I used to be a Tom Cruise fan, before the jumping-on-the-couch episode and the various ridiculous riffs on impossible-to-defend moments of spastic theology. I actually thought his profane moments were some of the few funny moments in Tropic Thunder, but he was the last person I would have cast in the most crucial of roles in the narrative of the last assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler, Valkyrie. (I did have to make some concessions when considering how much like Colonel Von Stauffenberg Cruise does look, but still. It was like watching Kevin Costner play Robin Hood! Seriously, where's the accent? But I digress.) So, heading into my viewing of Valkyrie, I'm predisposed to love the idea of the story but am stuck thinking Cruise isn't flyingas a top gunanymore. And with those lowered standards for acting and expectation, I was wildly entertained.

Narrating the web of conversations and actions leading up to the final attempt on Hitler's life prior to his own suicide, Stauffenberg's story in Valkyrie moves forward with bits and pieces of action, like the scene where Von Stauffenberg loses his eye; but for the most part it dwells in the intense conversations that laid the groundwork for the plan that was this close to being completed. Honestly, I've always been predisposed to dislike stories where I know how they end and the result is absolute failure, eg. Titanic. But the fact is, the film is driven by Cruise's unrelenting passion, by your hope-beyond-hoped desire that they will succeed and by the variety of provocative subjects which the movie stirs up.

Why do good men allow evil to mask itself in their lives? Or rather, why does the majority allow itself to be swayed by the one into doing something that so dramatically damages their own hopes and dreams, but crosses over into evil? Von Stauffenberg's family has roots in Roman Catholicism, which is hinted at within the confines of the movie, and it's incredibly obvious that the theologies of Hitler and Von Stauffenberg are not in line with each other. But Von Stauffenberg and others were blinded or convinced or fooled (take your pick) into following Hitler and murdering millions of innocents. And yet, even watching the film, I am reminded that the few and the many continue to be convinced by various world leaders to do the same; even as we perpetuate evil in our purchases and our attention, we diminish the hopes of others.

But the most wildly maddening question to me is this: at what time are good men obligated to do evil, to sin, so that others might be saved and that evil might be stopped? How should we as Christians look at the plot of these Germans to murder Hitler? Throughout the film, I couldn't help but think of one of my favorite church theologians and heroes of the faith, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Like Von Stauffenberg, Bonhoeffer found himself on the opposite side of faith and life from Hitler, and he too took up the role of resister. Like Von Stauffenberg a few years later, Bonhoeffer was also arrested and executed for his role in a plot to kill Hitler. And Bonhoeffer was German Lutheran pastor!

I'm not advocating murder or assassination; but what if the Church/church/Christian cared so much about the inadequacy of the law, about the ways in which people in their own community were being oppressed, and about what it means to really follow Christ and stand against the forces of evil, and were willing to do something about it? Valkyrie demands a response because we are charged to look our critics, our oppressors, and those who would do us harm in the eye, and stand true to what we believe.

How far would you go to speak truth, to speak love, and to stand for what is real?