The Man with the Iron Heart
July. 07,2017 RWith the Third Reich at its peak in 1942, the Czech resistance in London plans the most ambitious military operation of WWII – Anthropoid. Two young recruits are sent to Prague to assassinate the most ruthless Nazi leader – Reinhardt Heydrich, head of the SS, the Gestapo and the architect of the Final Solution.
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Reviews
everything you have heard about this movie is true.
It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Saw 'The Man with the Iron Heart' as somebody fascinated by the subject it covers, and by the man who really did have an iron heart and earned the ire of even Hitler himself. Also really like a lot of biopics and there are a few talented names. 'The Man with the Iron Heart' is a brave attempt at telling this story, but it is also agreed frustratingly uneven and disjointed. The general consensus is that the first half is better than the second half, personally found that the case too after viewing it. It is far from a terrible film, there are a number of strengths here, but it could have been so much more. And is what is meant by that it is frustrating that 'The Man with the Iron Heart' is uneven is that the flaws of the second half could easily have been avoided. Starting with the strengths, much of the film looks great visually. There is a real feeling of evocative authenticity, with attractive costumes that captured the era well, elegant interiors and very atmospherically grim landscapes. The music is suitably haunting and the direction fares strongest in the first half and the harrowing scenes that are uncompromisingly powerful.First half is very interesting and compelling, with some very thought-provoking writing. When the film focuses on Heydrich, his motives and his family life, it is where it most excels, being very engrossing, emotional and intense, actually also taking time to show what happens and being structured in a way that makes sense. Even if there could have been even more meat to what was told.Although 'The Man with the Iron Heart' is a problematic film, the blame does not lie with the cast which is actually the main saving grace. Rosamund Pike especially is excellent as Lina (am really liking where her career is going), while Jason Clarke portrays Heydrich's iron heart, lack of compassion and coldness adeptly. Mia Wasikowska gives one of her better performances to date here and is one of the main reasons to stick with the second half. It is really unfortunate that the second half is nowhere near as good. The inferior quality and the shift in focus gives a really disjointed feel and like the two halves were two films in one. The focus on those who tried to assassinate Heydrich is nowhere near as illuminating or compelling, just didn't find myself involved or engaged by it. The characters are sketchily written, the opposite to Heydrich and Lina who did have intriguing character development if still not quite enough. Furthermore there is no tension and what is covered is rushed through with no attention to depth or sense, the odd almost incomplete-feeling structure and some strangely amateurish filming (which wasn't as apparent in the first half) also confusing it. The flashforward was not needed at all, further diluting any suspense by explicitly revealing what happened. Although Heydrich is still interesting, the film did miss an opportunity in properly fleshing him out due to not focusing on him enough. Overall, interesting, well acted and (mostly) made and brave but disjointed, uneven and rushed. 6/10 Bethany Cox
You start to see it and the movie promises to be good. You see how a man grows in the ranks and how he changes his family life. But for me it has a very big problem, when the action scenes arrive, the camera becomes so crazy, it moves so much, that sometimes I get lost, it makes me dizzy. It's French cinema and it does not look like it, it's much more American than the average of its films and I like that, but even so, it does not get to be great on a technical level.The protagonist actors are great, everyone, none fails, that's a great achievement for the film. But it has a cast of actors, although many are secondary, are luxury.Costumes, art and makeup are very good. If you do these departments badly in this type of movie, everything is dropped, but it is very well done. Photography is neither very good nor very bad, in pieces it is good and in pieces it is bad. When you're indoors, it's still a trend to put a lot of light in the window and you need sunglasses to see it.The address, there are times that I wonder if he knows where he is going and what he wants to tell. Place the camera in places that do not say anything, that does not make sense. Action scenes get out of hand and it's too long.However, you can see it and although it is not going to be a great movie, it can be seen
"We made a monster, a devil out of Hitler. Therefore we couldn't disavow it after the war. After all, we mobilized the masses against the devil himself. So we were forced to play our part in this diabolic scenario after the war. In no way we could have pointed out to our people that the war only was an economic preventive measure." -- US foreign minister James Baker (1992)
For a start, I was expecting a sweet WWII movie, about the backgrounds, how Heydrich was solving problems. I hoped, that i will see some facts and some fantasies to be mashed up. Instead I got something boring. No better word.The film starts with introducing Heydrich in montages, and gives us some scenes about Heydrich's problems. But what are these problems' influences on the Obergruppenführer, we won't know that. Basically the first half is a montage, made out of montages.Then the focus moves to two rebels, who are planned to murder Heydrich. This part was more interesting, actually you want them to be successful. I was confused, that isn't this a movie about one officer? Appareantly, no, it's not. But this part was spoiled too. It's so heroic, that it just doesn't with the whole movie.And about the movie's quality: oh my god. I don't know if the cameraman had a shaking hand, or scenes are intentionally trembling, either way it looks awful. Top on this, the edit made it worse, so much stabilizing was added, it is visible with lots of ghost pictures...To summarize: my best entertainment was to recognize the Hungarian shooting sites.