Max Manus: Man of War [RSC Film Club 17]

[LimeGreenLegend 4,277]

War was the theme for May's film club, with the winning film being Max Manus: Man of War nominated by @Lann.  Max Manus is a Norwegian biographical film detailing the exploits of resistance fighter and saboteur, Max Manus and is based on books that he wrote himself.  

It was directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, who directed Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales and stars Aksel Hennie as Manus.  The film is one of the biggest recent hits of Norwegian cinema, winning a record seven Amanda awards (the Norwegian Oscars) in 2009 at the Norwegian International Film Festival.  

I've not seen, nor heard of this film before, so can't say much else, but you can't really go wrong with resistance fighters kicking n*zi *ss.  It will also be interesting to see some history of a country that doesn't get mentioned much when WW2 films are made.

my country was stolen from me, and I want it back

[Con 5,719]

Looks interesting. Not gonna read about it past the first few sentences. It’s giving me the feeling of “what if one of the Inglorious Basterds got his own movie” ... like a spin-off feature. I’ve always enjoyed films from Scandinavian Cinema, so looking forward to watching this. 
 

[doubleg213 746]

I've not had a chance to watch it as yet. 

I have it on DVD (sorted in nice sensible alphabetical order of course) and remember it enjoying it first time aruond, I shall get to it over the next couple of days I hope.

[LimeGreenLegend 4,277]

1 minute ago, doubleg213 said:

I've not had a chance to watch it as yet. 

I have it on DVD (sorted in nice sensible alphabetical order of course) and remember it enjoying it first time aruond, I shall get to it over the next couple of days I hope.

When I owned physical films I used to order them alphabetically by director.  Used to drive my more OCD mates mad 😄 

[djw180 6,980]

 

I'd liked this film. I enjoy history so I liked learning about a real figure I had not heard of who had a huge personal impact on the outcome of the war, and suffered mentally for it. I also liked learning more about a topic I knew only a little about, the German occupation of Norway. It's good film all round, but with a couple of minor issues that at times meant the film just didn't feel as good as it could have been.

The main resistance fighters didn't seem to grasp the reality of what they were getting into at first. Maybe that is just reflecting how people did actually behave at the start of the war and my view watching it is biased by me knowing what happened in terms of the reprisals that the occupying armies carried out on civilians. But they just didn't seem to take what they were getting into seriously enough.

Some of sabotage attacks on the ships appeared to be in daylight, which I find implausible. Maybe that was just so we could see what was going on better, or maybe they did actually carry out daylight attacks, but I find that very hard to believe.

The settings just didn't feel 1940s at times. One scene near the beginning when Manus and the other budding resistance fighters meet up on the roof of a building – that looked more modern than 40s to me. Maybe that's because the film makers just didn't have the budget to make proper 40s sets?

Personally I would have like more of Manus' story. Reading up on this after watching the film there was a lot more they could have put it, I guess the film makers wanted to keep the running time down, but I quite like long historical epics. This could have been a great 3 hour film for me. His journey to Britain after his escape from the hospital was remarkable, via the Soviet Union, USA and Canada! There is also the irony of how things can change in war. At the beginning we see him fighting in Finland along with other Norwegian volunteers against the Soviet invaders, and events which he can never forget. But things can change dramatically in war. Germany invaded the Soviet Union and so became Finland's ally. I think, although I'm not 100% on this, the main effect of Max Manus' sabotage was on ships the Germans were using to supply their troops fighting in Finland against the Soviets. So his former ally was now his enemy, his former enemy was now his ally and he was doing all he could to help them. Maybe this contributed to his PTSD?

I really like the ending though. The shot were he is alone in his apartment silhouetted against the Norwegian flag is brilliant. And in that scene we get a real sense of his turmoil now the war is over but so many of his friends and comrades did not live to see it.

 

I'll give this 7/10.

[Con 5,719]

Max Manus: Man of War (2008)

Unfortunately I had to watch this without the benefit of English Subtitles so the entire film was in a foreign language to me which lost some of the nuances in the script. That being said, I had to rely on the actors to get a feel for the scene's emotional direction and they all did a superb job. They just all felt like genuine people and perhaps my lack of understanding the language made me feel like i was watching a documentary. I thought the ensemble of actors had tremendous chemistry and synergy as I kept waiting for the traitor to show up because in some scenes you can tell there is deep disagreement but the respect for one another and the cause leads them to sound reasoning. 

The cinematography was gorgeous and some of the best I have watched in the past two years. There is one scene where Max Manus (Aksel Hennie)  is in the snowy forest and he comes to the end of a cliff and he watches the sun rise in the horizon from behind the mountains and its just a video painting. When we get to see what has happened to the war ship Donau, it will leave you in awe and the effect looks pretty damn good. The scene where Max's silhouette stands in front of the backlit Norgess flagg was also beautiful and you dont have to be from Norway to love that moment.  The lighting and colors pop in every scene in this film and the battle scenes...I felt they were tremendous and then I watched "Da 5 Bloods (2020)" and granted, Spike Lee isn't known for his combat scenes but the combat scenes in Max make the combat scenes in D5B look and feel super amateurish. Spike, ya shoulda took some inspiration from this film. The combat scenes are done so well in Max Manus that I was worried about the safety of the stunt men. 

The story was absolutely eye opening. I forget that many besides the Jewish people, suffered at the hands of n*zi occupation and this film put me right in the middle of a revolution I would have had to accidentally stumble upon. I loved the way the story unfolds. That first meeting on the rooftop when the young men meet is so inspirational, i believed they could take down the entire regime and so did Gregers Gram (Nicolai Cleve Broch) as his enthusiasm was infectious throughout the film. The film takes 2.5 hours to tell but I think we not only have to take the journey with Max but also spend time with the saboteurs....and all that is what makes that last act so emotional. Heartwrenching....but this also led to what probably was the only thing I disliked in the film. 

Not too many negatives from me as I was too much into the story to look out for a lot of errors so I will echo what @djw180 said about a few buildings in some zoomed out shots look very modern and out of place for 1940's. Personally I did feel the film slowed down a few times, but I think me not being able to understand what was being said in those quiet slow moments probably didn't help alleviate it. But the only real negative thing for me was a minor thing at the end. If any of you felt the same way , please share your thoughts, I know we watched this months ago. So my only negative thing was...

 

We see Max in the motorcade as it gets ready to drive down the parade route and the people are lined up on both sides of the road cheering their war heroes. And I loved how I was absorbing the scene, watching the happy faces and listening to the cheers, but then I focus on Max and he is stoic, he is concrete and I f*cking absolutely loved the contrast between his face and the crowd. As the scene continues, i found myself thinking of everything Max and his friends sacrificed not just for themselves but for everyone and how most of the people in the crowd have no idea how his experience has left him tormented. And I began saying, please end it here. Please Fade to Black. Please....but no, they do it, they do what I was secretly hoping they would not do as I know it would make me feel robbed....and then we see it, Max smirks and smiles with joy in his eyes. I was mad. lol. I was like, No!!!!! Why would you do that!!! Now I know why they did it, it was a great moment to show how Max persevered and perhaps you can tell me he was thinking of the fun times with his friends. But that is such a contrast of emotions from how the scene begins. Anyways I know its a minor thing but I have to be honest and admit that I wish he hadnt smiled. Still would have been a happy ending in general, people!

Final Verdict...4/5....I loved the cinematography. The combat scenes were quality. The story opened my mind to learn more about things in history besides the stuff I was taught in schools, things and people  I never considered learning about. It's amazing how a small group can grow to do powerful things and this film is the epitome of that. I thought this was going to be some B-movie n*zi hunter flick but what I got was a shot of adrenaline to my spirit. Even the main antagonist got me to almost respect him as he is being pressured to adopt "harsher measures" in dealing with the saboteurs but he shows integrity and faith in his men that they will eventually catch up and crush Max Manus and crew. I think i liked this film so much because it's my fantasy. Sure I have that fantasy of being that killing machine one man army on the combat field but I find more rewarding the notion of making something fall apart a little at at time. Enjoying as every day that thing chips away just to watch it fall apart...oh so satisfying! I did look up some scenes with subtitles and will watch this again as soon as I can get a copy with subtitles because I liked the dialogue a lot. One last thing, I was super excited when Max goes to be trained by the Americans and I hear English being spoken and I thought to myself, "Oh cool, this is where the film switches to English.", Nope.  LOL. I got flim-flammed. 

Edited July 2, 2020 by Con

[Con 5,719]

Now im no history buff so perhaps the film got  lot of war things wrong or took some artistic liberties that I'm not aware of so Im glad DJ knows about the occupations and how some of them operated. This past month we ironically got another biopic which also took some artistic liberties and after watching the film, can't wait to review The Hurricane (1999) soon.