The Heroes of Telemark (1965)

What a waste of my time!!!

Sorry, this movie sucks

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

In this World War II drama, Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris are part of the Norwegian resistance, and they fight to delay Germany's development of an atomic bomb. This isn't your typical front-lines war movie, and it isn't your typical strategy-only war movie. The leads aren't in shiny uniforms who order troops around all day long. They're regular people doing more than their fair share to help in the war effort, since what they're trying to prevent could change everything. Loosely based on a true story, the movie was filmed on location in Norway, so if you like lots of snowy backdrops in between tense struggles, you'll probably like this one. I've seen so many war movies that they all start to blend together, and really the only part of The Heroes of Telemark that stands out in my mind is the cast. Kirk Douglas and Ulla Jacobsson have wonderful chemistry together, their scenes filled with extra tension because of the wartime setting. Kirk and Richard have opposite screen personas, and it's great fun to see them work off each other and use their combined strengths. If you're the type of person who watches movies for the cast, like I do, you might want to rent this one. If you get bored easily during lengthy war dramas, like I do, you might want to watch Catch Me a Spy or Paths of Glory instead.

The problem with this film is that the action it is trying to portray wasn't spectacular enough for Hollywood. How many shots were actually fired in the real attack? I'll give you a clue -- it was a nice round figure.Of course Hollywood needs gunfire and explosions or else what is the point of making the film? They don't let the fact that there wasn't any gunfire get in the way of their version of the story.The romance part of the plot is all made up as well.Ho, hum...I suppose it just goes to show that when people complain that Hollywood is trying to rewrite history, there is plenty of precedent, this film being part of that. Why on earth didn't they just set the thing in some mythical place during WW2 and not pretend it was anything to do with a real action (which it wasn't really)?

Twenty years after the end of the war they were still churning out stuff like this, more or less scraping the bottom of the barrel for 'unknown' incidents to exploit. The events depicted here may well have been true but Anthony Mann does little or nothing to inject any life or excitement into things. For me the attraction was third-billed Michael Redgrave but he was totally wasted in a part even Richard Pascoe couldn't make more lifeless. For a film about heavy water there's a notable lack of chemistry between ANY one person and ANY one else; an 'action' film short on action, a thriller short on thrills in fact the whole thing is a snow job.

This movie is supposed to tell the story about how Hitlers atomic bomb plans were stopped. It doesn't, and it doesn't even come close.I was born in Rjukan and spent my first 19 years in that town.The only good that has come out of that movie are a few more tourists.The possibly biggest loss it has caused is the historical falsies that now seem to live better than the historical facts. A close second is the fact that because of the filming, our beautiful stone church built in the 1920's, burnt down. The film company was allowed to store filming equipment in the church, and for some reason this equipment caught fire. All of the interior of the church were destroyed, and replaced with art and furniture contemporary to the 1960's. Also the entire 1st edition of the second volume of "Tinn Soga" or "The history of Tinn" was lost in the fire. It survived the Nazis, but it didn't survive a British film crew. By the way, "Tinn" is the name of local governmental region, called "Kommmune" or commune. In "Tinn", the biggest town is "Rjukan". The name "Vemork" used in the movie, is a correct historical name. All the names in and around Rjukan comes from historical farms and the families that lived there. "Vemork" was the name of the farm where the hydro water plant, the Hydrogen plant, and the heavy water plant ( amongst other things ) were built. Today only the building that contained the hydro water plant still exist, and now houses a museum. The building that housed the Hydrogen plant was removed in the 1970's, and who really cares, for it was such an ugly building. The hydro water plant has been moved deep inside the mountain.Now for the movie. I haven't seen the movie for some time, so I have to take this from memory.The biggest no-no for me was when ( I think it was ) Kirk Douglas took the time to visit his girlfriend down in the valley. That did not happen. I also remember that the geography in the movie was not at all correct. The small community of Vaaer, of which Vemork is part of, is situated about 10 km west of Rjukan. It would not have been possible for the crew to visit Rjukan during the raid. For one thing, it would mean risking the entire mission, as some local Nazis would certainly recognize them. And also, remember that these guys were part of what is now the British SAS ( SOE ). They were too professional to do such a stupid thing.I'm close to my 1000 word limit now, so I have to stop.... Anyway, please comment....