One of the best films i have seen

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Anthony Mann's "The Heroes of Telemark" is the second to last film that he ever directed and even though it isn't one of the very elite war movies of all time it is certainly a very well told story in the hands of one of the best directors of his generation. The movie is based on the true story of a Norwegian resistance group that fought back against the Nazis during WWII to prevent them from getting the atomic bomb despite the fact that at that time Norway was already invaded by Germany. The movie stars Kirk Douglas as Dr. Rolf Pedersen a physics professor at Oslo University who is then encountered in his office by a young man named Knut Straud (Richard Harris) who gets him to be part of the resistance group. This isn't the best movie that Mann ever directed but so far out of all of his movies that I've seen my favorite would be "Winchester '73" (1950) which was one of his many movies with Jimmy Stewart. The World War II movie that this most reminded me of was "The Great Escape" (1963) because unlike a story about American POW's who escaped a concentration camp, this movie talks about a few ordinary people in Norway who fight back against a global threat at the time. However my problems aren't with the performances which are top notch especially by legendary actors like Douglas and Harris my only problem with them is that they didn't use Norwegian accent, my other problem with this movie is that even though the screenplay was very good there was a lack of suspense during the course of this movie except towards the end of the movie. The movie also features an excellent supporting cast, and like all WWII movies the performances of the Nazi soldiers are exactly on point. Even though this isn't one of the best movies of 1965, I would definitely recommend it because of the performances, and the entertainment. Even though it isn't a masterpiece it is certainly a memorable and very adventurous and entertaining movie.

As a fan of the 1943 war drama, "Edge of Darkness", I was looking forward to this action movie about Norwegian resistance to Nazi occupation. With leads like Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris, I expected much more than I got. What I did find was a technically superior film that was extremely slow moving. This is a very typical story of people defending their homeland from ruthless conquerors through sabotage and standing together, and is very admirable in that sense. Kirk Douglas's role is not fully developed, a major surprise considering his power in Hollywood at that time. Richard Harris gives a much stronger performance with a well-rounded characterization. There is an excellent scene of sabotage and some beautiful location footage, but those moments are few and far between.

This movie is loosely based on true events.It's the Second World War and the Germans have occupied Norway.The Norwegian resistance plans to sabotage The Vemork Norsk Hydro plant in the town of Rjukan, which the Nazis are using to produce heavy water to make an atomic bomb.Knut Straud leads the team, and he finds physician Rolf Pedersen to accomplish the mission with him.Also Rolf's ex-wife Anna is involved in the story.The Heroes of Telemark (1965) is an Anthony Mann movie.Now 94- year old Kirk Douglas does great job as Rolf.Richard Harris (1930-2002) is terrific as Knut.Swedish actress Ulla Jacobsson (1929-1982) is wonderful as Anna.Michael Redgrave is very good as Uncle.David Weston is great as Arne.And so is Jennifer Hilary as Sigrid.Roy Dotrice (87) makes his credited feature movie debut as the villainous skier Jensen, and he's excellent.The movie is filmed in Norway, and the shots of the fjelds look amazing.The movie has many showy scenes, like when those two flee on skis.Or when Rolf goes to the ferry in the end to safe Sigrid and all those children.I saw this film last night (Tuesday) and I was surprised how good it was.I hadn't seen any praising critics written of this movie, so my expectations weren't all that great.It does have Kirk and Richard in the lead, so I knew it couldn't be very bad.To my great surprise it turned out to be a very enjoyable movie experience.

This movie is supposed to tell the story about how Hitlers atomic bomb plans were stopped. It doesn't, and it doesn't even come close.I was born in Rjukan and spent my first 19 years in that town.The only good that has come out of that movie are a few more tourists.The possibly biggest loss it has caused is the historical falsies that now seem to live better than the historical facts. A close second is the fact that because of the filming, our beautiful stone church built in the 1920's, burnt down. The film company was allowed to store filming equipment in the church, and for some reason this equipment caught fire. All of the interior of the church were destroyed, and replaced with art and furniture contemporary to the 1960's. Also the entire 1st edition of the second volume of "Tinn Soga" or "The history of Tinn" was lost in the fire. It survived the Nazis, but it didn't survive a British film crew. By the way, "Tinn" is the name of local governmental region, called "Kommmune" or commune. In "Tinn", the biggest town is "Rjukan". The name "Vemork" used in the movie, is a correct historical name. All the names in and around Rjukan comes from historical farms and the families that lived there. "Vemork" was the name of the farm where the hydro water plant, the Hydrogen plant, and the heavy water plant ( amongst other things ) were built. Today only the building that contained the hydro water plant still exist, and now houses a museum. The building that housed the Hydrogen plant was removed in the 1970's, and who really cares, for it was such an ugly building. The hydro water plant has been moved deep inside the mountain.Now for the movie. I haven't seen the movie for some time, so I have to take this from memory.The biggest no-no for me was when ( I think it was ) Kirk Douglas took the time to visit his girlfriend down in the valley. That did not happen. I also remember that the geography in the movie was not at all correct. The small community of Vaaer, of which Vemork is part of, is situated about 10 km west of Rjukan. It would not have been possible for the crew to visit Rjukan during the raid. For one thing, it would mean risking the entire mission, as some local Nazis would certainly recognize them. And also, remember that these guys were part of what is now the British SAS ( SOE ). They were too professional to do such a stupid thing.I'm close to my 1000 word limit now, so I have to stop.... Anyway, please comment....