The Heroes of Telemark (1965)

Just a few notes on this variation from reality.a) Why was it necessary to hijack a ship to get the scientist (Kirk Douglas) from Norway to England? The Germans found it impossible to patrol the thousand mile Norwegian coastline. Ergo there was a regular 'underground' ferry service from Norway to the Shetland Islands called the 'The Shetland Bus Service'. Plus the fact that London already knew about the Hydro plant and what was being produced. The invented Kirk Douglas role just wasn't needed. b) What happened to the story of the parachuted four man advance team which spent months preparing the way, and which all almost starved doing it? All Richard Harris said about this epic tale of survival of an horrific winter on a remote ice plateau was "I'm starving". He sure didn't look it. The real guys certainly did. For a while they had to resort to eating reindeer moss. c) Why the silly and hackneyed love complication when there wasn't one? If the movie had kept to facts it wouldn't have been needed.d) There wasn't a Nazi infiltrator. The Germans knew nothing about the operation until after completion.e) After the aircraft & glider catastrophe, there was no sudden change of plan. A new plan was carefully worked out in London with SOE (Special Operations Executive). The saboteurs didn't need a horny professor to show them where to place explosives. As one of the real saboteurs said afterwards, "I knew the plant better than my own garden". They all knew, they'd been studying the layout for months from accurate models.f) There weren't any German guards inside the plant at the time of the raid, just one Norwegian, who was held at gunpoint (as was actually shown). There wasn't even any reaction from the sound of muffled explosions. g) There was no gunfire battle before during or immediately after the raid, not even one shot fired. The saboteurs just walked in, placed the explosives and walked out again. And no saboteurs were killed. Indeed not only did they all survive the operation, but they survived the war and on into old age. Of course Americans aren't satisfied unless a war movie is filled with carnage and guns blazing. That's what comes of having a gun culture. Intelligence and subterfuge aren't really their strong points.h) It took the Germans 3 months to get back into heavy water production after the saboteurs' raid, not just 2 weeks as mentioned.i) The ferry 'Hydro' didn't sink bow first. It keeled on to its side, and then stern upwards. As the captain said afterwards. "I walked on the side, and jumped into the water from it". Nor were any passengers warned. But then Kirk Douglas just had to play the hero to please the American audience didn't he? But no such heroics happened on the sinking ferry. There just wasn't time, not even for a lifeboat to be lowered. However there were fishing boats around which picked up any survivors there were. j) Names of characters in the credits don't give surnames. I'm sure real participants in the operation were very relieved.I could go on and on with the contortions of truth displayed in this movie, but to conclude, it's not such a bad movie in itself. However don't treat it as a guide to what really happened. Facts here are few and far between. You may not believe me, so find out what the actual saboteurs thought of the movie. They've all said, "Most of it just didn't happen that way". They weren't very impressed with it. Nor am I. The real story is far more inspiring, and the real heroes deserve a far better epitaph than this Americanised movie gives them.

Based on the true story of the Norwegian heavy water sabotage during World War II . Kirk Douglas plays Rolf Pedersen, a Norwegian physics professor, who, though originally content to wait out the war, is soon pulled into the struggle by local resistance leader Knut Straud (based on Knut Haukelid, portrayed by Richard Harris). Their assignment results to be to stop the Nazis from developing the atom bomb . They are both smuggled to England to have microfilmed plans of the Hydro examined, and then return to Norway to plan a commando raid on the Hydro. When a force of Royal Engineers, who were to carry it out, are all killed, Petersen and Straud lead a small force of saboteurs into the plant. The raid is successful, but the Germans quickly repair the equipment. They then plan to ship tankers of heavy water to Germany. Petersen and Straud sabotage a ferry carrying the tankers, and it sinks in the deepest part of a fjord.This rousing film packs noisy action , high adventure , frozen hell , dramatic events , and wonderful outdoors from Norway . Although this movie takes liberties with some historical facts, some technical details are surprisingly correct given that it was made 20 years after the war: The car used by the Norwegians is fitted with a "generator" converting wood to natural gas , as petrol was in short supply, civilian cars were not allowed to run on real petrol. All-star-cast and excellent secondary actors formed mostly by British actors as Michael Redgrave , Barry Jones , Anton Driffing , Roy Dotrice , Maurice Denham , Geoffrey Keen and many others . It was filmed on location in Norway splendidly photographed by Robert Krasker , furthermore in Pinewood Studios . The motion picture was well directed by Anthony Mann .Other versions about same story was also covered in Ray Mears' documentary entitled The Real Heroes of Telemark . Despite mainly sticking to the factual evidence, some scenes in the documentary, like the film, were partly dramatized ; focusing more on the survival skills involved in the operation the 1948 Franco-Norwegian film Kampen om Tungtvannet , quite faithful to the real events, it even had many of the original Norwegian commandos starring as themselves.Based on a true story , the deeds are the followings : The actual life World War II missions that this film is based on were conducted by Norwegian members of the British Special Operations Executive and resulted in the deaths of thirty British commando soldiers. Some were captured, interrogated, tortured and shot by the Nazi Gestapo whilst some of them died when two gliders crashed during landing in Norway. The Norwegian heavy water sabotage was a series of actions undertaken by Norwegian saboteurs to prevent the German nuclear energy project from acquiring heavy water (deuterium oxide), which could be used to produce nuclear weapons. In 1934, at Vemork, Norsk Hydro built the first commercial plant capable of producing heavy water as a byproduct of fertilizer production . During World War II, the Allies decided to remove the heavy water supply and destroy the heavy water plant in order to inhibit the Nazi development of nuclear weapons. Raids were aimed at the 60-MW Vemork power station at the Rjukan waterfall in Telemark, Norway. The Allies remained concerned that the occupation forces would use the facility to produce more heavy water for their weapons programme. Between 1940 and 1944, a sequence of sabotage actions, by the Norwegian resistance movement—as well as Allied bombing—ensured the destruction of the plant and the loss of the heavy water produced. These operations—codenamed "Grouse," "Freshman," and "Gunnerside"—finally managed to knock the plant out of production in early 1943.In Operation Grouse, the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) successfully placed four Norwegian nationals as an advance team in the region of the Hardanger Plateau above the plant. Later in 1942 the unsuccessful Operation Freshman was mounted by British paratroopers; they were to rendezvous with the Norwegians of Operation Grouse and proceed to Vemork. This attempt failed when the military gliders crashed short of their destination, as did one of the tugs, a Halifax bomber. The other Halifax returned to base, but all the other participants were killed in the crashes or captured, interrogated, and executed by the Gestapo.In 1943, a team of SOE-trained Norwegian commandos succeeded in destroying the production facility with a second attempt, Operation Gunnerside. Operation Gunnerside was later evaluated by SOE as the most successful act of sabotage in WWII .These actions were followed by Allied bombing raids. The Germans elected to cease operation and remove the remaining heavy water to Germany. Norwegian resistance forces sank the ferry, SF Hydro, on Lake Tinnsjø, preventing the heavy water from being removed

Although often caned for not being truer to the event it presumes to depict, taken as a war movie in its own right, 'Heroes Of Telemark' has plenty to offer.It's typical of Hollywood, both then and now. Kirk Douglas places America centre-stage, but with a great British, German & Scandinavian support. Script is good, scenery is magnificent, location and set-pieces are all up to snuff. The movie is long but well-paced. There's plenty of decent tension. Music and effects play their part well. Base cords relating to the railways are nice and meaty despite the movie's vintage. A sub-woofer is well-rewarded.Downside; the Germans are depicted as being dafter brushes than usual. From time to time I find this jarring. Always they are seen rushing around with a kind of furious impotence, or depicted as schemingly stupid. It's stereotypic that comes close to 'Allo, Allo'. And some times Kirk Douglas's character seems a little too heroic for a scientist.Otherwise, forget its inspiration; this is just a roistering wartime tale after the fashion of 'Where Eagles Dare' or 'The Guns Of Navarone'.

Many of the criticisms of this film I've read here have been based on its apparent historical inaccuracy. I really don't give a hang about that. (If I want to learn history I'll READ.) Rather, my complaints are with the movie as purely an entertainment piece, which is all it was probably ever meant to be. You would think that any film featuring Kirk Douglas paired with Richard Harris could be terrific. But this is just somehow flat. Neither really gets up to capacity and the story tends to get dragged down, often by utterly irrelevant personal background details.In the end, you just don't get the Hooray! feeling that you should after watching a 130 minute film about a couple of guys who saved the world from -gulp- Germans! You're just glad it's over and want to go to the bathroom.