Yu Ma
The distance between love and hate, justice and evil, courage and fear. The most impressive plot is on the court. Eight courageous human, eight warrior. Not enough nail-biting scenes and plots, paying more attention on human nature and common people.The whole story-line is based on the second World War, the condition of Denmark. And this film is on of the most boomed Danish Film after 2000. Natural acting expression and fantastic scenes, vivid explaining a true story happened in 1942 Denmark.Even they know attempts would failed, they still tried. That is why called brave heart.
nannanysted
This movie was a parody and is waaaay too overrated in Denmark. I remember when it came out and everybody was going crazy about how awesome it was. I've never really been a fan of Anne Grethe Bjarup Riis but I promised myself that I wouldn't let that OR the fact that it had been hyped that much affect me - so I watched it with an open mind.That didn't help for long. The first third of the movie is terribly awkward. The dialog is forced and the acting is bad which might be due to aforementioned. I watched it with my 17 year-old sister and even she could actually see it and said that it reminded her of performing an act in high school which I think describes it very well. I do give it a 4, though. The acting, directing, screenplay (etc.) might be bad (which is upsetting as the true story about the Hvidsten Group has great potential) but it does tell the story of brave men and women that fought on the right side in Denmark during WWII. They deserve to be reminded and the movie might have opened people's eyes and it DID touch me - but only because I was reminded that it is based on something that really happened. Despite from that I think the actor Bodil Jørgensen deserves some credit. She manages (pretty much as the only one) to really make something good out of the bad screenplay and made the movie less of a comedy to watch throughout.If you are curious about the resistance group, Hvidsten Group, and don't bother taking the time to read about it - sure, go ahead and watch the movie. However, I would personally recommend the reading.
erik-istrup
After seeing the film, and now think back to what made the biggest impression, I can say that it is the stunning performance of the characters in the film. An incredibly authentic presentation, both in duologue and body language, and with a great empathy for each role. It is nice to see, that Denmark is still able to bring good acting to the world. The plot shows how naive and trusting in the cause and right the right thing to do, that would be necessary to start an upraising in the first place. The film stands out, by not containing the violence and brutality, that is most common among films describing this particular period. - Thank you for this experience.
TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews
Denmark, 1942. The Fiil couple, Marius and Gudrun(who have some of the best and most powerful screen-time), are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, along with the birth of their first grandchild. Invited to the tavern they own and run is their family and their friends from both the Jutland village of Hvidsten and the surrounding areas(and these fallible, normal average Joe's are who we follow for the duration, and from their perspective, which has a certain intimacy to it; also, several things are more effective on account of that, such as plane fly-bys(heck, I ducked in my seat to not get hit by it), which demand surround sound, and are a fantastic reason for you to see this in the theater), and these early scenes help us get to know them(making it have an impact when we later see him recruiting them... and the tough choice has to be made - can one really make a difference, and what will happen to the relatives if one gets caught, etc.), see them in a pleasant situation(and these parties are very comfortable, you feel like you're there with them) and the credible characters and their close(and realistic) relationships with each other are established and developed. With a cast of over a dozen, obviously not everyone gets a lot of time, but few are one-note. The acting has been criticized... honestly, I can see that maybe a third of it(shared by almost everyone in this, meaning no one is consistently poor) is unconvincing, perhaps downright bad. That's it. The rest of it is great. This is a compelling film. For the first half, the Nazis are not seen very much in this, and once they appear, they come off like the machines from the flashbacks in The Terminator(original); relentless killing machines that you want to avoid at all costs(they are the only people in this that don't come off as full humans(and they shouldn't, because they wouldn't to these untrained, small town farmers in this position. In the first 10-20 minutes, the occupation is just under the surface, barely mentioned, because when you're experiencing it, you can't maintain your sanity if you constantly focus on it. This is practically purely filmed with hand-held camera, which serves two functions(and well, at that). It makes the scenes of these regular people seem natural, like they're right in front of you. And it has the Paul Greengrass thing going for it, making it more gripping. This is a highly tense film(and little of it is false(if it does sometimes suffer from the Danish movie issue of not having consequences to negative occurrences)... near the very end, there is a sequence that, as one of the few, strains credulity and frankly detracts from the whole. This is also the only point where this feels slow, the pacing is otherwise very good, and the running time of around two hours is fitting), you're on the edge of your seat for the majority, not only when people may die. I would classify it as a drama-thriller, not an action flick. It's not spy stuff, it's trying to hide from the Germans. This gets a genuine emotional response from the viewer. It is not sentimental. The use of traditional Danish music(some of it proud) is marvelous(international audiences will sadly miss some of that). This has very nice humor, as well. There is plenty of disturbing content and a little bloody violence in this. I recommend this to everyone mature enough. 8/10
