THE HEROES OF TELEMARK is a late entry in the cycle of British war movies that reached its apotheosis in the mid-Fifties with THE DAM BUSTERS (1953) and others.Made by the Rank Organization, with an American star and a director with a proved track record of war movies and westerns, THE HEROES OF TELEMARK tells the story of the Norwegian Resistance and their campaign to destroy a plant manufacturing "heavy water," - i.e. material that could help to create the atom bomb. At first the Resistance blows up the plant, but when that scheme fails, they end up destroying a ferry carrying the "heavy water" across a fjord on the first stage of its long journey to Germany. The fact that some innocent passengers get killed as well is part of what might be called collateral damage.There are some obvious stereotypes here, especially in director Anthony Mann's portrayal of the Germans, who all speak English in accents reminiscent of the comic officers in the Eighties sitcom ALLO ALLO ("We hev vays of mekink you talk"). Anton Diffring has a small role as Major Frick, but it is not really developed in any way.By contrast the Resistance fighters, led by Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris, are portrayed as indefatigable, fearless in the face of impossible odds, and totally committed to their cause. Their characters are likewise not really developed: Douglas does his usual turn of a stone-faced hero, while Harris reveals some of the rebel- like qualities characteristic of THIS SPORTING LIFE (1963). Michael Redgrave has a cameo role as a pipe-and-slippers type, who is ultimately provoked into defending his property.In truth the film is mostly memorable for its action sequences. Shot in Norway, it contains some spectacular moments where the Germans pursue the Resistance fighters on skis across rolling mountain landscapes. Later on Harris and Douglas have great fun trying to plant explosives in the doomed ferry, while listening out all the while for potential intruders.We all know what the film's outcome will be; but it proceeds to that predictable conclusion in highly entertaining fashion.

The problem with this film is that the action it is trying to portray wasn't spectacular enough for Hollywood. How many shots were actually fired in the real attack? I'll give you a clue -- it was a nice round figure.Of course Hollywood needs gunfire and explosions or else what is the point of making the film? They don't let the fact that there wasn't any gunfire get in the way of their version of the story.The romance part of the plot is all made up as well.Ho, hum...I suppose it just goes to show that when people complain that Hollywood is trying to rewrite history, there is plenty of precedent, this film being part of that. Why on earth didn't they just set the thing in some mythical place during WW2 and not pretend it was anything to do with a real action (which it wasn't really)?

Twenty years after the end of the war they were still churning out stuff like this, more or less scraping the bottom of the barrel for 'unknown' incidents to exploit. The events depicted here may well have been true but Anthony Mann does little or nothing to inject any life or excitement into things. For me the attraction was third-billed Michael Redgrave but he was totally wasted in a part even Richard Pascoe couldn't make more lifeless. For a film about heavy water there's a notable lack of chemistry between ANY one person and ANY one else; an 'action' film short on action, a thriller short on thrills in fact the whole thing is a snow job.

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....