Max Manus: Man of War (2008)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Good concept, poorly executed.

Absolutely Fantastic

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

So many war films are just Hollywood idea of how chisel jawed clean cut Americans defeated the Nazi hoard across Europe.Not so Max Manus.For once a war film with a proper story that isn't just a story but all true. After watching this film I went straight to the library to look him up.A remarkable chap and a credit to his nation.A great boys own adventure, no gooey love seen, not full of gallons of fake blood and thousands of rounds being fired. Just a no nonsense as it happened film.Go see it.

I am sure that Hitler didn't expect, that the most Arian of all Arians, Scandinavian people, show much dissent to the Nazi regime. After all in his delusional world of Wagnerian bloody operas mixed in with horrific reality, there was not much room for logic. On the other hand poor Norwegians got saddled with Vidkun Quisling, shameful collaborator, to give the new name to all future traitors. " Max Manus" tells a different story, of proud, patriotic young men with utmost desire to wipe the shame of treachery and fight for their country. The long bloody war will decimate them, and the survivors will slowly continue reliving the horrors. Thankfully, this movie doesn't forget that heroes can suffer too, even more than passive victims.

I had this for my birthday, and unsurprisingly once again found that a 'Straight to DVD' movie is a hidden gem. Although it starts off a little slow it quickly becomes apparent this is necessary to illustrate the background of each of the protagonists.I was pleased to see it was in the original Norwegian except where necessary, because although I do not speak the language myself I am not a fan of 'Herr Kapitan, vhy are ve speakink English?' style of movie where everyone speaks English regardless of nationality. The subtitles were at times a little obtrusive as you'd end up with the translation and the ordinary title - such as showing location - at the same time.The portrayal of the main characters was superb but none better than that of Max himself. You are drawn throughout the movie along with him from the brash young boy, taking ridiculous risks, to the mature leader of his men in wartime, to the ending with his despair that although peace has come finally to Europe it is too late for so many of his closest friends who didn't live to see it. In this lies the true strength of the movie; it is real. It is not a gung-ho happily ever after story. It portrays war not as it affects countries, but as it *actually* affects those involved, and shows that the effects don't go away just because everyone stopped shooting.

Thus speaks Wikipedia: "Max Manus (1914–1996) was a Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II. He was a pioneer of the Norwegian resistance movement and was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941. He escaped to the United Kingdom for training and went back as a saboteur for the Norwegian Independent Company 1, better known as Lingekompaniet. He became a specialist in ship sabotage, was famous for being one of the most brilliant saboteurs during World War II, and after the war he wrote several books about his adventures." Hmm, sounds like it was only a question of time before this guy's life story would be made into a movie!In its native Norway the film has been highly popular among the public which is not hard to understand considering it is a very traditional and technically well-made war film. The basis of the plot was already summarized in the first paragraph: a volunteered veteran of the Finnish Winter War, Max Manus (Aksel Hennie) is enraged to see his beloved Norway being taken over by the Nazis in the early 1940s and quickly organizes an underground resistance movement with his friends Kolbein, Tallak and Gram (Christian Rubeck, Mats Eldøen and Nicolai Cleve Broch). Ships are sunk and bullets fly but Manus never loses his hope in the face of the enemy, personified in the Gestapo officer Siegfried Fehmer (Ken Duken).The filmmakers are clearly well aware of the conventions of heroic war movies and utilize them unrestrainedly in the story. The cinematography is pleasantly brownish-yellowish in the interior scenes and creates an atmosphere of old photographs that always suits well movies set in recent history. The exteriors are also filmed beautifully, particularly the short training scenes in Scotland, and the night scenes bask in pretty twilight blue. Unfortunately the professionalism of the production also leads to overt Hollywood-style conventionality of the plot: of course there is a romance (with a woman named Tikken, played by Agnes Kittelsen), of course friends get killed, of course the good are good and the bad are bad. I understand that many of these things actually did happen in real life but since this is not a documentary, they could have been changed a little in order to spice up the tale with something more unexpected than the obvious hero plot.OK, some of the mine-setting scenes are fairly suspenseful and the story occasionally catches a beautiful sense of melancholy, most notably at the end. In general, the plot is at its most interesting when examining Manus' traumatic Winter War memories and feelings of guilt when his friends and innocent people are punished for his rebellious actions; I wish such inner demons would have been paid more attention at the expense of the Nazis, the obvious enemy. There are also some flat-out clichés in the movie, such as the bad guys being lousy marksmen, and the overly shaky camera during several emotionally charged moments annoyed the heck out of me.Be that as it may, I am sure there is an audience for Max Manus outside Norway as well. Personally the thin drama plot did not get me hooked very much but friends of traditionally heroic resistance tales should find everything they are looking for in the film. Furthermore, Aksel Hennie in the titular role bears an uncanny resemblance to a young Steve Buscemi – never a bad thing! So, go ahead and give it a look if it sounds like your kind of movie; you might end up enjoying it a lot more than I did.