Narvik Movie Review: Netflix Drama About Innocent Citizens Stuck In The Midst Of War
Cast: Carl Martin Eggesbø, Kristine Hartgen, Stig Henrik Hoff, Henrik Mestad, Holger Handtke, Emil Johnsen, Ollie Campbell, Christoph Bach, Magnus Dugdale, Torfinn Nag
Director: Erik Skjoldbjaerg
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Narvik, a World War 2 movie from Norway, tells the story of Narvik, a small town in northern Norway that was a source of iron ore needed for Hitter’s war machine. Then it was occupied by the oddity that citizens would be protected by German soldiers. and maintain the indigo neutral status but this was the first battle that Hitler lost. The partnership between Netflix and the Nordic countries continues, with the new feature film by the acclaimed Norwegian director Erik Skjoldbjaerg, which has arrived directly in streaming internationally after being released in theaters at home during the Christmas period. A film we talked about in our Narvik review.
Narvik Movie Review: The Story Plot
It is April 1940, and the city of Narvik, in northern Norway, is of great strategic importance for Nazi Germany since through their arrival from Sweden, in the winter months when the Gulf of Bothnia is frozen, the iron ore they are the main component of the Teutonic military industry. The Allies quickly realize that taking control of the city would significantly slow down the advance of Hitler’s forces, and a plan is launched to block access to the port of Narvik. It so happens that at the same time the German invasion of Norway begins, and a war for control of the region begins. This conflict has personal consequences for the young soldier Gunnar Tofte, whose main concern is to save his wife Ingrid, and his young son.
Even if the movie tries to use the selling point as being where The German Army lost its first battle. But this is not a movie that focuses on heavy war scenes. Instead, the story chooses to present a different point from other World War 2 movies, that is, it does not present the atrocities of the German soldiers. Instead, it featured ordinary citizens who suffered from the German-British war that attempted to attack the city as it served as a base for the German army to supply iron ore. claiming to be released but the truth is that this is not always the case.
The story tells of a husband and wife who must be separated. Her husband was a soldier who stopped the Germans. before being captured as a prisoner of war. His wife works in a hotel and speaks German, therefore, becoming a necessary translator in this incident while she sheltered the British ambassador who tried to use her as a spy to send information back to the British Army to attack Germany Which means the destruction of this city as well. She had to protect her only son in every possible way. even if it was branded as treason This is where the story presents the point of view of war victims who cannot choose their lives. And the movie makes us sympathize with the life path that she was forced to choose.
While the violence of the war was not from Germany who try to take care of the townspeople as best as possible even to protect raw materials. But from many angles, we see another side of the German soldier who isn’t as inhuman as in other stories. Even the last help before the smash was available. Maybe because Norwegians are not Jewish. But it is considered a film that dares to give historical facts straight which although the story will tell clearly since believing that the Germans lost isn’t the end of the story. What’s next? And it’s at the heart of the whole story that the movie is trying to convey. Maybe victory on the battlefield is not a glamorous thing like trying to glorify each other.
Narvik Movie Review and Analysis
Gunnar has the face of Carl Martin Eggesbø, launched by the original Norwegian version of Skam and here in the second cinematic test, after appearing in another historical-themed project on Nazi-occupied Norway (specifically, that film is about the killing of Jews Norwegians during the occupation). His wife is instead played by Kristine Hartgen, who starred in a local serial production for HBO Nordic, the Scandinavian branch of the famous American cable channel. For the role of Eduard Dietl, commander of German military operations in the region, the Berliner Holger Handtke was chosen, by now a true veteran of the genre, having behind him films such as Monuments Men and Enemy at the Gates. The Teutonic consul Fritz Wussow, for his part, has the features of Christoph Bach, previously at the court of Olivier Assayas for the miniseries Carlos.
Director Erik Skjoldbjaerg first made his homeland with the thriller Insomnia, which was shot in his home region of Tromsø and later remade in Hollywood by Christopher Nolan. After that he has almost always remained in that genre, often referring to real events as in the case of Pyromaniac (presented at the Turin Film Festival in 2016), the true story of a firefighter who secretly was also an inveterate arsonist. In this sense, the story of the battle of Narvik is perfectly in line with its path, increasingly ambitious but still linked to the Norwegian reality, with an attention to the characters that goes hand in hand with the spectacular effect (and visibly appreciated by the public nationwide, as the preview held in Narvik sold out within three hours of tickets becoming available). A titanic undertaking, on and off the screen: filming began in the infamous March 2020, leading to various postponements of the release until December 2022.
Even if behind the operation there is a Scandinavian giant like Nordisk Film, one of the longest-lived production houses in the world (founded in 1906), there is still a certain inkling of a title conceived for streaming outside Norway, for the use of a fictitious couple and their private story as an emotional and narrative engine, reducing the conflict almost to a sort of annoying interruption of the daily routine. Spectacular, without a doubt, but still an interruption, with psychologies carved with the ax and an extreme simplification of the figures that appear on the screen, in particular as regards the English and Germans, transformed into cartoons that have the simple task of advancing excerpts plot and underline the “international” nature of the plot. Which for the average Netflix subscriber may be enough.
The film divides the narrative between the two lovers. In which the wife must try to survive and protect the baby while the man struggles to survive as a captive and come back as the bomber soldier with the best knowledge of this matter. The movie sells short war scenes. In the scene of the bombing of the railway line. The scene raided the cannon bomb on the cliff. for British warships to enter these scenes, although not a full-length war movie, therefore came out short, not very long it came out well at a level that looks exciting, tense, and pressured. There is a different kind of survival war movie because the protagonist must find a way to plant a large bomb, which has British and Polish soldiers joining. Fight as 3 divisions swarm the Germans.
It is considered a movie that is better than expected as well when looking at the small form of the movie. which was released at the end of last year in Norway quietly Then Netflix bought it all over the world at the same time. Last week, there was DEVOTION, a war movie that did very well as well. I recommend that anyone who likes war movies should watch both stories.
Narvik Movie Review: The Last Words
A small form of a World War 2 movie from Norway that has a different story from the real history of the battlefield where Hitler was first defeated. It focuses on the story of innocent civilians in Narvik who suffer the karma of the German-British war. Whereas Germany did its best to protect its citizens in times of war. While the British continued to attack the city until there were many victims. which is different from the image of other movies in the past, although we know at the end that Germany has lost. But this isn’t the real ending. There are more profound stories and great tragedies after that. which the film ends with the facts very perfectly and is at the heart of this whole story.
