ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

Konterr Brilliant and touching

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

tomsview It would be hard to find two braver soldiers in WW2 than Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík This film is a worthy tribute to them. Although not without flaws, Lewis Gilbert's film is an impressive work nonetheless.The film tells the true story of the assassination of Reinhardt Heydrich, the Nazi governor of Czechoslovakia, by Czech members of Britain's SOE. These included Sergeant Jan Kubiš (Timothy Bottoms), Sergeant Jozef Gabčík (Anthony Andrews) and Sergeant Karel Čurda (Martin Shaw). The story is full of heroism, but also treachery.The whole plan was so audacious it plays like Hollywood fiction, but it really happened pretty much as shown here. Although the mission was successful, the vengeance of the Nazis was terrible. The movie ends as the small band of agents are trapped in a church and go down fighting."Operation Daybreak" breathes authenticity. Scenes of the Nazi's pomp and ceremony at railway stations and in the ornate buildings of Prague are striking. It is obvious that the mainly British cast were at pains to capture the essence of their characters, but it is Anton Diffring who steals the movie in the showier role of Heydrich.Unfortunately the film is saddled with a weak score – even for a 1970's movie. The music has no feeling for the period and is jarring in places. It shows the power music has to change the mood of a film. A bizarre credit proudly proclaims that the score was composed by David Hentchel and performed on an A.R.P. Synthesiser. Hentchel's tinny chords are easily overshadowed by Deutschland über alles, the most powerful theme heard in the movie.The film also has long passages in German without subtitles. I remember seeing this film on TV years ago and it didn't have them then, and I wonder if it ever had them.I can recall at least three other movies that depict Heydrich's assassination, including two made during the war – "Hitler's Madman" and "Hangman Also Die!". Oddly, the depiction of the assassination in the otherwise well-researched mini-series "Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil", shows it taking place in the open countryside. This despite being made ten years after "Operation Daybreak", which re-enacted the event on the street corner in Prague where it happened.Director Lewis Gilbert had made some of the best British war movies by the time he made this, and although films like "Reach for the Sky", "Sink the Bismarck" and "Carve Her name with Pride" incorporated fictional characters and elements, "Operation Daybreak" seems to stick much closer to the facts.The final battle in the church is spectacular, despite the intrusion of Hentchel's score. According to information on the Internet, it's hard to know exactly what happened, although the film goes with the most accepted version of events.With an amazing true story, fascinating locale and the integrity of the filmmakers, "Operation Daybreak" rises above its flaws. In the end, it is a film that hits home.

glenn-aylett I haven't seen Operation Daybreak for many years and saw a recording last night as there was a blizzard outside and the television had gone off. Firstly, as this is based on a true story and doesn't deviate much from what really happened in Prague in 1942, Operation Daybreak is one of the best war films of all time, even if it has fallen off the radar since the seventies.Basically the plot is about a group of Czech resistance fighters(a very young Martin Shaw and Anthony Andrews play their roles excellently), who are parachuted into Czechoslovakia to assassinate the infamous, Reinhard Heydrich, second in command to Heinrich Himmler, the creator of the Holocaust and brutal governor of the country. As ever Anton Diffring is on top form doing what he does best, playing cold eyed Nazis( ironically in real life Diffring hated the Nazis and fled the country in 1939 as he was both gay and anti Nazi, something the real life Heydrich would have hated). Also Heydrich is portrayed as both a cold hearted killer and a devoted family man, again quite true to life.Yet apart from a top notch performance from Diffring, Martin Shaw and Anthony Andrews take excellent roles as the assassins, an original plan to open fire on Heydrich's special train goes wrong when another train passes, so they decide to gun him down in his open top Mercedes in Prague. True to real life events, Shaw's machine gun sticks and Heydrich is felled by a grenade thrown into the car, which leads to the evil Obergruppenfueher having to endure a slow, agonising death in hospital from internal injuries. However, in a twist to the story, with the Nazis carrying out massive reprisals for the death of Heydrich, Shaw decides to go to the Nazis and confess all, helped along by some torture, if the Gestapo leave his family alone. (In a cruel twist the Nazis torture and kill his entire family, which proves this was worthless, but Shaw continues his treachery by revealing where the resistance fighters are hiding).This is where Operation Daybreak turns into a battle worthy of better known epics, where the resistance fighters are hidden in the crypt of a church run by a sympathetic priest, played most ably by Cyril Shaps. Again largely true to events, the six resistance fighters manage to take out a large number of SS men, before the Nazis decide to flood the crypt and faced with either death by drowning, or terrible punishment by the Nazis, take their own lives.I would recommend Operation Daybreak to anyone who wants to watch a war film based on true events( the death of Heydrich has been covered before in Hangmen Also Die, but this has dated badly and was made on hearsay during the war) and also because the cast, which also includes Timothy Bottoms, Joss Ackland and Nicola Pagett, play such convincing and sympathetic roles. It's interesting as a sidenote that the scenes in Prague were actually filmed there, rather than a mock up, which is interesting as this was the height of the Cold War.

caviar_sand This movie was released in India round 1976 and I remember being stunned at that time. I of course have this in VCD - and there are many stunning moments in this film which I have watched repeatedly and recommended heavily to one and all. I also have an illustrated book titled 'Lidice: Sacrificial Village" published as part of a series on WW2 by Purnell/ Imperial War Museum in the early 1970s and judging by the photographs in the book, it is TOTALLY AMAZING in the way the producers have taken great pains to select the locations - the film was after all shot in Czechoslovakia - and the actors, the props, etc This is a True Story. Though the romance between Kubis and Anna is highly suspect - and a bit of a drag - the rest of the movie is taut and tense. This is one of the few films that brings out the fact that in war there are no heroes no villains - only victims. Though the Czech Resistance 'scored" a "hit" , the German reprisals were so devastating that the Czech Resistance almost ceased to exist for the next three years.I call this as a 'small" film because none of the cast are well known - except for a very young Joss Ackland . Anton Difring had been playing Nazis for years together but his resemblance to Reinhard Heydrich is startling - right down to the broad forehead, aquiline nose.And he is chilling as Heydrich. Overall the thematic content, visuals, performances, story telling - I would go far to say that this film is far superior to most other "grand" war films. The moody sombre music creates great atmosphere.And what is war but a test of all human emotions - friendship, betrayal, sacrifice, greed, cunning , bravery - all this and more is present in abundance in this filmTHOROUGHLY RECOMMENDED . SEE IT . GET IT .

gbeausang A fantastic film. I first saw it about 15 years ago and remembered being extremely moved by it, then I recently bought it off the web and watched it again. It was every bit as stirring.The strengths of this movie lie in the beautiful simplicity of the performances. The characters exude courage and patriotism, set against the backdrop of the savage and brutal Nazi regime in Czechoslovakia during WWII. The score is also beautiful and touching in equal measure.What really hits home however, is when you realise that this is a true story. Everything dramatised in the film actually happened. The director (Lewis Gilbert) is intelligent enough to realise that only the lightest of touches are required, there are no grandiose set pieces - he lets the narrative and the characters' emotions speak for themselves. The ending is utterly heart-rending, but the film as a whole stands as the most inspiring tale of valour against hopeless odds. Watch it when you get the chance, you will never forget it.