Anthropoid

Ellis had been thinking for so long about how he was actually going to conceive the film when suddenly filming started here. The result is a jagged mutant that straddles the line between a classic wartime love in the times of Nazi cholera and a stripped-down historical reenactment with occasional glimpses of Hollywood narrative crutches (the recurring motifs of putting a bullet in the chamber, Shakespeare, Geislerová under the hose). The result is a dull grey where you don't give a damn. The romantic storyline is uninteresting because the characters are completely alien and impenetrable, and the relationship entanglements in turn detract from the reenactment. There are strengths in the sub-elements that Ellis can dabble in, especially in the second half, and that's why the assassination itself and the action climax in the church manage to hook you appropriately with their relentlessness, intensity, and confused subjective camerawork. This raises the question, then, of where the scenes came from where we have a close-up of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in the hands of one character reading perhaps the most famous line from the play to another, whereupon he dramatically slams the volume shut and says "That was Shakespeare." The only thing that thus ties the whole thing together is the fecal brownish filter with which it is smeared. And by the way, the ones who once again lose the whole Operation Anthropoid thing here are the Germans, who again fill their roles from dozens of computer shooter games, where their role is either to yell German and bully civilians in the street, or to yell German and climb into the heroes' wounds. That's how you conquer two-thirds of Europe, it takes real savvy. (19/01/2017)

A bleak, exclusively interior film with little panache. It's a bit of a shame, but you don't come across Spielberg every day, so the artistry is for next time. Fortunately, Anthropoid makes up for this with passion for the material, tenacity and a gripping last half hour. Murphy and Dornan are awesome. The testimonial value is of course next level. (24/10/2016)

Of course we would prefer if it was made by Spielberg or Polanski with their elegant optics and artistic touch. Anthropoid has nothing like that. But let’s be glad Sean Ellis made it into at least a decent action thriller. The actors are fine given that the screenplay doesn’t give them much to work with and the period atmosphere is captured well. Ellis also gives it the necessary momentum, like a mechanical but skillful cameraman who knows how to achieve both dynamics and fluidity. The climax in the cathedral is satisfactorily long and precisely escalated. And the main thing: when watching Anthropoid, I was proud for a moment that I come from Czechoslovakia. (04/10/2016)

The assassination of Heydrich is undoubtedly a very strong theme, which this time was taken up by several countries, which had both advantages and disadvantages. For me personally, the biggest stumbling block was the unconvincing and dull performance of the actors in the first two thirds of the film, which was to some extent also caused by the fact that none of the actors used their mother tongue. I would honestly put the romantic line aside completely, because I found it mostly redundant. Nevertheless, the film picks up from the interrogations and the final church siege was very well shot and staged. Pity about the lacklustre and uninteresting (two-thirds of the way through) start. (07/04/2020)

One star for the convincing-looking Heydrich and K. H. Frank and for casting Jan Budař as Chlumsky. In terms of historical accuracy, it deserves to be booed. The film is inspired by historical events, but only uses a rough outline and names. Already in the opening, the transport of Gabčík and Kubiš to Prague without the necessary documents and in a truck was ridiculous. The resistance equips the paratroopers with cyanide capsules (funny). Many parts of the story were obviously taken from the memoirs of Ladislav Vaněk, who knew hardly anything about the assassination when the war had ended, but his role in the whole operation grew exponentially as the years went by. If he hadn't died, he probably would have convinced everyone that he had planned the assassination and given the order himself. The whole film is in fact a kind of Protectorate sci-fi, which eventually turns into Wolfenstein and has the Germans dying by the dozens. A film that I found much more realistic was the Czech TV film Operace Silver A, which drew on reliable historical sources and offered a much better result even without the co-production. (14/11/2016)