Originally published August 2017

World War II has been the source of inspiration and the setting for countless films and books. The stories that are centered around the period and the conflict vary radically in tone and style. There are the almost comic-book stories like Inglorious Bastards. There are stories like that of Allied, which are more fantastical and romantic about the war. There are the films like Schindler's List that focus on the horror and humanity of the time. There are films like The Great Escape, which use some true events and meet somewhere in the middle, in terms of tone. Anthropoid—yet another movie I watched on a plane recently—functions more like a mix of The Great Escape and Schindler's List. It takes the true events that involved a great deal of planning and focuses on the character drama with a lot of horror and humanity sprinkled in.

Anthropoid is inspired by the true events of the Czechoslovakian assassination attempt on the high-ranking Nazi general, Reinhard Heydrich, one of the big monsters responsible for the Final Solution. If you are familiar with WWII history, you know what happens and how the story ends, as the film does not fabricate much in terms of the big events that take place. It also doesn't do much to differentiate itself from other serious WWII movies. If you've seen other movies that use the setting and subject of Nazi tyranny, you probably know what to expect here.

Pros

• Acting is good from most of the cast

• Action scenes are tense

• Drama surrounding the aftermath of their actions is good

Cons

• Too long

• A lot of extra characters that are a struggle to keep track

• Too reliant on the natural tension of the war

Plot & Thoughts

If there were one word to describe Anthropoid, it would be: tense. The whole movie is a powder keg, with a lot of people ready to kill each other at a moment's notice. The film opens with a dramatic scene that establishes the tone and tension and keeps it for the remainder. That tension does not always earn its keep, but we'll get to that later.

The story follows two Czechoslovakian spies who have returned to their home country from Great Britain shortly after the Nazis have taken over. Former refugees turned assassins by the British government, Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcík have been sent to eliminate Heydrich. In order to do so, they will need the assistance of local anti-Nazi political leaders and resistance fighters. However, such a high-stakes task is dangerous to more than just those involved. Considering how the Nazis did things, killing a high-ranking officer like Heydrich comes at a heavy cost and the retaliation might be too much for the public to bear.

That's the gist of it. Anthropoid is a 2-hour film that focuses on the preparation, the event, and the aftermath of a historical assassination attempt. In a lot of ways, Anthropoid feels like how a heist movie spends a lot of its time preparing for the job and then finally the heist happens and things go awry. It's like Heat, with Nazis.

The problem I have with Anthropoid is that it seems too reliant on the natural tension of Nazis to make you anxious. The movie is constantly trying to make you tense for the sake of being tense. Tension is a great tool in storytelling and can help make a film or book more interesting. Here, it feels a little overused and doesn't do enough to keep me engaged for as long as the film is. There are some occasional distractions to dial it back down from time to time. There are some romances, some side plots, and some drama about whether these wannabe assassins can do the job, but a lot of it ends up feeling forced. The methods the filmmakers used to try to humanize their heroes and victims with random romances and graphic torture scenes came off as cheap and unearned. The tragedies of their stories are powerful, but the movie doesn't do enough to avoid using clichés and archetypes to make you care about their plight. I'm far more moved by watching a documentary about the real people than what Anthropoid attempts to do.

It's a shame I don't like this movie more, as the real story about the people involved and the events that take place is a very dramatic and harrowing tale; it was practically made for the cinema. Yet Anthropoid gets bogged down with a slow pace and extra archetypal characters that take away the focus on the main protagonists too much. By the end, I didn't feel that I really knew who Kubis and Gabcík were. I just knew that they went through the same formulaic scenarios as other heroes in these types of movies.

TL;DR (Conclusion)

Anthropoid is a surprisingly mediocre attempt to tell a very harrowing real tale. The acting and dialogue are fine, but the slow and methodical pace of the movie, as well as its reliance on familiar movie tropes about Nazis prevent it from being very engaging. If you know the real story, there's no reason to see Anthropoid. If you don't know the real story, you've likely already seen other, better movies like it.

Do you agree or disagree? Tell me what you think in the comments!

Fan of death metal? Check out my band on Bandcamp and Soundcloud. If you like what you hear and want to hear more, head to HoundsofInnsmouth.com for more info!