & Art Studio
Previsualization by: The Third Floor
Special Effects Supervisor: Allen Hall
Edited by: John Ottman
Associate Editor: Dylan Firshein
Visual Effects Editor: Andrew Loschin
Production Designers: Lilly Kilvert, Patrick Lumb
Visual Consultant: Eric Schwab
Supervising Art Directors: John Warnke, Keith Pain, Ralf Schreck
Supervising Art Director (Additional Photography - US): Seth Reed
Art Director: Cornelia Ott
Set Decorator: Bernhard Henrich
Property Master: Dave Gulick
Construction Manager: Colin Fraser
Costume Designer: Joanna Johnston
Assistant Costume Designer: Jeremy Turner
Military Costume Supervisor: David Crossman
Costume Supervisor: Dulcie Scott
Make-up/Hair Designer: Sarah Monzani
Key Make-up/Hair Artist: Ailbhe Lemass
Music by: John Ottman
Conducted by: Pablo Heisenberg
Sound Designer: Erik Aadahl
Production Sound Mixer: Chris Munro
Re-recording Mixers: Craig Henighan, Skip Lievsay, Michael Herbick
Supervising Sound Editors: Craig Henighan, Erik Aadahl
Sound Effects Field Recordists: John P. Fasal, Bob Kellough
Effects Editors: Warren Hendricks, Wayne Lemmer
Stunt Co-ordinator: Greg Powell
Research: History at Work, Torsten J. Halsey
Aerial Unit Co-ordinator: Mike Woodley
Action Consultant (Additional Photography - US): Victor Armstrong
Shot at: Babelsberg Studios
Cast
Tom Cruise (Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg)
Kenneth Branagh (Major-General Henning von Tresckow)
Bill Nighy (General Friedrich Olbricht)
Tom Wilkinson (General Friedrich Fromm)
Carice van Houten (Nina von Stauffenberg)
Thomas Kretschmann (Major Otto Ernst Remer)
Terence Stamp (General Ludwig Beck)
Eddie Izzard (General Erich Fellgiebel)
Kevin R. Mcnally (Dr Carl Goerdeler)
Jamie Parker (Lieutenant Werner von Haeften)
Christian Berkel (Colonel Mertz von Quirnheim)
David Bamber (Adolf Hitler)
Tom Hollander (Colonel Heinz Brandt)
David Schofield (Erwin von Witzleben)
Kenneth Cranham (Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel)
Halina Reijn (Margarethe von Oven)
Werner Daehn (Major Ernst John von Freyend)
Harvey Friedman (Dr Joseph Goebbels)
Matthias Schweighöfer (Lieutenant Herber)
Waldemar Kobus (Police Chief Wolf-Heinrich von Helldorf)
Florian Panzner (Second Lieutenant Hagen)
Ian McNeice (pompous general)
Danny Webb (Captain Haans)
Chris Larkin (Sergeant Helm)
Matthew Burton (Lieutenant-General Adolf Heusinger)
Philipp von Schulthess (Tresckow’s aide)
Wotan Wilke Möhring (Sergeant Kolbe)
Christian Oliver (Sergeant-Major Adam)
Bernard Hill (confidant general - desert)
Julian Morris (young lieutenant - desert)
Helmut Stauss (Dr Roland Freisler)
USA-Germany 2008©
121 mins
35mm
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Programme notes and credits compiled by Sight and Sound and the BFI Documentation Unit
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