Nancy Wake (1987) User Reviews

Excellent TV movie from Australia's golden age

[jecesq-28604 · 8/10 · 28 June 2017]

Top telemovie about a genuine heroine from WW2. Filmed mainly in France from the look of it,with an Australian/British cast,what it lacks in production budget it makes up for in quality direction and pacing. Noni Hazlehurst is a star,with John Waters and Shane Briant giving good support;some of the minor characters are a bit lame,but overall it's well worth a look,particularly if like me you didn't know anything about Nancy Wake (a Kiwi I think)and her heroics with the French Resistance. Oz made some quality movies and TV mini-series in the 1980s,most of which have been forgotten,but many were very good viewing,and this is one of the better ones that still stands up well today.

Great story ....... But

[tibet10-1 · 7/10 · 4 March 2022]

Having seen the TV series on Amazon Prime I will now purchase the book. Having watched the TV version I have a hunch the script writers probably buggered up a perfectly great story as they usually do. Great acting but the script had more holes than a Swiss cheese. Although the acting was quite good I found listening to various "French men" speaking Aussie English quite grating. I suppose it should not matter but added to the script blunders it sort of ruined the show. On the technical side, there were quite a few "interlace" artifacts, as Amazon had obviously taken a copy straight from DVD. Sad that they could not have used the original film version, but I imagine it has been lost long ago or perhaps it would have been too expensive to re-master. Interlacing by the way is how video was presented on old TV's. You probably don't care and you are right it should not matter. I am just being fussy. The other factor was that scenes filmed in Australia were almost always shot in groves of pine trees to make it look like France. It fell a bit flat - but then there was probably just not enough money. Now I will read the book and see what was left out and what was added.

Amazing story, very well told in this 1987 miniseries

[MajorAndersLassen · 9/10 · 16 August 2015]

First of all, Noni Hazlehurst did an outstanding job in this miniseries! Secondly, I am very surprised to see no other reviews here, considering this is such an amazing story. It tells the true story of a very brave Australian woman who worked alongside the French resistance as part of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) against the Nazis during WW2. Nancy Wake became known as the White Mouse by the Gestapo and was at the top of their most wanted list. She once rode a bicycle 250 miles in 72 hours on a round trip through German-held territory to collect a radio in order to request supplies from the British for the resistance.

After the war, she was awarded several medals for her distinguished service, and continued to work for British intelligence after the war.

I thoroughly enjoyed this miniseries and highly recommend it to those interested in anything WW2. 9/10 from me.

One Great Heroine

[bobshearer711 · 9/10 · 21 March 2018]

This was a 2 part miniseries, it should have been done in at least 3 parts. Having read her biography, there is so many incredible stories that could not be fit in. One of the most amazing woman that have ever lived. In the film she takes a bazooka to a machine gun's nest, in actuality it was a Panzer, that she took out, after 2 resistance fighters ran away. Nancy Wake was total class under the worst of conditions. She would not allow a female spy to be abused by the fighters, but she had no problem having her executed.

The movie really grabs the relationship with her husband, with great acting and writing. A husband she would stay true to, even though she would not know of his whereabouts for 3 years during the war.

She led 6,000 fighters with a no nonsense approach that the movie could have delved more into, as it was done out of total respect, for here raw courage (killing a Nazi with her bare hands, but done out of context in the movie, destroying a Panzer, and pulling off a daring attack on Gestapo HQ's), and a natural born leader.

Did I happen to mention that she was a true beauty besides? Highly recommend that one should read the biography first.

Well made & acted but a shocking slander in one scene

[annabellabray · 5/10 · 5 July 2022]

Having just read a fictionalized version of Nancy Wake's life, 'Code Name Helene' by Ariel Lawhon, in which the author is transparent & careful about her use of the facts, I was very disappointed to watch the scene in episode 1 in which 'Patrick O'Leary' (actually a Belgian war hero Major General Albert Guerisse using an assumed name to work undercover for the British) is shown being tortured and betraying Nancy & the rest of the network .This never happened. He was arrested and tortured, twice in fact, and he never betrayed anyone. Seeing as he was still alive at the time this series was made, it seems a gross injustice to his memory. I realise dramatizations of reality have to combine and skip over the facts but this distortion is a gross betrayal of this man's integrity.

THE INVINCIBLE MAGIFICENT NANCY WAKE

[essenceofmyrrh-19983 · 27 June 2023]

The previous reviewer had watched the TV series and this had inspired a desire to read the book.

I have just finished reading the book and I am inspired to obtain the TV series and watch it.

This woman, Nancy Wake, was absolutely MAGNIFICENT and utterly inspirationsl and her story should be known to everyone who admires heroism and dedication.

And after everything she had been through she lived to be a grand old lady of 98 years.

If you do not know her story, then find out about it and prepare to just simply marvel at her courage and fortitude in the face of every conceivable kind of terrifying odds.

She was, in real life, the kind of courageous person most of us can only dream of being, facing death and terrifying odds and laughing in it's face and triumphing and inspiring her comrades to do likewise.