It was pure coincidence that Max Manus: Man Of War came up in my Netflix queue just a few days after the bloodbath in Norway, whose perpetrator, Anders Barfing Breivik, named its main character as one of his heroes. That fact, needless to say, is entirely irrelevant. Max Manus did indeed blow things up, and performed some assassinations (something not touched on in the movie), but he never murdered the children of collaborators.
Max Manus (English title Max Manus: Man Of War) is a 2008 film dramatization of the wartime adventures of a Norwegian Resistance hero. I appreciated it as a refreshingly traditional war movie. Some European critics complained that it was too black and white. I don’t really imagine they wanted the Nazis treated more positively. I expect what they wanted was for the film makers to say that the Resistance was just as bad. Me, I say good for the film makers.
The movie (subtitled in English) opens with brief footage of Max fighting in Finland in 1940, where he has volunteered to help fight the Russian invasion. Then he’s back in Oslo, a newly occupied city. He and his friends want to fight the Nazis, but all they can think of to do is start an underground newspaper, which frustrates the action-oriented Max. Continue reading Film review: Max Manus, Man Of War