THE HEROES OF TELEMARK is a solid enough WW2 adventure in the WHERE EAGLES DARE mould, although the direction is a little off and not quite as involving as in the true classics of the genre. This is a surprise given that director Anthony Mann made some great films with James Stewart back in the 1950s, but you get the impression that his heart wasn't quite in this one.It is, however, watchable enough, and has an interesting true-life story that keeps you watching throughout. Kirk Douglas is the hero of the piece, playing a Norwegian scientist who agrees to help resistance forces blow up a factory that the Nazis are using to develop nuclear technology. Richard Harris plays in support as a stock hero, but the supporting cast are a little lacklustre. The only ones who make an impact are an aged but effective Michael Redgrave, Anton Diffring as yet another Nazi, and Roy Dotrice in an early part.THE HEROES OF TELEMARK saves most of the action and set-pieces for the latter half of the production, and at times the adventure feels muted, but it's quite well shot. The snowbound action is occasionally remarkable and seems to have inspired the later Bond movies that utilise ski chases and the like, such as ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. The climactic scenes are where it really picks up and Douglas shows his mettle in some good cat-and-mouse style moments.

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.

Throughout the 1960s, Hollywood invented what we now call 'infiltration commando films', a truly interesting sub-genre within war films, far from the brutal realism that would be introduced years later, but with enough adventure and romanticism to be regarded as a great spectacle. Until then, war films were characterized by a minimalist way of developing the theme, showing the audience small brush strokes of war. Although there were war scenes, directors focused more on directing the actors than on special effects and creating a spectacular story. Great films such as 'Objective, Burma!' (1945), 'Destination Tokyo' (1943) and 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' (1957) included no important action scenes. They started to appear later on thanks to the demythologization of war, and the will to recover a genre that had been more or less forgotten. 'The Guns of Navarone' (1961), 'The Dirty Dozen' (1967) and 'Where Eagles Dare' (1968) are good examples of this commando sub-genre. They were keen to show a more feasible type of war, slightly unreal and 'festive', but without losing their ensemble film quality.Together with the three mentioned above, one of the most popular films is 'The Heroes of Telemark', directed by the brilliant Anthony Mann, a great director of western and ensemble films, who lived in Europe back then and worked in Samuel Bronston's blockbusters. Using his savor-fare in 'The Heroes of Telemark' he adapted a true story that took place during Germany's invasion of Norway. He worked together with screenwriters Ivan Moffat, Knut Haukelid and Ben Barzman (with the support of novelist John Drummond) and the magnetism of Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris, Ulla Jacobsson and Sir Michael Redgrave. We must not forget the excellent photography of Robert Krasker, which transports us to Telemark (Norway) in the comfort of our seats, and also the elegant score by Malcolm Arnold (who also composed the music for 'The Bridge on the River Kwai'). Curiously enough, Kirk Douglas worked with Anthony Mann again when he started to direct 'Spartacus' (1960), before he was replaced by Stanley Kubrick.The film is set in the region of Telemark (Norway) in 1942, when the allies found a document that irrefutably proved that German scientists were making progress in the search for atomic fission at the Vemork heavy water plant, situated next to the small town of Rjukan, and were in the middle of making an atomic bomb that would change the course of the war. 'Heavy water' is a chemical compound with a molecular formula equivalent to water, in which hydrogen atoms are replaced with deuterium, a heavy hydrogen isotope.Back then, Norway had built up its own resistance, made up of civilians and former soldiers. One of the members, Knut Haukelid (1911-1994), twin brother of actress Sigrid Gurie, became a national hero after being part of the real commando that appears in the film. The Norwegian resistance and the British army work against the clock to prevent Hitler from achieving his long-awaited bomb: Together they draw up an ambitious plan to destroy the Vemork factory. Once they rule out the possibility of bombarding, Operation Freshman is launched – British paratroopers are deployed over Telemark and are supposed to join the resistance, led by the Norwegian soldier Knut Straud (Richard Harris), who does not hesitate to seek the help of physicist Rolf Pedersen (Kirk Douglas). To make it all even more dramatic, Pedersen discovers that his ex-wife (Ulla Jacobsson) and uncle (Sir Michael Redgrave) have joined the resistance. This is dangerous for him personally because one's feelings can often cloud one's reasoning in times of war. The human reactions that take place in the film help to establish a stronger connection between the audience and the protagonists.Operation Freshman proves to be unsuccessful because the Horsa Glidier gliders crash and part of the crew die in the accident, and the rest are shot by the enemy. A great part of the true story emerges in the film, although the name of Major Knut Haukelid is changed to Knut Straud (Richard Harris), in order to allow certain liberties in the development of the film. After the first mission fails, the Norwegian commando that is waiting, made up of 15 volunteers (in the film there are only 9), launches Operation Gunnerside. They enter the factory and destroy the tanks where the 'heavy water' is stored. The facility remains inactive for two months but the Germans manage to rebuild the tanks and increase production. The saboteurs ski all the way to Sweden to avoid being captured by the Germans, while the Norwegian and British soldiers continue to rack their brains to find a way to stop the production of 'heavy water'. These events pick up speed in the film and shortly after the first attempt to sabotage the factory, Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris (after a thrilling persecution on skis) come into action again and plan to blow up the factory which is about to transport the 'heavy water', even if they have to risk their lives and those of their loved ones to complete the mission.For just over two hours, and thanks to the rhythm and elegance that Anthony Mann stamps in every shot, the audience will travel alongside the protagonists, in their adventures and mishaps, and will discover a truly interesting series of historical events. The filming locations were Vemork, Rjukan, Tinnsjo and Gausta, in the region of Telemark, in Norway, and also Oslo, because Anthony Mann wanted to make the most of the beautiful landscape. While he was there, he shot magnificent skiing scenes, in the manner of the best German Bergfilms. We must not forget that the region of Telemark is the cradle of skiing, as it is known today.

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.