Aka The Price of Freedom. He’s the only one to whom Adolf Hitler really listens. In 1942 Czechoslovakia, SS-General Reinhard Heydrich (Anton Diffring) is appointed to become the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. The terror and oppression that follow cause Allied authorities and the Czechoslovak Government in exile in London to authorise a secret mission to kill the military dictator who has come to be nicknamed `The Butcher of Prague’. Czech natives Jan Kubis (Timothy Bottoms) and Jozef Gabcik (Anthony Andrews) are trained as commandos by the Special Operations Executive and parachuted back from Britain into their home country where with Slovak soldier Sergeant Karel Curda (Martin Shaw) they plot the Nazi’s assassination and Anna Malinova (Nicola Pagett) assists them as part of a Resistance group. Following the ambush at a junction during which Jozef’s Sten gun jams and fails to fire but Jan throws an anti-tank mine, resulting in Heydrich’s death, there are massive German reprisals and a traitor in their midst … There’s a legend that says any unrightful person who wears the crown will die within the year. Adapted by Ronald Harwood from Alan Burgess’ book Seven Men at Daybreak, this true story (known as Operation Anthropoid) of the Czech resistance to the Nazi occupation doesn’t spare the grim documentary-style detail of a foiled plot and its inevitably tragic outcome. The synth score by David Hentschel lends gravitas to dramatising the two clusters of relationships with differing power dynamics that collide in a final scene sequence that will have you shivering as the waters flood the crypt of SS. Cyril and Methodius Cathedral following a betrayal in the ranks. Diffring is appropriately chilling as the vicious oppressor with several uncomfortable scenes juxtaposing what he says with what he enforces (he was responsible for either murdering or removing two thirds of the population and had been one of the organisers of Kristallnacht). Bottoms and Andrews have good chemistry as the protagonists and in the light of Nicola Pagett’s recent death it’s nice to remind ourselves of why she was such a cherished performer. Photographed by Nouvelle Vague legend Henri Decae and directed by Lewis Gilbert. He’s heavily guarded all the time!/He slows down!
mondomovies 