The Man with the Iron Heart (2017)

Having read and loved Laurent Binet's superb HHhH, I've been eagerly awaiting this film. Alas, it was hardly worth the wait. The earlier released Anthropoid was a far superior adaptation (or was, at least, a better depiction of the events of Heydrich's assassination).

Other reviewers here have done a nice job detailing the problems this film has as a 'film' so I will only mention two more. Most importantly, Jason Clarke is simply not 'pretty' enough to play Heydrich. Indeed, part of history's fascination with Heydrich is because, physically, he was the perfect Aryan: blonde, tall, sculpted if not chiselled physiognomy, etc. Other than his blonde hair, Clarke's marked and jowled features are completely dissimilar to Heydrich's and served only to distract. Clarke's miscasting is only slightly more jarring than the use of Stephen Graham to play Himmler. Unable or unwilling to project Himmler's menace, Graham comes across more avuncular than sinister. No one would cower in the presence of Graham's pudgy Himmler.

I was also disappointed by the movie's many historical inaccuracies and omissions. Einsatzgruppen executions are shown repeatedly as being by a bullet to the torso, whereas a shot in the nape of the neck was their trademark. The boy being tortured is shown to be around 10-years-old when he fact the real 'boy' was actually a mature 17 years, already engaged to be married. Likewise what got him to talk was having his mother's head placed in his lap (others say it was placed in a fish bowel) but not by having to watch the torture of someone else as is depicted here. And, where was Hitler at Heydrich's funeral? For some reason the writer's chose to pretend he didn't attend, but of course he attended and delivered an inflammatory eulogy while he was there. There are many more such errors. Admittedly these are small details but their cumulative effect was to take me out of the film. They also made me wonder what other, perhaps more important facts the movie had botched.

Fmovies: This film's title should've been the Ayan slab of beef with a machiavellian wife

This film makes the truly evil, truly... creative (in some of the most inhumane ways imaginable), noting more than a testosterone-fuelled brainless boob, who - solely at his wife's instigation, got to where he was.

I'm a student of history - I've read many books over the years, and in all my readings of Heydrich and his role in the Third Reich, nowhere was this dual-headed hydra of evil mentioned.

The real Heydrich was terrifying in his utterly blandness; from his appearance - somewhat delicate features, but in the manifestation of Mr Jason Clarke (in a terrible bleach blond wig, which only accentuate good heavy brutish features, he looks like a steroid-fuelled Hitler youth leader, whereas the real Heydrich looked like he could be a librarian, but, in fact, thought up a plan to exterminate millions.

While many films about this period have been made - and have been made with casts from all over the world, this. almost 'it's a small world' group of actors - all with different accents (I could've sworn that when 'Heydrich' was the defendant at a case brought against him when he was a member of the navy, his commanding officers spoke with Dutch accents - and it seemed he did as well - at least for that scene), the overall effect was very jarring.

Usually a cast - no matter where they're from - all seem to audibly blend into 'this is how Germans will sound in this film', but here, that important 'curtain' is 'raised', and doesn't let the viewer forget they're watching ''actors'.

The only person who's performance was of any note was Stephen Graham as Heinrich Himmler. Himmler is someone who's appearance is much more familiar to people than his actual voice - his public speaking was not something which either he (the real one) needed to do, professionally (as head of the SS) or personally (to be adulated by the roaring masses). . I really wished this film wasn't so terrible as it ultimately is, as I think the person of Reinhard Heydrich is not very well known, since he died several years before the end of the war, and therefore he never was brought to justice. He was a very important figure in the Third Reich, but, was - by necessity - a person, who - though he was a major mastermind of the Final Solution, he was a shadow

That film on that real - very quiet-seeming, but extremely dangerous person is must definitely not this one, it still hasn't been made.

This film tells the story of the man who was in charge of hideous war crimes, i.e. The Extermination program, in Nazi Germany. A group of Czechoslovakian people try to rebel and attempt to assassinate him.

The first hour of the film is all about Reinhard, as he climbs up to the top with the most terrible policy. The film shows that many people are brutally murdered for no reason, and Reinhard has no passion or compassion for the victims. In fact, he has no feelings at all, even towards his wife. The story is engaging up to this point, and Rosamund Pike is great a well. However, in the second part of the film, the story is derailed to tell the story of the resistance force. I may have missed why the resistance fighters decide to stand up and fight, and indeed their background story. I don't feel any connection to them at all, and the sudden shift in the spotlight to the resistance fighter appear to be a distraction to me. The final scene at the church crypt is touching though.

The Man with the Iron Heart fmovies. "HHhH" ("The Man with the Iron Heart") is a decent historical war drama. It scores high marks for authenticity regarding locations, costumes, mores and props; however, with the exception of a few bare breasts, feels like a television movie. Although several thousand people are brutally murdered, the violence feels antiseptic, with a few spurts of blood and red stains on costumes, but no sense of either physical or emotional trauma. The nearly universal use of jiggly-cam shots serves as a constant distracting reminder that somebody is holding a camera, preventing the audience from ever fully suspending disbelief. Performances are good, but seem repressed, even when Reinhard tears up a room in frustration.

At the end, the viewer is left wondering what it all means. Tremendous risks were taken, resulting in terrible consequences. The filmmakers offer no interpretation or moral and insufficient perspective for the audience to make their own judgment.

So Laurent Binet writes an interesting account of the Heydrich/Anthropoid story, almost as a stream of consciousness around the details, with an added sidenote about the difficulty of sticking to the facts.

The book becomes popular, so it gets turned into a film. The film sticks to the known facts, necessarily ditches the whole first- person subtext of the book - so then becomes just another film about Anthropoid.

And completely wastes its opportunity. Its so dull and uninspired, it can't even keep the name of the book and switches to the more generic "The Man With The Iron Heart" - which still isn't accurate because its more about Anthropoid than Heydrich. Following Atentat, Operation Daybreak and Anthropoid - if you're going to tell this story again, you'd better have a reason to. It needs a writer like Sorkin to distill the plentiful ironies and conflicts between the lines, address the characters of these people and what motivates them. HHhH comes across as criminally bland and uninspired, there's not a single suspenseful or emotional note in the whole film.

Saw 'The Man with the Iron Heart' as somebody fascinated by the subject it covers, and by the man who really did have an iron heart and earned the ire of even Hitler himself. Also really like a lot of biopics and there are a few talented names.

'The Man with the Iron Heart' is a brave attempt at telling this story, but it is also agreed frustratingly uneven and disjointed. The general consensus is that the first half is better than the second half, personally found that the case too after viewing it. It is far from a terrible film, there are a number of strengths here, but it could have been so much more. And is what is meant by that it is frustrating that 'The Man with the Iron Heart' is uneven is that the flaws of the second half could easily have been avoided.

Starting with the strengths, much of the film looks great visually. There is a real feeling of evocative authenticity, with attractive costumes that captured the era well, elegant interiors and very atmospherically grim landscapes. The music is suitably haunting and the direction fares strongest in the first half and the harrowing scenes that are uncompromisingly powerful.

First half is very interesting and compelling, with some very thought-provoking writing. When the film focuses on Heydrich, his motives and his family life, it is where it most excels, being very engrossing, emotional and intense, actually also taking time to show what happens and being structured in a way that makes sense. Even if there could have been even more meat to what was told.

Although 'The Man with the Iron Heart' is a problematic film, the blame does not lie with the cast which is actually the main saving grace. Rosamund Pike especially is excellent as Lina (am really liking where her career is going), while Jason Clarke portrays Heydrich's iron heart, lack of compassion and coldness adeptly. Mia Wasikowska gives one of her better performances to date here and is one of the main reasons to stick with the second half.

It is really unfortunate that the second half is nowhere near as good. The inferior quality and the shift in focus gives a really disjointed feel and like the two halves were two films in one. The focus on those who tried to assassinate Heydrich is nowhere near as illuminating or compelling, just didn't find myself involved or engaged by it. The characters are sketchily written, the opposite to Heydrich and Lina who did have intriguing character development if still not quite enough.

Furthermore there is no tension and what is covered is rushed through with no attention to depth or sense, the odd almost incomplete-feeling structure and some strangely amateurish filming (which wasn't as apparent in the first half) also confusing it. The flashforward was not needed at all, further diluting any suspense by explicitly revealing what happened.

Although Heydrich is still interesting, the film did miss an opportunity in properly fleshing him out due to not focusing on him enough.

Overall, interesting, well acted and (mostly) made and brave but disjointed, uneven and rushed. 6/10 Bethany Cox