Anthropoid (2016)

brickmauser

The story of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich is little known although the Butcher of Prague or Hitler's Hangman as he was nicknamed was Himmler's right hand man and one of the chief architects of the Holocaust before his timely demise at the hands of British trained Czech partisans in 1942. He is probably overlooked because he never died by suicide like Hitler Himmler Goering and Goebbels nor did he go to the scaffold like Jodl, Keitel, Ribbentrop and the rest.
I was hesitant about this movie since the story has been told several times before in movies such as Atentát (1964) and Operation Daybreak (1975) which were both filmed on location in Prague and in the same exacting attention to detail as Anthropoid has also proved to be.
The 1970s version was one of my favorites because of the wonderfully reptilian presence of Anton Diffring, a German actor who was type cast as cold ruthless Nazis in a host of WW2 films in the 1960s and 1970s in the role of Heydrich.
In this movie he is portrayed by Detlef Bothe who played Heydrich in Lidice (2011) a perfect fit as the tall long nosed cold eyed inhuman psychopath unlike Jason Clarke who will star in the same role in a film version of HHhH based on the acclaimed novel by Laurent Binet.
Cillian Murphy as Jozef Gabčík and Jamie Dornan as Jan Kubiš the men parachuted into occupied Czechslovakia by the British to kill Heydrich portray their characters as ruthless fanatics dedicated to their mission in the face of opposition from Czech resistance leaders who are terrified of murderous Nazi reprisals should the assassination succeed.
The men are assigned girlfriends Anna Geislerová as Lenka Fafková and Charlotte Le Bon as Marie Kovárníková as part of their cover as they are moved from safe house to safe house before boarding with the ill-fated Moravec family. The young men and young women thrown together by circumstances fall in love and their consciences prey upon them as they prepare for the final confrontation with Heydrich and ultimately with the brutal Nazi state itself.
The tension is builds well and the assassination scene is heart-pounding while the final gun battle in which scores of Nazi stormtroopers are gunned down in a battle in thesame church were the real events unfolded is both thrilling and heartbreaking.
The movie compares well to movies such as Downfall and Valkryie which also scrupulously recreated real events from WW2.

conorhal

I haven't head anything about this but it sounds interesting. I know this is a wierd nit pick, but what the hell is with that title? If makes the film sound like a low rent Sci-fi monster movie and I'm a firm believer that a really crappy title has on more than one occasion sunk a really good movie.

brickmauser

conorhal wrote: »

I haven't head anything about this but it sounds interesting. I know this is a wierd nit pick, but what the hell is with that title? If makes the film sound like a low rent Sci-fi monster movie and I'm a firm believer that a really crappy title has on more than one occasion sunk a really good movie.

The title of the film refers to the name of the operation to kill Heydrich - Operation Anthropoid. The 1975 movie Operation Daybreak changed the name of the operation and in the American version was called The Price of Freedom.

Padraig Mor

Looking forward to this. If they just keep it to the facts it'll be a hell of a film, because it's an amazing story.

dunworth1

went to this last night decent enough.

when they are betrayed a good few people in the cinema were tuting and giving out stick

brickmauser

dunworth1 wrote: »

went to this last night decent enough.
[/SPOILER]

The climatic gunfight is hugely satisfying.

nix

I really enjoyed it, no "hollywood" polish on it, no cheese. Just felt real and accurate, not your typical film formula which in my opinion made it really work. You really get a sense of fear for them in the scenarios played out.

Harry Palmr

Operation Daybreak is well worth seeing, the opening part is tonally awkward in part due to Anglo-American casting ( Anthony Andrews, Martin Shaw and Timothy Bottoms) but it really builds well to its grim climax.

brickmauser

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Operation Daybreak is well worth seeing, the opening part is tonally awkward in part due to Anglo-American casting ( Anthony Andrews, Martin Shaw and Timothy Bottoms) but it really builds well to its grim climax.

I love when truckloads of Nazi scum eat lead!

silverharp

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Operation Daybreak is well worth seeing, the opening part is tonally awkward in part due to Anglo-American casting ( Anthony Andrews, Martin Shaw and Timothy Bottoms) but it really builds well to its grim climax.

I was surprised it was filmed in Prague, there were obviously some chinks in the Iron Curtain

Harry Palmr

silverharp wrote: »

I was surprised it was filmed in Prague, there were obviously some chinks in the Iron Curtain

You'd be surprised at how many films which were Hollywood backed or with western stars were made in Warsaw Pact nations - Kelly's Heroes, Cross of Iron, Tarus Bulba and Battle of Neretva were filmed in Yugoslavia for example. Escape to Victory was filmed in Budapest, the Bridge at Remagen, Howling II, Yentl, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Slaughterhouse-Five in Czechoslovakia and so on.

silverharp

Harry Palmr wrote: »

You'd be surprised at how many films which were Hollywood backed or with western stars were made in Warsaw Pact nations - Kelly's Heroes, Cross of Iron, Tarus Bulba and Battle of Neretva were filmed in Yugoslavia for example. Escape to Victory was filmed in Budapest, the Bridge at Remagen, Howling II, Yentl, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Slaughterhouse-Five in Czechoslovakia and so on.

i'd a memory of some films made in Yugoslavia alright they were a bit more independent . the setting is very atmospheric in Operation Daybreak, it had a bleakness to it

brickmauser

silverharp wrote: »

I was surprised it was filmed in Prague, there were obviously some chinks in the Iron Curtain

The 1960s and 1970s were a period of detente movies like the Bridge at Remagen or Waterloo and Operation Daybreak were made when Western filmmakers were given permission to film. Waterloo famously had a cast of tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers in the uniforms of the Napoleonic period.

Harry Palmr

Waterloo was a Mosfilm Dino de Laurentiis co production though but yes it had a lot of western talent on and behind the screen.

charlie_says

Thought this was so so.

Great subject for a film. Thought Cillian Murphy was believable OSS agent and Jamie Doran not so much. He will put bums on seats though.

I though Harry Llyod did very well as the ranking officer but not the leader of the group of fighters.

Pretty spectacular gun battle in the church and very tense in the action scenes overall, but there were several problems in my book. I didn't think much of the Czech resistance scenes and the romantic interest wasn't handled very well and seemed a bit of a a lame filler.

I felt the operational planning and resistance meetings could have been handled differently and just weren't really very gripping. The middle part of the film wasn't great at all.

It's crazy that the agents and resistance fighters took out over 700 troops according to Wikipedia.

Going to Czech out Operation Daybreak.

ohnonotgmail

charlie_says wrote: »

Thought this was so so.

Great subject for a film. Thought Cillian Murphy was believable OSS agent and Jamie Doran not so much. He will put bums on seats though.

I though Harry Llyod did very well as the ranking officer but not the leader of the group of fighters.

Pretty spectacular gun battle in the church and very tense in the action scenes overall, but there were several problems in my book. I didn't think much of the Czech resistance scenes and the romantic interest wasn't handled very well and seemed a bit of a a lame filler.

I felt the operational planning and resistance meetings could have been handled differently and just weren't really very gripping. The middle part of the film wasn't great at all.

It's crazy that the agents and resistance fighters took out over 700 troops according to Wikipedia.

Going to Czech out Operation Daybreak.

i think you read that bit wrong. there were 700 troops involved in the operation at the church but only 14 were killed and 21 wounded.

nix

700?!? Sounds like they had a lil help from Topper Harley :pac:

charlie_says

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

i think you read that bit wrong. there were 700 troops involved in the operation at the church but only 14 were killed and 21 wounded.

Yes you're right I read that wrong.

Bowlardo

Thiking of going to this. Is it any good?

fin12

Bowlardo wrote: »

Thiking of going to this. Is it any good?

I think it's brilliant, I don't think you will regret seeing it.

TerrorFirmer

Just saw this the other night, and I broadly agree with what charlie_says had to say. The accents are univerally irritating across the board, but Cillian Murphy is a far more credible actor in this than Jamie Doran who just doesn't come across very well, as a character or an actor. His accent is just really off to the point of distraction. There's a good deal of filler material that just doesn't work as well as some unconvincing drama scenes, but the film does plod along at a decent enough pace that it's never boring.

It picks up massively from the mid-point onwards and culminates in a spectacularly acted, shot and scored shootout. Overall I'd say it's well worth a look, takes a while to really take off but when it does, it's totally worth it.

silverharp

overall I think the original movie was better.

I hadn't read much about this movie other then knowing it was a WW2 movie with some Irish actors.
One thing that stood out in the first half hour was the poor sound on the dialogue, never mind about the accents the sound quality was just poor.
After about 45 mins I realized i'd seen this before, e.g. the original, and then as the film went on it felt more and more like I knew all these scenes very well, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they would remake such a film. There was nothing new to be done, the story had already been told. Its not like it was the usual shameless reproduction of an old classic in order to sell it to the dumbed down market with additional sparkles. Probably not worth bothering with this if you've seen the original, not that its a bad film, but it won't send the pulses racing if you have.

TerrorFirmer

It's not exactly a remake, it's based on historical events so it's not really accurate to refer to the 'original' as if this were some sort of reboot.

There's also another major film about this coming out next year, coincidentally. It was the same thing a year or two back, two films came out at the same time about the plight of the US air-crew who spent 30 days at sea after being shot down in the pacific.

It's not like there can only be one version of an historical event, the 'original' movie being referred to is over 40 years old at this stage and a significant number of people today wouldn't have seen or heard of it.

ohnonotgmail

I have to agree that the sound mix for the dialogue was terrible. It was like they they were mumbling.

I was really looking forward to this but it didnt add anything that the original didnt have so disappointed overall.

silverharp

the one thing this film didn't do was have any real scenes with Heydrich in them, the "original" did which fleshed him out a bit

The Black Oil

Very good, stoic and grim film. Didn't know the story at all. Had no issues with the accents myself. Yes, English speaking natives doing a Czech accent can seem a little jarring and a Czech film with English subtitles would have been more authentic, but I didn't find the accents a problem. Dornan did occasionally sound Irish - forgiveable. Thought the build up the intelligence operation and aftermath was well handled. Very hard to comprehend the viciousness of the Nazis, I must say - even though Son of Saul is a not so distant memory. Great to see Toby Jones, of course.

CzechChick

what a movie, very disturbing

MilesMorales1

I thought it was excellent.

emo72

CzechChick wrote: »

what a movie, very disturbing

Is it the one with Jamie dornan?

Sad Professor

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