Anthropoid

Aided by co-screenwriter Anthony Frewin, Ellis takes his time in this slow-burning thriller, which often feels more like a character study.

A compelling and moving interpretation of a largely forgotten moment in European history.

Some of these scenes are masterful – and sometimes difficult to watch. But the real horror – mass revenge killings by the Nazis, including the obliteration of the entire village of Lidice – takes place off-screen.

Dramatically, it’s not much of a movie, but if you just want to know how things went down, it’s certainly a more exciting précis than Wikipedia’s.

Of all the World War II movies about the plots to kill the architects of the Third Reich, Anthropoid is guilty of being the dullest.

The trouble is that for all the narrative intrigue and excitement such an endeavor might suggest, director Sean Ellis’ less-than-dramatic recreation of this daring act of defiance proves surprisingly stiff...barely redeemed by an even more surprisingly intense finale.

A bad movie with a good title.

This movie recounts true events of which I was not aware. It was well acted and definitely deserved a bigger box office than it achieved. Seeing the work that went into the making of this movie makes you wonder how they achieved it for the small budget.

A well-cast, well-costumed historical drama about a key WWII event which, I'm a bit ashamed to say, I didn't know about. I think that benefited the movie experience for me, as I did not know where Operation Anthropoid would be successful, and how the movie would end. But even if you know whether Heydrich killed or not, the movie is still worthwhile. The acting is good to great and the set design & costumes were quite good, with CGI kept to a minimum. There are also some terrific action / battle sequences, one of which that is quite long. It also follows history as well as one can expect in a dramatic movie, while focusing on making a watchable movie. However, I feel they could have done a better job of setting up the main operation -- why did London feel it was so important to go through with this mission? It's not enough to know he's an awful guy and a ****. I think the film should have spent ~5 minutes early in the field developing Heydrich as a character, showing how awful he is. And I can't overstate how awful he was -- after watching Anthropoid, I read up on Heydrich (I was only vaguely familiar with him) and he is truly one of the worst monster of the last 500 years; it greatly helps you understand why a mission to assassinate him, with its many risks, would be seen as worth it. He was that evil. But the film doesn't set that up. Additionally, I appreciate that all the actors used local accents, but it was a bit hard to understand, as there is some mumbling (they are plotting an assassination, after all), so using closed captions likely is a good idea. Finally, this doesn't affect my score, but the name Anthropoid sounds too much like science fiction -- even Operation Anthropoid would have been better. The camera work was a bit odd at time -- going with handheld while keeping a wide screen. It didn't always work for me. Overall, if you are interested in important history of Eastern Europe, WWII, battling fascism, or just Cillian Murphy and/or Jamie Dornan, I recommend it.

A lovingly shot, but cliched historical action thriller, Anthropoid is an above average film. Telling the true story about the men responsible for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, third-in-command for the ****, the film is clearly powerful. An undertold story of the strength of the Czechoslovakian resistance and an obviously important moment in World War II, Operation Anthropoid receives its due regards in this film from director Sean Ellis. Unfortunately, it is a mixed bag. While it has terrific cinematography, good acting, and a tremendous assassination, the latter comes too early and the film loses steam. Of course, the cliched beginning with a love triangle and the cliched WWII action sequence at the end also hinder the game. That said, the assassination is so damn good. Starring Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan as the men responsible for the assassination, Anthropoid's greatest asset is the assassination sequence. As most people should know (I ashamedly did not), they were successful to a degree. It is likely that Sean Ellis assumed building up to such a well known event would not be suspenseful enough. However, he is shown to be wrong. In the first half of this film, the build up, the planning, and the anxiety of the situation are terrifically captured. The following nervy, thrilling, and suspenseful assassination is tremendously captured. Ellis' camera makes the occasion incredibly intimate with a cloud of smoke billowing out of the area in the aftermath. The intensity of the lead up and the panic of the moments directly after is incredibly effective in setting the moment and capturing it with beautiful images and a tremendous action sequence. Rather than playing into cliches here, the film sets it apart with a unique, intense, and unexpected moment of brilliance. It also makes me want to see Jamie Dornan in a neo-noir film set in the 1940s. The suit and fedora look is just so right for him. The other strength of this film is the cinematography and production design. Shot through a sepia filter, the film looks old school and, in conjunction with the sets and locations, looks and feels authentic. Anthropoid really captures 1942 Czechoslovakia and turns it into a beautiful painting. To bolster this, Ellis sprinkles in some absolutely gorgeous shots. These include shots of the sun spilling through the sees in a forest and an aerial shot a bridge in Prague and sun reflecting off the water and the rays going under the bridge. With these shots and the general aesthetic under its belt, WWII Czechoslovakia has never looked so good and Ellis makes sure to capture this beauty. Unfortunately, its love triangle and cliched second half derail the film. With boring scenes of torture and a lackluster finale shootout in a church, Anthropoid turns into nothing more than a run-of-the-mill action thriller. The power that this really happened does not help as numerous true stories have shown the exact same action. This bad ending is proof that the assassination came too soon. It should have been the climax instead. The film would have been more detailed and a lot slower for sure, but its ending would have been worthy of the heroism on display. It is the moment that sets its heroes apart. Instead of ending there, however, Ellis' film drags on for a cliched final hour that turns them into nothing more than soldiers in a World War II film. Their identities are forgotten with writing that failed to create worthwhile characters that are memorable. They may die in a hail of bullets, but the film was killed long before. Now, I should say that the action sequence is fine. It looks good and is pretty thrilling, but there are too many films with it that pretend to be WWII thrillers. This sea of bullets turns it into nothing more than a cliched film with no element to separate it from similar films. Tremendously shot with a great assassination sequence, Anthropoid may be pretty, but it is nothing but above average. The ending is cliched, the characters underdeveloped, and the romance ill-advised. That said, the strengths of the film are so incredible, Anthropoid is impossible to look past.

Anthropoid is about the people who attempted to carry out Operation Anthropoid, an operation that, if successful, would eliminate an officer of **** who was third in line. I would like to say that's the plotline, but there's just one key catch: it's not interesting until nearly half-way in. That's pretty much the only flaw in this movie, but it's still half of a movie. That first half is all set-up that takes way too long. Most of this set-up is entirely pointless and doesn't develop the characters. Aside from almost an hour of pointlessness, the characters aren't as deep or rich as they should be. That being said, I enjoyed the action and the stand-off in the other half. They were well deserved and well-filmed. If anything, this movie is really only worth watching because of the action that puts Hollywood to shame. However, it gains nothing more than the seal of mediocrity for having too much exposition with too little payoff and kind-of flat characters.

Another modern film spoiled by poor writing. When oh when will directors realise they are not screenwriters? Sean Ellis manages to turn what could have been a gripping story into a turgid melodrama. Heydrich's assassination is largely remembered for the disgusting aftermath where the Germans massacred 15,000 Czechs in Lidice and Ležaky. That was barely alluded to in the film yet the director spent several minutes depicting the torture of individual resistance fighters. Little surprise that this poor film lost money at the boy office.