Killing Heydrich

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Robert R Cédric Jimenez's careful hand is the real difference maker in "The Man With The Iron Heart" (or "HHhH" if you're in France and "Killing Heydrich" if you're in Canada, I guess), a mostly by-the-numbers blow-by-blow of historical events, with some meager attempts at emotionality here and there — and mostly in the wrong places, I might add. This work spends a decent chunk of time charting the rise of Heydrich himself and from his perspective, to boot. It puts the audience in an uneasy place, to be sure, but that's all until we whip to another, more palatable perspective about a half-hour into things. Still, I'm not sure how I feel about this approach to telling this story overall. Things feel a little disjointed and I never did feel too inclined to latch on to one character for an extended amount of time. Again, the direction is solid enough to get the job done, but I'm sure this won't be cracking anybody's top fifty favorite WWII films any time soon. Definitely didn't do that for me. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 05/10/23 Full Review keith w This is not your run of the mill WW2 film. Showing how Heydrich evolved into a monster in the first part of the film added to its emotional impact. We then see the film mostly from the pov of the Czech resistance and the two Czech men sent from England to assassinate him. The violence of the Nazis (and Heydrich) is portrayed unsparingly but don't we need to be always reminded of the dangers of fascism? The strongest part of the film is the aftermath of the assassination which included the Nazis massacring a whole village and then a shoot out in a church where the Czech resistance was hiding out. There is a gut wrenching aspect to the torture of those rounded up which I won't divulge. This film packs a huge emotional impact. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Ethan T Killing Heydrich, The Man with the Iron Heart, or whatever you want to call it misuses a talented cast in favour of a project so disjointed that one can scarcely believe the talent on display. What's more, the best performances seem to feature the least compared to characters with more screen time. If the film is three acts, half of the film is wasted on exposition. If the film is instead a more unconventional two-part structure, then its complete switch of focus at the halfway point alienates the viewer. For such a relatively robust cast to be thrust into an under-the-radar project such as this, they must have seen something in their roles. Rosamund Pike, a superb actor by most accounts including mine, sees herself introduced early on as an evil Nazi seductress leading Heydrich astray, slightly problematic considering it pains one of the more evil real-life figures of the Third Reich in a more sympathetic light. As the titular character, Jason Clarke is alright. He seems a bit of a shell, only shaped by those around him until suddenly extracting pleasure from evil deeds. In the Resistance storyline that feels so half-baked that double the runtime dedicated to it would have been preferable, Mia Wasikowska fades through a poorly written character that spends more time having her make love than build a personage. Another thing worth noting is that the accents are all over the place. Some, like Pike and Clarke, don't really seem to bother at all while Jack Reynor and Jack O'Connell play a couple of Czech freedom fighters with their best Czech voices on board. I can't speak to their accuracy, but I must say that their actions and performances were so bland that I had difficulty remembering which was Jan and which Jozef. A shame, as their bond might have had potential. The unpolished screenplay has the air of a made-for-TV flick. Jimenez, the director, had a hand in the writing process and appears to have condemned himself to failure from the offset with the assistance of his collaborators. How nice for him! Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 05/21/21 Full Review Audience Member There are two titles in circulation for this film, Killing Heydrich and The Man With the Iron Heart. None of them fully work, and that says something about the film too. The cast and acting, together with the basic cinematography, scenography and everything else necessary to create a good historical drama, is all there. But except from discribing the assassination of one of the leading Nazis and the main man behind the so called Final Solution, it sadly gets too diffuse and elusive to land on what this film really is about. Spending one third of the story to stress that Heydrich was an extremely cold hearted man, but without understanding why, then only to suddenly be thrown into a meeting with the heroes, and there are many of them, only feels half way. We know the bad guy well enough, but never get to know the good guys. A notion of any real relation to these main characters in stead drowns in long series of reprisals against local civilians and finally it all culminates in an opera of death and war cruelty. Without any genuine relation with those who suffer, it gets hard to be find true emotion as a viewer. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Jason's accent was from Wherethehellisthisville Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member I thought it was a very good film. Very surprised at the low audience score. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Killing Heydrich

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