Aksel HennieMax Manus: Man Of War

I really liked this movie, based on real people and real events during Nazi Germany's WWII occupation of Norway. The acting is excellent, the scenery is authentic, the special effects are very good, and the movie moves along at a good pace. It's easy to follow, too. It's one of those "There's no way this guy should still be alive" movies, but apparently he really was that lucky and good.The only letdown in Max Manus to me, was a minor one. Relatively early on in the movie, the movie introduces a pretty, innocent, blond Norwegian girl who begins work as a secretary to the head Nazi bad guy in the movie. Then she becomes his girlfriend, maybe mistress. She was apparently in it with him for most if not all of the German occupation, even to the end, apparently. But the movie drops this storyline at the end. What happened to her? Did she suffer reprisal as a collaborator? This movie doesn't say. Every one in the movie gets a "here's how it ended for them" but her.That aside, "Max Manus" should be on the must-watch list for anyone who likes WWII resistance movies, especially ones based on fact. Very well done.

in the mid 60's i lived in oslo for a couple of years. max manus was known to me only as a business owner until my wife told me he was also a norwegian underground hero. found a book on him and the oslo gang later but somehow it disappeared and never got to read it in full.when the movie came out gave me a chance to see the exploits of manus and the oslo gang and from what i can tell was pretty accurate. the movie doesn't sugar coat manus. he is a brave, troubled, driven guy who hates nazis in his country and is sworn to rid the country of them as many young norwegians were. aksel hennie plays him that way and you get the feeling that he is a pain to be around often and a semi mean drunk. he is constantly haunted by the actions and the comrades killed during the war. he was a classic ptsd victim to the end of his life.the movie is interesting if you want to know about a theater of the war rarely covered. the action is so so in spots but i liked it and liked seeing parts of oslo i remebered from my youth. the cast is good and look like what the gang was, a bunch of idealistic teens and 20 somethings who had guts and hate of nazis. made in a typical scandinavian way. it is subtitled in english so not hard to follow. not for everyone but ww2 buffs may find it a new view of underground patriots not often seen.

If your like me, always searching for some little WWII movie 'gem' you might not have seen yet, you'll be very satisfied with this movie about amazing Norway resistence fighter Max Manus. Manus and a few of his friends volunteer to fight for Finland when they were invaded by Russia then watches his own country do nothing when the Germans invade Norway. He organizes his buddies into getting back at the Germans and the film documents multiple attacks and harrowing escapes he manages to survive all very well done. The story moves along swiftly with Max going to England to become part of a Norwegian company of commandos sent back behind enemy lines to harass the Germans. This is a rich & moving film as we see many of Max's comrades be captured, tortured or killed but he himself always manging to get away. Whatever Max was missing in himself in civilian life, he finds it during the war as he emerges as a tenacious, bold and fearless leader who defeats the Germans over & over. And whatever you do don't miss the special features documentary of the real Max Manus talking about his life and his friends lost to the War. The documentary also features his Wife who he married after the War and she describes Max the kind of Man who only comes along "once in a lifetime", very true.

Aside from weak editing, the Man's story is magnificent, and the film was excellent. Wow, what a brother he was, if I could only be half as good for my Native American people. I have military related PTSD, or why he suffered from alcohol addiction to his death, so I know, and he was lucky to have his wife stand beside him to the end. But what makes his story so magnificent, is how he managed to sink the Donau, for he helped make it a little easier on our American boys during D-Day, including my dad and his brothers as part of the 101st Airborne Division. Well done big brother, and may you RIP in heaven with your friends.

The true story of one of Norways most famous WWII war heroes. This film, mostly Norwegian and German with English subtitles provides an interesting look into the personal effects of war on those who fought for their freedom against Nazi occupiers. Unlike a lot of war movies, this one dives deep into the lives and emotions of those who took the fight to the enemy. I highly recommend it

I found this title while unsuccessfully searching for the Celebrate White Music Month category. Perhaps the secret of this movie's quality is to be found in its having been made in a country that appreciates the freedom it enjoys.

Alert, you will REALLY understand why some soldiers end up with PTSD after watching this. Oh. My. God. The story behind the hero, the price that heroes pay to save us. The Norwegian cast was excellent and ken duken was terrifying in his rapid switches from charming courtier to sadistic torturer, a real acting triumph to let us understand this sociopath. Brr.... don't watch unless you're in the mood for a wrench, and the mood to understand why the Nazis didn't get to a nuke. Take a week t o clear your brain then watch the Sinking of the Laconia, to understand (duken again) why the same culture that found a role for evil men also included good, decent men.

This is such an interesting movie on multiple levels. We see civilians who sided with the Nazi's and we learn of this group of clandestine civilians who learned "tradecraft" and how to conduct unconventional warfare, a game normally reserved for highly trained professionals. But here, we see concerned citizens organize against an invading army and begin to do what they can to make a difference. And, they do. Undoubtedly, the people involved are national hero's and contributed significantly to the overall war effort.

Not very well presented - the cover art and even the title and the blurb on the packaging give a misleading impression of the film. It over-hypes it to such an extent you assume it will actually be really bad - a generic, cheap, and over-the-top sensationalist thing. When in fact it's pretty good - a fairly straight depiction of some interesting real history, with no major flaws.(Reminiscent of the actually-quite-good French film that ended up with the off-puttingly weak English-language title of 'Female Agents' - European war films don't seem to be well-served by their English-language marketing)The only negative I could come up with is I'm not entirely convinced that all the action scenes/fire fights were that realistic, Not that I have any real experience whatsoever to judge them by, but to me they seemed to have a touch of the action-movie thing where the baddies can't shoot nearly as accurately as the good guys, despite their superior firepower. But what do I know? And it didn't undermine the film. The performances in general were good.What really makes this film worthwhile is that it's based on real history, and events which I suspect are not well-known outside of Norway (I assume Norwegians are all quite familiar with it?). I confess it sent me straight to search engines to read up on the history it dramatises (which seemed to confirm that the movie was more accurate than one might think - all the stuff I assumed must have been dramatic invention to make the story more interesting turns out to have a basis in the real history).

I liked this Norwegian war film although I can not really say that it is a master piece. Below, more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS.Maximo Guillermo "Max" Manus really existed. Born in 1914 to a Norwegian-Danish couple living in Bergen, he owed his first and second name to the great love his father always felt to Spanish and Latino culture, as he lived many years in numerous Spanish speaking countries. Young Maximo Manus also followed in his father's steps and lived and worked in South American and in Cuba for some time, before returning to Norway in early 1939 and joining Norwegian Army as simple soldier. In winter 1939 together with some other Norwegians he volunteered to serve in Finnish Army and he fought, quite bravely, during Winter War in 1939-40 against invading Soviets.A digression here for fire arms and other military detail maniacs. Before watching this film I couldn't really understand the picture on the cover of the DVD, as the weapon used puzzled me - well, it turns out this is the scene from Winter War and the hero uses here a Finnish Suomi KP/31 9 mm submachine gun with a 36-round box magazine. End of digression for fire arms and other military details maniacs.After surviving the war against Soviets, "Max" Manus returned to Norway and re-joined the army, just in time to see the Germans invade his country... After fighting in the Norwegian campaign, once Germans won, he went underground and joined the resistance. And here the film really begins and I am not saying anything more...If you want to fully enjoy this film I advise against checking on internet what happened to the hero and his companions, as well as their nemesis, SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Siegfried Fehmer, a senior Gestapo executive in occupied Norway. The film tries to follow quite close the real history and therefore the suspense can be easily killed.The film shows quite well the cost of the war and of resistance fight on people involved in it. With butcher bill on both sides accumulating and the fighting going on and on seemingly without end, exhaustion, burnout and finally depression settle in and even if one keeps soldiering on, the ghosts of fallen comrades start to slowly replace the company of living and one starts to self-medicate with solitude and strong liquor... And no amount of glory and honors can change it - at least not easily...I liked this film, although a great masterpiece it is not. There are some weaker moments, like the repetitive rather useless reminiscences of Winter War - one would be a good thing, but there is too many of them. The general tone is, I believe, quite typical to the Scandinavian character - serious, even grave, to the point and rather low-key, avoiding excessive display of feelings and drama even when most extremely tragic events are described.There is no cult of super-hero here. "Max" Manus is shown here as a very human being, who can occasionally be careless, reckless and even occasionally self-destructive - also, sometimes he is a real jerk... But it actually doesn't hurt his image much - he is simply a tough guy who lives in even tougher times.Bottom line, this is a good, solid war film about armed resistance against a ruthless foreign occupation and especially about one particularly ferocious, charismatic and relentless freedom fighter. Enjoy!

Norway, a country of just 3 million people then, was crushed by a German occupation army of more than 200,000 troops. Resistance was not a viable option.But resistance there was. This film doesn't deal with the full scopeof Norwegian resistance and the infamy of the collaborationist regime.Due to budget and time constraints includes only the most importanthighlights of the struggle of Norwegian resistance hero Max Manus,and the tragic fate of most of his comrades.There's scarcely any combat in the film: Only a skirmish with Soviettroops in snow-bound Finland, which has become a recurring nightmare ofMax Manus. There are hair-raising escapes from Gestapo and thecollaborationist police. There are two very tense sabotage operationswith limpet mines, in the Oslo harbor. A lot of time is dedicatedin Max Manus' romance with "Tikken", the woman who was his Norwegianliaison then, and became his wife after the war.Since the story covers much ground, transition from one scene to thenext tends to be abrupt. But the film is beautifully shot, in real locations,with a large number of extras, and attention to historical detail.Aksel Hennie (Max Manus), and Agnes Kittelsen (Tikken) are truly exceptionalin their respective roles.Included in the Blu-ray is a very informative 45' documentary on the lifeof Max Manus. This comprises interviews with him, and some of the survivingmembers of his unit, 50 years after the events depicted on the film.It is very touching to watch these old men recount their exploits,at the exact locations where these happened.The documentary is subtitled in English. The film is not subtitled inEnglish SDH. In the few instances when English is spoken (training campin Scotland), handicapped people may lose plot points.

For the English language audience - don't be fooled by the cover suggestive of a low quality war flick - this is a complex and interesting exploration of what it meant to participate in a resistance movement often overlooked in stories of WW2. Far grittier than Heroes of Telemark, this is a Norwegian production about a Norwegian hero. It is also one of the few resistance movies that also deals with survivors guilt (sadly, perhaps because in so many other instances there were no survivors). A Norwegian version of Flame and Citron...the documentary included on the DVD about the man, his wife and how he and his fellow resisters survived the post War period is also very interesting. Also, the comment by another reviewer that this is a story set on the Finnish Russian border applies to only about 10 minutes of a much longer film and misses the point - it is a film about Norwegian resistance to Nazi rule during WW2, against the odds, yet vindicated by history.

My friend in Oslo, wanted to buy me the DVD of this highly acclaimed Norwegian film, which has been a runaway box office hit in Norway. Alas the DVD version of this Norwegian dialogue film available in Norway does not have English Sub titles. A quick search in Amazon revealed it was available over here so I ordered the Blu-ray and the DVD for my friend. There are not many films about Norway in WWII, the most famous is `The Heroes of Telemark' which in the best American tradition was a highly fictionalised telling of a truly fantastic wartime feat. Incidentally the Norwegians made a film in 1948 telling the true story using the real heroes of Telemark, re-enacting their real life roles. In Ray Mear's programme about the raid extracts were shown of the original `Heroes of Telemark' film, which unfortunately is not available on DVD.This is a true-story of Max Manus one of the most heroic Norwegian resistance leaders who was able to successfully thwart the Nazi occupation of Oslo. While he is lying comatose on a hospital bed, his early heroic part in bloody fighting in the snow for Finland unfolds in flashbacks in this often forgotten arena of WWII of the successful Finish war against the Russian invasion of their country. The film plots his return to Norway and his role in the resistance, from producing an underground newspaper to carrying out considerably daring acts of sabotage in Oslo. Especially exciting to watch was the destruction of Nazi ships in the harbour. He was captured and miraculously escaped; some of his friends were not so fortunate. My audience thought this was one of the best war films they had seen in a long time. Despite the sub-titles and the flashbacks this powerful gripping story of a daredevil flamboyant leader of the resistance was easy to follow and never flagged. This film has received many very favourable international reviews and in some ways it was a pity that it was not made in English, as I am sure it could have made it successfully to a multiplex near you! For me what made the film of special interest is that I have visited Oslo many times and recognised many of the real live street locations used such as The Town Hall, The Parliament Building and Karl Johans street leading to the Royal Palace. What really makes the story complete is the excellent 45 min documentary, which has interviews with Max Manus and his wife, also wartime newsreel footage of Oslo. Some of the gaps in the film are more fully explained. The Producers assure us that they strived in two hours to accurately as possible to portray Max's and his group's wartime exploits. The DVD picture is very good quality, what was noticeable was the sub-titles were very much sharper on the blu-ray disc as was the picture better, but not dramatically so.Incidentally when peace was declared, Max Manus found himself chosen to be the personal protection officer for the then Crown Prince & King in their triumphal parade through Oslo. This was a great honour, and he was acclaimed as one of Norway's most resilient heroes and successful fighters and was highly decorated for his military gallantry, aged only 29 at the time. He went on to have a very successful business career and died in 1996.