Valkyrie an Historically Accurate Film

By Joshua Bebis on March 7, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

The 2008 historical war film “Valkyrie,” starring Tom Cruise, is a story about the infamous assassination attempt of Nazi Germany leader Adolf Hitler. Operation Valkyrie, occasionally referred to as the “20th of July Plot,” was a 1944 attempt by German military officers to kill Hitler and bring an end to the Nazi government.

German General Claus von Stauffenberg, was brains of the operation, proposed bombing Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair headquarters in East Prussia. Hitler managed to escape the blast with just minor wounds. In the end, the conspiracy failed, and Stauffenberg and the other commanders were executed. Following Operation Valkyrie’s failure, the Nazi government intensified its suppression of opposition among both military and civilian populations. Stauffenberg appears at the beginning of the film complaining about Hitler and the predicament of his homeland while in North Africa. Stauffenberg’s rant doesn’t last long, though, as an American aircraft attack soon after wounds him. The excitement and suspense are nearly continuous from that moment on until the final frames. 

Many historians have debated the accuracy regarding the film as a whole. The overall consensus of these debates is that the film itself is pretty accurate. With every historical film, it’s important to remember that there isn’t a single film that is perfectly accurate because it’s physically impossible to get every minor detail right. With that being said, movie critic Kieran Dickson stated, “Sure, they do all inexplicably have American (and sometimes English) accents and are not speaking German, but the cast all convey the tense inner turmoil each character is going through as they decide who to side with. It was truly one of the better historical films I have seen.” Ty Burr of The Boston Globe described the film by writing, “It’s a smooth, compelling, almost suspenseful, and slightly hollow Hollywood period piece – a World War II action-drama in which an intriguing (but not electrifying) star performance is buttressed by stellar support.” Interestingly enough, Peter Hoffmann, who is a professor of history at McGill University and a leading authority on the German Resistance, was a consultant for the filmmakers. Hoffmann said, “The film gives a fundamentally accurate portrait of Stauffenberg and the conspirators. There are details which must be counted as liberties. But, fundamentally, the film is decent, respectful and represents the spirit of the conspiracy.”

I have watched the film a few times, and I can tell you that every single costume is authentic to each character based on research that I have conducted for this article. Even the planes and tanks they used in the film are authentic as well! Most of the information delivered in the movie is the original information discovered from archives. The filmmakers also managed to obtain authorization from Germany to film in the actual Bendleblock building, where Stauffenberg was executed. Hitler’s headquarters, where the assassination attempt happened, often referred to as the Wolf’s Lair, is authentic as well. According to the production team, it took three months to construct a perfect duplicate as the original lair was obviously destroyed in the blast of the attempted assassination. According to historians, everything about it, including the flying mosquitoes outside, is real!

The assassination plan was conceived and carried out exactly as portrayed by the film. Early in the film, a bomb is placed on Hitler’s plane, but it fails to go off. The characters then have to retrieve the bomb from the S.S., which is disguised in a liquor box. Many critics believed that this part of the film was added to make the story more interesting, yet according to various historical studies and presentations, this in fact was true.  

However there is some inaccurate information in the film as well. In one of the movie’s most important scenes, a major character retrieves the liquor bomb when it fails to detonate from the S.S. without revealing its contents. In reality, this was carried out by one of his aides. Another inaccurate moment in the film was when Werner Von Haeften, a youthful conspirator, steps in front of Stauffenberg’s firing line towards the end of the movie and exposes himself as a traitor. With an understanding look, he is shot in front of Stauffenberg. This never happened. After the initial Bendleblock executions, Haeften was found and put to death.

After doing research and watching a plethora of different historical talks, I can powerfully say that the biggest misconception of the whole film is Stauffenberg. He was portrayed as someone who always possessed strong opposing views regarding the Nazi party. While he was never an official member of the Nazi party in general, according to the Cambridge University Library, “He [Stauffenberg] did support Hitler’s invasion of Poland at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and was severely wounded in action in Africa in 1942. It was not until 1942-43 that Stauffenberg became one of the central figures of the German resistance movement within the Wehrmacht and by July 1944 he was the main driving force behind the plot to assassinate Hitler.” Dickson even went as far as saying, “He did believe that the removal of Jewish culture would be beneficial to his country. Stauffenberg, as well as others, only began to oppose Hitler outright when it looked as though the war was no longer winnable.”

The film itself was nominated by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for seven Saturn Awards. The film was also nominated by the Visual Effects Society Awards in the category of Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture.

Joshua Bebis is a double major in history as well as media and communication at Salem State University.