Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great "good ol' war" action movie!, 25 Dec 2003
By A Customer
The title says it all! beeing a native Norwegian this title of course has a special feel to it for me. But for anyone who enjoys watching a good, realistic war movie, this is well worth your time. The factory at which it was filmed is still in operation in Rjukan, Telemark. It is also the place of the orginal action, no fake set here...:)
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18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Kirk in his 2nd "Norwegian" film, 6 Feb 2005
THE HEROES OF TELEMARK is fortunatley relased in a widescreen DVD edition, so the photography is in its full original splendour...This is good entertainment without being too far from the truth... The film is shot in the original locations were the events took place. It has a raw feeling of truth and the sinking of the ferry is a standout... The film is a legend in my country(every "Inger" from Rjukan claimed to be Michael Douglas`girlfriend while he was working as an assistant on the film hehe). Knut Straud(Richard Harris) was in fact Knut Haukelid, brother of the actress SIGRID GURIE(who starred with Charles Boyer in ALGIERS, Gary Cooper in THE ADVENTURES OF MARCO POLO and John Wayne in THREE FACES WEST)... He himself starred in the Norwegian-French original "Kampen om tungtvannet"(Battle over the Heavwater)1948 and cast Sigrid in the film, but her scenes were deleted. That film is OK, but it can`t catch up to the 1965-remake... Another nice fact is that Gil Woxholt is the 2nd-unit director and cameraman. H e is the brother of GRETA GYNT, the heroine of the British classics DARK EYES OF LONDON, TAKE MY LIFE and DEAR MURDERER... My father, a former military-man, met Knut Haukelid several times and spoke to me some days ago of a man of great integrity and courage... I myself co-starred with actor Helge Jordal in a TV-sitcom called "Martin`s Exciting Adventures" 1996, which told the story of workers at this factory in Rjukan in 1912. But this is THE HEROES OF TELEMARK! An exiting tribute to the Norwegian resistance during the war... I place it alongside many a warfilm from the 50s and 60s...
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Steel In The Snow, 11 Mar 2008
This is the story, true in essence at least, of the successful attempt by Norwegians working for the British special forces or secret services to destroy the "heavy water" the Germans wished to transport to the Reich for experimentation on a possible atomic weapon. At the time, the Western Allies thought that the Reich was neck and neck with the USA in developing atomic weapons, though in retrospect, of course, we know this was not so, mainly because most of the leading atomic specialists (Einstein, Szilard et al) were Jews who had emigrated to the USA or were born there (Oppenheimer et al). Their aim was to destroy Germany completely because it had to some extent turned on the Jews.
Despite starring Kirk Douglas, the film was made by Rank, a British organization and, like many films of the "pre-Spielbergian" era (e.g. "Operation Crossbow"), did not go overboard on the supposed vileness of the German (or even "Nazi") enemy, though of course the Germans are always shown as basically pretty horrid...one would never know from this film that a sizeable minority part of Norwegians (and many might say the more thinking part) were actually pro-German and another larger part were people who just wished to get on with their ordinary lives. The puppet ruler, Quisling, himself was known and respected before WW2 as an explorer and humanitarian aid worker. The Resistance was, as in other occupied European countries of the time, small and mainly consisting of those controlled by the British or by the Soviet Union. And many Norwegian women married or had children otherwise by German fathers (unfortunately, many of these children were cruelly tormented, or taken from their mothers into "care" homes and physically or sexually abused from babyhood or young childhood, after the Germans left, a scandal which has been covered up in Norway until recent years).
The main thrust of the story is shown more or less, at least, as it happened. Air attacks and commando raids on the Norsk Hydro plant having failed, the plan was developed of sinking a ferry carrying a trainload of heavy water, while the vessel crossed a deep fiord. This was done, resulting in many civilian deaths. The raid was successful and Germany never did seriously revive its atomic experimentation.
The story was filmed, mainly, on location in Norway, sometimes at the exact places involved in the action as it happened. The Norsk Hydro plant survived the war and was used in the making of this film.
Overall, this is a fine film, beautifully photographed. I enjoy watching it from time to time, even though, to me, actions like the sinking of the ferry are, in effect (and however "necessary" they may have been from one viewpoint) little different from operations carried out by other groups which might be today termed "terrorist".
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