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merlin_harps
Reviews
Tuntematon sotilas (2018)
A Finnish Band of Brothers
I don't normally bother writing reviews, as scores speak for themselves, however, this is an exception.
This is a gritty and down to earth realistic look at warfare. No plot armor, no heroes, just people surviving the hells of war as best they can. It gives a unglamorous look into what normal people go through on the front line.
Without going into details, I can without a shadow of doubt say this is up there with BoB and other such series. The cast is phenomenal in every aspect. They feel like real people living in real circumstances.
It's just long enough to give the impact it needs to. Being based of real accounts and giving the material the honor it deserves really shows through the runtime.
From the first scene to the last, it's sneaked it's way into my top 10 of all time series up there with BoB, The Pacific etc. Feels like a Finnish Stalingrad of Iron Cross.
If you have 5 hours to live, this isn't a terrible choice of viewing material and really delivers a memorable performance you wont soon forget.
Max Manus (2008)
Not really sticking to the real story.
First of all I just want to say that the movie in itself is an amazing leap towards Norwegian movies in general. How ever, what gives me a hard time watching this movie after having read the book itself, is that all the main scenes in the movie is not really sticking to the true story that Max himself wrote.
As an example then, for a huge thing that compared to the book is not really what happened on that faithful day , when they went to take out Donau. The movie scene seems to have been a mix of the first time they tried to sink Donau and a twist of the second time, making it a big mess for people who actually read the book, and having the movie make it historically incorrect. As it really happened, they used a huge time just trying to break trough the ice under the harbor , and Max had to jump on the ice repeatedly over and over to get the boat over to Donau. After that they placed all the limpets they had, as well as placing the last one they left behind on another ship. This all took a high amount of time,and no place in this all were they ever shot at..
In all simplicity is it a great movie, but it is sad how they represent the great man that was Max Manus, in to something of a bowl of soup that don't really give it that little extra,and stay true to what happened,rather than make it in to something the directors or the screen writer thought the audience would prefer more. Other than that just the opening scene is rather action paced, but the reality is that Max Manus never went in to close quarter fights with the Germans in Finnland, but only was engaged in heavy artillery fire,which later would damage him in a hard physiological way.
Either way how ever, Its great to see the aspect of the hard battle of Norwegian saboteurs who refused to give under to the Germans, who basically only had to polish their boots and march right in to Norway, meeting no resistance what so ever.