I think that's a big mistake. This generation is so far removed from the events of WWII, and to be frank, has a rather atrocious understanding of history to begin with so that you can't just assume the audience will know any of this stuff. We meet Col. Stauffenberg and the rest of the cast after they decide that Hitler needs to be killed, but how did they get there? Germany is losing the war at this point; did they want to oust him just because of that? Where were these "good guys" in the early days of the war? The movie does touch on the fact that the men of the army took an oath and how serious that was, but again it never really shows us how important, how honor-bound, and how difficult it would be for anyone to break their word and their oath to serve Germany. This history lesson needed a little more context for modern audiences to really resonate.

One of the biggest missed opportunities in this film is after operation Valkyrie goes into affect. As events unfold and people begin to grasp what is happening—one faction is trying to overthrow Hitler's Germany while the other is trying to preserve it—they were faced with a choice; which side would they be on? I imagine that this would be a tumultuous choice to make because if you choose the wrong side, you are dead. Soldiers had to decide if they would honor their word and their oath, or decide to do what they were being told was necessary and good for Germany to survive. This was the moment for some tension and crackling drama to take place, but instead things move ahead briskly and placidly.

Considering what a monumental shift this could have been in history, I wish more time had been taken in portraying these events. I wish I could have seen it from more perspectives and that I could have seen discussion and debates and the actions of the other factions, such as how the SS responded and when they figured out what was going on and what they should try to do about it. We all know that this operation failed, but that's no reason not to try and show us that, for a moment, Stauffenberg and the rest thought they would succeed; but instead the movie moves quickly and resignedly to its inevitable end. To be honest I thought the film was too short and too brisk, and this moment, when everything in the operation was unfolding, was where a lot of depth, breadth, and texture could have been added to this story without it feeling overly long.

When Operation Valkyrie unfolded, people were faced with a choice. They only had two options and there was no middle ground. We are faced with a similar choice, because whether we realize it or not, there is a coup taking place even as we speak. The forces of hell are rebelling against the authority of heaven, the cosmos is at war, and we are caught in the middle of it.

Now, I know that right there I've already lost some of you. You're saying there's nothing similar between the biblical battle of heaven and hell and Operation Valkyrie. In Germany in 1944 when that coup took place, people had to choose a side because it was an issue of survival; this whole heaven and hell thing is a religious battle that not everyone needs to be a part of. So you say. Well, there is a key moment in Valkyrie where a soldier confronts his superior officer and tells him that they must choose a side, that they can't sit on the sidelines. However, he also warned that they needed to make sure they choose the right side; and so it is with us. Sitting on the sideline of this battle between heaven and hell is not an option that we're given. In fact, we're involved whether we realize it or not. Jesus himself said that whoever wasn't with him was against him (Matthew 12:30 NIV), so even when we do nothing, even when we ignore "religious stuff," we are making a choice.

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