American Valor Quarterly Issue 4 - Autumn 2008 | Page 10

be a hero, or believe that what he did was heroic. He believed
what he did was his duty. It was his responsibility to reconcile
his word as a soldier – his oath as a soldier – and his duty to
his country. And it took a great deal of personal anguish for
him to come to the decision where the only solution for a loyal
soldier to save his country was to participate in the assassination
of his leader. It was a very difficult decision to make, even
considering who the leader was.
There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding these
characters, Stauffenberg along with many others in the
resistance. Throughout the last sixty years, they have certainly
been painted in a number of different lights. People have said
that they were Nazis and the real reason they were killing Hitler
was because he was managing the war poorly, and they thought
they could run it better. They argue that they were really trying
Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and Kenneth Branagh as
Major General Henning von Tresckow watch over a meeting of key figures to save their own skin; they were rats leaving a sinking ship.
in the German resistance movement, as portrayed in the film, VALKYRIE. When you read their writings, when you read what these people
said, what some of the surviving people said or what some of
The film has been regarded by historians as remarkably accurate. Though
them said in their trials before being executed, you realize that
some characters and events had to be compressed to make the story clear,
there was actually a much greater moral urgency going on within
McQuarrie says they strove to be as painstakingly accurate as possible. As he
told us, “Whenever there was a creative dispute on the set on how to handle many members of the resistance, including men like
Stauffenberg, Tresckow, Goerdeler, and Beck. When you read
a scene, we always turned to the actual history as our guide.”
what they had to say, all of those people were morally opposed
a much more complex picture than what is usually painted of the to what Hitler was doing, not just militarily, but on a humanitarian
Germans who were in the military during World War II.
level.

Top: Courtesy of MGM Distribution Co.; Book covers from Cambridge University Press and McGill-Queen’s University Press

That is what drew me in. I worked with Nathan Alexander, who
did a phenomenal amount of research learning about the German
resistance. We focused primarily on the events of July 20, 1944.
We initially were not really focused on making a film about Claus
von Stauffenberg or the greater scope of the German resistance.
That all came out of the research. We discovered that Stauffenberg
was this key figure. There was no way to tell the story of July 20
without telling his story.
Tim Holbert: That brings us to the question of Stauffenberg.
As you said, he is the man most identified with that particular
plot, and he has become the face of the German resistance and is
often seen as a hero today. If you could, tell us a little about him,
what your research found out about him, and how you chose to
portray him in the film.
Christopher McQuarrie: Well “hero” is an interesting word.
One thing we learned is that the Germans are very sensitiv H