I wanted make the director of this film watch 'Day of the Jackal' over and over. That was what I call a gripping assassination film, even thought the target was a lot less evil than Hitler.

I wasn't expecting much and I'm not really an admirer of Tom Cruise, although he's been in some decent action movies. I was quite pleased to see him backed up by some good performers - Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson and some others I recognised.

But they all seemed to be playing the same role, in the same uniform (give or take a collar variation) the same haircut and the same facial expression. Or lack of it. They had to look loyal but shifty at the same time, as they were sworn-in top Nazi officers but were set on killing Hitler. As discovery meant death, any displays of emotion were restricted to compressing lips more tightly or swivelling eyes to one side. You never saw any teeth, and I really missed them. In Cruise's case an eye-patch cut his acting range (never great) even further. His brows (well, the left one) overhangs his eye so much you can hardly see it.

He attracted extra sympathy, though, because he had his hand blown off and over the eighteen months or so of plotting it seemed a shame he was never issued with a prosthetic.

He did have a glass eye, kept in an engraved silver box, for formal occasions like meeting the Fuhrer. Cruise discreetly turned away when he put it in, but it also had a few solo appearances, on shelves and wash-hand basins, etc. It out-performed its owner, in my opinion.

Dates and places were printed at the bottom of the screen when there was a scene change, but this only added to the burden of trying to remember who out-ranked who in the chain of command and what bit they were in charge of. It was like a party where you are introduced to a lot of dull people, or being a teacher with a new class, but there at least different clothes helps identification. This was a fancy dress party where all guests had come as the same person.

The film does have its moments. There’s a well-staged air-raid in the Tunisian desert at the start, where Cruise gets blown up. The last twenty minutes of the film are exciting, in the aftermath of the explosion meant to kill Hitler. Common sense tells you he has survived, but that's not the point -it's the consequences that count. The playing out of the ‘Valkyrie’ plan, designed to avoid the SS taking command at Hitler’s death, is fraught with all kinds of unexpected turns and suddenly the film becomes the tense drama it should have been all along.

Female parts were minimal. An interlude of domestic bliss with Cruise’s pretty wife and kiddies is cut short by an air-raid. Coincidentally, they leave the gramophone playing and 'The Ride of the Valkyries' plays in the background while they're cowering in the cellar,a cheesy touch. The wife had two lovely outfits, but I realise I was just glad of a change.

There was also a whole clattering roomful of typists, one distinguished because she seemed to have a secret yen for Cruise, going by her eye-swivels. She was in charge of telephoning his wife to check she was OK. The others just tapped away at their machines en masse, and from time to time orders popped from the back of the typewriters. They then had to catch the attention of the guy in the next room who was watching them through a window and he'd give the go-ahead for the order to be passed on. Then they'd all start typing furiously. So minimal scope for acting, but I always enjoy close-ups of those old-fashioned typewriters.

The plotters should have been severely pruned, and I don't just mean at the end, with a disappointingly low-key and unnecessary woodland execution scene. Given the intrinsic drama of the subject matter -it was based on a true story - and the potential for fewer actors, it's hard for a war film to be quite as bad as this. ‘Valkyrie’, is almost a training template for how not to do it.

Agreee entirely Sheila. They didn't even explain that half the intended charge would have been lethal in the bunker the meeting was supposed to be held in but that a heavy oak table and the open-windowed room both protected and dissipated the charge.

It is possible to stand before the wall where Von S was executed and see the actual bullet-holes. My daughter, no militarist she, said there is something deeply moving about this that the film at that point at least evokes.

If anyone wants to see a good film that testifies to the fact that many Germans bravely resisted the Nazis they should give Sophie Scholl a look. Also very moving.

Nice piece. More please.

Zettel

Zettel, I took up the point about the lack of explanation with my partner. Had I missed it, I wondered. No, apparently I was supposed to understand that as the meeting was moved from the bunker the explosion wasn't lethal. I thought the bit after the bag had been planted when we wondered whether the henchman would catch up Von S to give him his bag and hat was quite good.

I thought Von S was shot in the wood, not against a wall, but that's the licence for the filmmaker, I suppose and ot really important. It seemed to me he would have had a trial, not, as it seemed, a summary execution. The 'sacrifice' by his adjutant and VonS's last-minute cry of 'Long live the sacred motherland' (or something similar) didn't work very well for me.

This wasn't really meant as a review so much as a posting to the forum, then I realised I'd gone on a bit. However, glad you thought it made sense.

Sheila