WE (Lee and I) have to agree with Janis. We watched the film Friday night, and thought it was extremely well done.
I have to admit, after reading a few posts here, I watched with trepidation, but that finally gave out when I actually gave the film a chance.
My husband is extremely well-versed in this time period, and said it was very accurate, and even stated to his sister and I, that Tom Cruise looked very much like Claus von Stauffenberg.
We didn't mind the fact that Tom Cruise didn't have a German accent, for the majority of the actors DIDN'T. We too liked the subtle change from the German into American, which acclimated the audience.
So, two thumbs up from the two of us. Would definitely recommend to all.
Lee was also impressed they didn't get into the gore of the torture and executions, but rather told a very good story.
I have to admit that I did enjoy it the second time I watched this movie and Tom Cruise gave a commendable portrayal. After that I also rented the earlier German version of Operation Valkyrie from Netflix, and enjoyed that one just as well. Both were faithful to the real story and well made. It was a story that needed to be told, I suppose, so that today's generation of Germans might be able to find some Heroes of their own in the WWII period. I'm sure they are tired of feeling bad about being German over things they had nothing to do with, and it's true that the Nazi legacy has been hard to overcome. There were a number of Germans that recognized that Hitler was a sociopath and tried to do something about it at the cost of their own lives. Nobody knows for sure how large that group was, but I think it's still fair to say that an even larger group supported Hitler until the war started going badly for Germany and it will take a few more generations before that legacy will fade away. Had I been a young and impressionable German in 1939 I can't say with any certainty which way I would have gone. Their was no 24 hour cable news or internet back then, and Germans who dared even listened to "free" radio broadcasts found themselves in Dachau or worse.