Week 7 Media Blog Forum A

Foreign Film

Theatrical Release Poster
for Max Manus

I recently watched a foreign film with my grandmother called Max Manus: Man of War. It is a 2008 Norwegian biographical war movie about Norwegian World War II resistance fighter, Max Manus. The film chronicles his life as a soldier in the Winter War against the Soviet Union, but mostly focuses on his involvement in WWII in Nazi occupied Norway where he acted as a saboteur. The film is also based on Max Manus's books Det vil helst gå godt (It Should Turn Out Well) and Det blir alvor (It Gets Serious). The film was directed by Norwegian directors Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg.

My grandmother was only a child when the Nazi's invaded her home country of Norway. She had a hard time watching this movie but deemed it important to remember her country's history. Telling me that this film shows just what it means to be Norwegian. So I came into the movie with high expectations, and for an exclusively Norwegian produced film, it absolutely delivered. 

The cinematography is solid, the opening scene where Manus and a group of Finnish soldiers fight off a Soviet attack in the snow is brilliant filming for a war movie. The acting is also pretty good, it's difficult to judge line delivery since I don't speak Norwegian, but the emotion is definitely there. The actor that plays Max Manus actually won an Amanda Award for best actor. The Amanda Awards are given out at the Norwegian international film festival. So overall the film stacks up with solid cinematography, good sound mixing, and a good cast that really brings this story justice. The one complaint from critics was that it seemed "too traditional," I felt that going a more traditional route for such an impactful story was a wise decision. It didn't try to be too over the top or flashy, the film knew what it was trying to get across and did it.

This was a solid movie about the horrors of war and a tale about a man who would stop at nothing to liberate the land that he loves. I enjoyed watching this film because of my heritage, it made me proud to be a Norwegian. It also provided another look at a completely different front of World War II. As an American most of the war movies I'm used to focus on the pacific theatre and the western front of the WWII, this one focused on a saboteur group in Oslo Norway. It was really interesting to see another point of view of the World's largest conflict.

My grandmother lived through a lot, I can't imagine living under occupation by an enemy force. I can't imagine having barely enough food to survive and constantly living in fear for my friend's and family's lives. The closing scene where they held a parade for the liberation of Norway and the end of the war made my grandma a bit emotional. She was there on that day, she reminisced about that time when she saw the king ride down the main street of Oslo as he waved at the now liberated people. She said she never felt so hopeful in her life. It gave me chills just talking about it with her. 

That conversation also gave me an obvious yet overlooked revelation about movies like these. These aren't just action movies that hope to entertain an audience, these aren't just pieces of film that tell a compelling story. This really happened, to real people. This movie exemplified the sacrifice people yearning to break free will go through to be free. It was a great movie that gave me a perspective that a Hollywood film hasn't given me for a while.