Bryan Singer (X-Men - 2000, and one of of fave films of all time... The Usual Suspects - 1995) produced and directed this gripping war-epic, Walkure (German) or Valkyrie.
Brilliant, first-class casting...
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 ... Ludwig Beck
Eddie Izzard ... General Erich Fellgiebel
Tension, suspense and a sombre mood is consistently there throughout the entire dark masterpiece, and this has to rank amongst some of the best films of recent times!
One of my favourite scenes is when Die Walkure plays on Tom Cruise's home turn-table, where the scene turns from elation (Col Stauffenberg being with his family) to despair when the allied bombing begins.
Wilhelm Richard Wagner (Born 22 May 1813, Leipzig, Germany – Died 13 February 1883, Venice, Italy) was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or "music dramas", as they were later called).
Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) is the second of the four operas that comprise Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), by Richard Wagner. It is the source of the famous piece Ride of the Valkyries. Wagner took his tale from the Norse mythology told in the Völsunga Saga and the Poetic Edda. It received its premiere at Munich's National Theatre on 26 June 1870 at the insistence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It was premiered in Wagner's Bayreuther Festspiele as part of the complete cycle on 14 August 1876. The opera made its United States premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on 30 January 1885.
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