THE HEROES OF TELEMARK is a late entry in the cycle of British war movies that reached its apotheosis in the mid-Fifties with THE DAM BUSTERS (1953) and others.
Made by the Rank Organization, with an American star and a director with a proved track record of war movies and westerns, THE HEROES OF TELEMARK tells the story of the Norwegian Resistance and their campaign to destroy a plant manufacturing "heavy water," - i.e. material that could help to create the atom bomb. At first the Resistance blows up the plant, but when that scheme fails, they end up destroying a ferry carrying the "heavy water" across a fjord on the first stage of its long journey to Germany. The fact that some innocent passengers get killed as well is part of what might be called collateral damage.
There are some obvious stereotypes here, especially in director Anthony Mann's portrayal of the Germans, who all speak English in accents reminiscent of the comic officers in the Eighties sitcom ALLO ALLO ("We hev vays of mekink you talk"). Anton Diffring has a small role as Major Frick, but it is not really developed in any way.
By contrast the Resistance fighters, led by Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris, are portrayed as indefatigable, fearless in the face of impossible odds, and totally committed to their cause. Their characters are likewise not really developed: Douglas does his usual turn of a stone-faced hero, while Harris reveals some of the rebel- like qualities characteristic of THIS SPORTING LIFE (1963). Michael Redgrave has a cameo role as a pipe-and-slippers type, who is ultimately provoked into defending his property.
In truth the film is mostly memorable for its action sequences. Shot in Norway, it contains some spectacular moments where the Germans pursue the Resistance fighters on skis across rolling mountain landscapes. Later on Harris and Douglas have great fun trying to plant explosives in the doomed ferry, while listening out all the while for potential intruders.
We all know what the film's outcome will be; but it proceeds to that predictable conclusion in highly entertaining fashion.
Made by the Rank Organization, with an American star and a director with a proved track record of war movies and westerns, THE HEROES OF TELEMARK tells the story of the Norwegian Resistance and their campaign to destroy a plant manufacturing "heavy water," - i.e. material that could help to create the atom bomb. At first the Resistance blows up the plant, but when that scheme fails, they end up destroying a ferry carrying the "heavy water" across a fjord on the first stage of its long journey to Germany. The fact that some innocent passengers get killed as well is part of what might be called collateral damage.
There are some obvious stereotypes here, especially in director Anthony Mann's portrayal of the Germans, who all speak English in accents reminiscent of the comic officers in the Eighties sitcom ALLO ALLO ("We hev vays of mekink you talk"). Anton Diffring has a small role as Major Frick, but it is not really developed in any way.
By contrast the Resistance fighters, led by Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris, are portrayed as indefatigable, fearless in the face of impossible odds, and totally committed to their cause. Their characters are likewise not really developed: Douglas does his usual turn of a stone-faced hero, while Harris reveals some of the rebel- like qualities characteristic of THIS SPORTING LIFE (1963). Michael Redgrave has a cameo role as a pipe-and-slippers type, who is ultimately provoked into defending his property.
In truth the film is mostly memorable for its action sequences. Shot in Norway, it contains some spectacular moments where the Germans pursue the Resistance fighters on skis across rolling mountain landscapes. Later on Harris and Douglas have great fun trying to plant explosives in the doomed ferry, while listening out all the while for potential intruders.
We all know what the film's outcome will be; but it proceeds to that predictable conclusion in highly entertaining fashion.