Susan Granger’s review of “Max Manus” (D Films)
Set in Scandinavia during World War II, this fictionalized biopic adventure begins in 1940 on a wintry field in Finland, where a brave, 25 year-old Norwegian, Max Manus (Aksel Hannie), is wounded while helping the Finns fight against the Russian invaders.
Returning to Norway, after the Royal family was abruptly banished by the Germans, Max helps further the Resistance by destroying draft registration records and distributing newspaper propaganda vilifying the collaborationist government, headed by Vidkun Quisling (that’s how the word “quisling,” signifying traitor, became part of our vocabulary). After eluding captors, Max and his freedom-fighter friends are trained in Scotland to become expert saboteurs and assigned to stealthily stick limpet mines on the hulls of the German supply ships docked in Oslo harbor.
One of the Free Norwegian Forces’ greatest victories was a daring commando raid involving the sinking of the cargo ship Donau outside Drobak in the winter of 1945, much to the consternation of the local head of the Gestapo, Siegfried Fehmer (Ken Duken of “Inglorious Basterds”). During the liberation, Max Manus became the personal protection officer for Crown Prince Olav upon his return to Oslo and for King Haakon VII, when the rest of the Royal family returned on June 7, 1945.
Written by the late Thomas Nordseth-Tiller and based on Manus’s own books, plus historical documentation, it’s photographed by Geir Hartly Andreassen and co-directed by Stockholm Film School graduates Espen Sandberg and Joachim Roenning, who made the direct-to-dvd “Bandidas” (2006), starring Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek, and are credited with creating hundreds of award-winning commercials.
Curiously, the only other film about Norway’s Resistance is “Edge of Darkness” (1943), which starred Errol Flynn as a fearless fisherman who defied the German occupation. However, unlike that Hollywoodized adventure, this far-more-realistic treatment shows how Max Manus suffered serious consequences, both physically and mentally, that turned him into an alcoholic.
In Norwegian, German and English with English subtitles, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Max Manus” is an action-packed, enthralling 8. Understandably, it’s Norway’s most successful film so far.
