The Heroes of Telemark 1965

     The setting of this film is in German occupied Norway.  The Germans are trying to develop an atomic bomb and they are producing heavy water near the village of Rjukan in rural Telemark.  Norwegian resistance fighter Knut Straud persuades reluctant physicist Rolf Pedersen to help him form a plan to destroy the Vemork Norsk Hydo production plant.  Pedersen does join with Straud and he learns that his ex-wife Anna and her uncle are also involved with the resistance.  The resistance sends a large boulder down on a convoy of Germans.  A tank is sent down the hill and burned but twenty people are killed in the village as retaliation.  Fifty British Royal Engineers were flown into the area to destroy the plant but the engines started having problems and the plane crashed.  The resistance fighters dress as soldiers to carry out their plan and they are able to damage the heavy water production.  Unfortunately, the Germans have duplicate equipment in Germany and the plant is up and running again in two weeks.  They have been successful in making enough of the water and they plan to ship it in steel drums by ferry to Germany.

     According to the Imdb write up for this film, some of the facts are embellished?  I thought this was very intense.  There are many scenes where you wonder if they will accomplish their mission and will anyone be killed?  The last scene with the ferry carrying the heavy water is tense too.  It was a harsh disappointment that the Germans were able to continue making the heavy water after only as shutdown for two weeks!!  The resistance needed to enter the plant because the only other option was to use bombs.  This choice could have killed 6000 or more citizens of Telemark.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

131 min, Action directed by Anthony Mann with Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris, Ulla Jacobsson, Michael Redgrave, David Weston, Sebastian Breaks, John Golightly, Alan Howard, Patrick Jordan, William Marlowe, Brook Williams.

Note:  Imdb 6.5 out of 10, 56% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.2* out of 5* with 176 reviews, Empire Online 3* out of 5*, Letterboxd 3* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Poole Harbour, Poole, Dorset, England, UK; Rjukan, Gausta, Telemark, Tinnsjo, Vemork and Oslo, Norway; Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinhamshire, England, UK.  Kirk Douglas wrote in his autobiography that the German commandant of the ship carrying the heavy water is the former Commanding Officer in charge of this ship during WWII.  The British planned to invade Norway in March of 1940 and use the ports as bases for the Royal Navy to encircle Germany.  The operation code named Plan R 4 was postponed.  Also, the British and the French had planned to invade Sweden to assist Finland during the Winter War.  Adolf Hitler learned of this plan and his military intervened as the British began Operation Wilfred by laying mines in neutral Norwegian waters.  The skiing stand in for Roy Dotrice acting as the character Jensen was one of the original saboteur heroes of the WWII Telemark operation.