I just watched it. I think it was done very well. There was no romantic fluff inserted. I could have done with a wee bit of backstory about the two main characters. For example, where did they parachute in from? Perhaps a flashback or two of their families back home, wherever that was.
I agree with pretty much your whole statement.
I would have especially liked to have seen or at least heard about how Kubis selected because he was not their initial choice, he was a replacement. This whole event is a little of a dark hole for me. Most of what I have read about the assassination was from the perspective of how it effected Eichmann and his career. Of course I studied Heydrich's role in grad school, but I had not really had occasion to look into his death, other than the ripple effects. (Most of my research was on the Soviet side).
The only thing I would have done differently was tone down the battle in the church. The resistance did hold the Nazi's off for a while, but they were not as effective as they were in this movie. They couldn't have been that lethal, they were outgunned and out numbered, also the final fight did not go on nearly as long as they suggested. They deserve credit for every Nazi killed, but the film could have done them justice without inflating the action.
The other thing I would have added in the notes at the end is that the son and father were executed, as was one of the girl friends, and the betrayer.
I liked how they didn't answer the question of whether or not it was worth it. That Heydrich deserved to die is a foregone conclusion, but there were others in his wake and I am not sure that once the whole story unfolded that his assassination helped anything. Still, I am not comfortable criticizing the effort.
Edit - I made a mistake about the betrayer (Curda) he was not executed until 1947, which means that it would have been the allies and not the Germans. Not that I have much sentiment to spare for him.
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wooody
8 years ago
You've done the research and I haven't. I agree that prior to the end credits I felt the two battles in the church went on too long. Did they really kill that many Germans in the encounter? They were like cannon fodder. However, after the film, the postscript read that the Czec's held off the Germans for 6 hours. After learning that fact the lengthy encounter made more sense.
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dklv-598-231167
8 years ago
They were like cannon fodder.
the shoot out at the church was pretty intense. but yeah I was rolling my eyes a bit watching the Germans repeatedly running around like idiots out in the open where they could be shot easily. I can't imagine that is what happened in real life.
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SnappinTurtle
8 years ago
This is so frustrating. Sometimes I pick up an adjunct position to teach Western Civ. or European history at a local college. I have not gotten one of those in 12 months so my online library ID is disabled right now, meaning I can’t get into the academic journals.
What I found online (never reliable on its own) are sources that range the battle from “brief,” (ww2inprague.com) to several hours (bbc.com/news/world-europe18183099), to 14 hours (holocaustresearchproject.org). Generally they seem to agree that about 14 Nazis were killed, and many others wounded. I would feel better if I could pull some info from Slavic Review or the Journal of Military History. No source is without flaw, but those are among peer reviewed and heavily scrutinized.
This is an interesting .pdf for anyone interested. Warning, it does include headshots of the corpses from where they were displayed outside the church.
http://www.army.cz/images/id_7001_8000/7419/assassination-en.pdf
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