Editor’s Note: This is Tomorrow’s Trust’s first original movie review. I wish to thank Michael Reist for volunteering to take on this task.

By Michael Reist

Valkyrie

Directed by Bryan Singer

United Artists

Starring Tom Cruise and Kenneth Branagh

Rated PG-13 for violence and brief strong language

Sixty-four years after the end of World War II, we are still culling stories from the wreckage of that time. The early stories were very black and white – telling how we, the good guys, beat them, the bad guys. Our main method of post-war storytelling has been movies, and World War II movies have always been told from the point of view of the victors – stories about our heroism and the demonization of the Germans and the Japanese.

In recent years we have had compelling stories told from the point of view of the enemy, most notably Letters from Iwo Jima and now Valkyrie. In these movies we see the human side of the enemy, the sympathetic side. We are shown, in short, that they were just like us.

The way we tell stories from the past often tells us something about what is going on in the present. Clint Eastwood directed Letters from Iwo Jima at the height of the Iraq War and Brian Singer directed Valkyrie at a time when most Americans had become disillusioned with the war.

Valkyrie is the story of a man who would risk everything to stop an unpopular leader whom he felt was leading his country to destruction. There were no Gallop polls during World War II, but what the movie Valkyrie suggests is that by 1944 there were many Germans who disapproved of Hitler. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, played by Tom Cruise, was a patriot, and his patriotism compelled him to challenge the power of Hitler. What was interesting about this story was how many others were willing to join von Stauffenberg – people from the highest levels within the Nazi regime – with much to lose. In fact, as we learn at the end of the movie, there were nine known assassination attempts on Hitler.

In Valkyrie, we see a picture of an administration ruled by fear, one where all military have sworn an oath to be obey the Führer unquestioningly. What happens when a person in a position of responsibility – in any organization – surrounds him or herself with blind “yes-men?” The “leader” ends up living in a hall of mirrors where his opinions are the only ones allowed.

Barak Obama was asked about his choice of Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State. Hadn’t the two disagreed on many foreign policy issues and wouldn’t this lead to conflict within the cabinet? Obama replied that according to his reading of history, there was a danger of “groupthink” in the White House. In another speech, he said, “When we disagree, that’s when we need to listen even more closely.” If everyone agrees, why listen? Why listen to echoes? There is nothing to be added or learned from an echo?

Director Brian Singer shows us how Hitler’s Germany descended into the most extreme version of what George Orwell was warning against when he coined the term “groupthink” in his 1948 novel 1984.

Is it coincidence that this moral tale of conscientious objection came out of America at a time when George Bush’s approval ratings were among the lowest of any U.S. president in history? Valkyrie is a moral tale about thinking, principled people who find themselves living under a regime that violates their souls. It is also a moral tale for all those who live and work under “leaders” at all administrative levels who do not promote the health and life of an organization or the individuals within that institution. While von Stauffenberg’s response may have been extreme – assassination – it is still a story of the moral courage of a man who was willing to risk all, life and family, to oppose an oppressive regime that violated the integrity of those who lived under it.

At the beginning of the movie, the screen is filled with the text of the oath which all Nazi Party members had to swear: “I swear by God this holy oath, that I want to offer unconditional obedience to the Führer of the German Empire and people, Adolf Hitler, the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, and be prepared as a brave soldier to risk my life for this oath at any time.”

At the end of the movie, the screen is filled with the text of the German Resistance Memorial in Berlin: “You did not bear the shame. You resisted. Sacrificing your life for freedom, justice and honor.”

There is a message here for all of us who face the temptation of falling into “unconditional obedience” rather than resisting whatever soul-deadening forces confront us.

Michael Reist is the author of The Dysfunctional School and a frequent speaker to parent groups and educational conferences. www.michaelreist.ca

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