Anthropoid (2016)
Directed by Sean Ellis
In December 1941, Czech soldiers Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš parachute into their occupied homeland to assassinate Nazi officer Reinhard Heydrich.
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4 films that influenced Anthropoid
What critics say influenced Anthropoid
In Hollywood’s alternate history of World War II, Tom Cruise tried and failed to assassinate Adolf Hitler in the loosely fact-based “Valkyrie,” as did Walter Pidgeon in Fritz Lang’s thoroughly fictional “Man Hunt,” before Brad Pitt finally managed to get the job done with the help of his fellow “Inglourious Basterds.”
Based on the true story of Operation Anthropoid, this offering from director and co-writer Sean Ellis (Cashback) dishes out moldy drama leavened with thrilling action, although the war scenes unwittingly evoke the war-is-hell bloodlust of the Inglourious Basterds movie-within-a-movie Nation’s Pride more than anything else.
The tonal shift — a little "Call the Midwife" here, a little "Inglourious Basterds" there — is jarring, but doesn't derail the film.
The movie shares qualities with Paul Verhoeven’s 2006 naughty Black Book (and to a lesser extent, Inglourious Basterds ), but needed much more of those filmmakers’ genre-blasting verve.
Here, the film is only occasionally goosed by the ever-welcome presence of Toby Jones, once a Nazi in Captain America: The First Avenger , now lending support as a soulful resistance fighter.
One of the problems with Valkyrie was that it was difficult to get past Tom Cruise (although Brad Pitt in Fury could provide a counter-argument).
British writer/director Sean Ellis ( Cashback , The Broken , Metro Manila) isn’t the first filmmaker to tackle the 1942 mission to assassinate high-ranking Nazi Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.
Director/cowriter/cinematographer Sean Ellis (previously responsible for the oddball SIFF favorite Cashback) is on ferocious point from the opening titles, establishing the often conflicting personalities of his leads through their early actions and quickly conveying the virtual impossibility of their mission.
Based on the true story of Operation Anthropoid, this offering from director and co-writer Sean Ellis (Cashback) dishes out moldy drama leavened with thrilling action, although the war scenes unwittingly evoke the war-is-hell bloodlust of the Inglourious Basterds movie-within-a-movie Nation’s Pride more than anything else.
But Ellis, whose career was ironically minted on the strength of the withering visual wit that defined his 2006 debut, “Cashback,” knows that he has history on his side.
The script, by co-writer/director Sean Ellis (“Cashback”) and Anthony Frewin (“Color Me Kubrick”) captures the loose planning and the massive effort it takes just to gather intel on Heydrich’s habits, just to blend into Prague.
The no-nonsense screenplay by director-producer-cinematographer Sean Ellis (Cashback) and longtime Stanley Kubrick assistant Anthony Frewin (Color Me Kubrick) begins in 1941, with two soldiers from the Czechoslovakian army-in-exile parachuting back into German–occupied Czechoslovakia.