It may be because we are far from the big events of international festivals, but the cinematographic "convent" in this period is not passing big titles and it is necessary to be satisfied and, perhaps, even find something worthy. The film we propose this week is The man with the iron heartdirected by Cédric Jimenez, based on a novel by Laurent Binet, in turn inspired by a true story.
Given that it is a film with objective narrative difficulties due to a hard, bad material, and refers first of all to the immeasurable cruelty of which a part of mankind is capable, expressed in an absolute way with what happened during the Second World War in work of the Nazis. This particular "war" genre has generated countless titles that have often made the history of cinema. One above all, relatively similar to this one, deserves to be remembered: Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, released in 2009.
The story tells all the previous phases, the preparation and the execution of the attack, which actually took place in May 1942 in Prague, against Reinhard Heydrich, right arm of Heinrich Himmler, creator and implementer of the "final solution" intended to exterminate millions of Jews and, previously, author and material organizer of the "Night of the Long Knives" massacre. The film is divided into two parts: the first summarizes his rise to power in the Nazi hierarchies, the second the operational stages of the attack. In Great Britain there are groups of young Czech refugees, trained by the RAF to then be parachuted into their country and carry out activities to contrast the invading German army, governed precisely by Heydrich.
The allied forces decide that it is necessary to hit one of the most dangerous men of the Berlin regime and, for this occasion, two young men are chosen and trained with the specific task of killing what was called "the butcher of Prague" for the total brutality used to massacre unarmed civilians as well as partisans and political opponents. The film exhaustively tells all the real events and the main characters respond well to the role assigned (Jason Clarke and Rosamund Pike, in her now consolidated role as an often cynical and ruthless woman) together with the two young actors Jack O'Connell and Jack Reynor the real protagonists.
From a strictly cinematographic point of view, it is a good job, performed with sufficient reliability: timing, scenography and staging make the environment and the period in which the story takes place well. It is likely that narrative forcing may have occurred in many passages, just to convey a relative dimension of emotional expectation until the end on how the story is destined to end, without detracting from the historical sources that inspired the story.
It may not be a film destined to win prestigious international awards, but it also deserves to be seen as a tribute to those who, in one of the darkest periods of recent history, sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the entire continent. By the way, the film comes out in theaters just before Remembrance Day, January 27th.
