Atentát
Regie:
Jiří Sequens st.Kamera:
Rudolf MiličBesetzung:
Radoslav Brzobohatý, Rudolf Jelínek, Ladislav Mrkvička, Luděk Munzar, Jiří Kodet, Josef Vinklář, Siegfried Loyda, Harry Studt, Wolf Goette (mehr)Inhalte(1)
It is autumn 1941. Acting Reichsprotector Reinhard Heydrich has taken up his position in the occupied Czech lands and Moravia. His old rival from the Nazi supremoes, Admiral Canaris, objects to Heydrich's cruelty, which raises great hatred everywhere he goes. Meanwhile, selected Czechoslovak soldiers undergo paratrooper training in Great Britain; the soldiers are then to be dropped into Czech territory to support the local resistance. Several groups of well-trained men will soon see their homeland. They succeed in contacting members of the resistance and find a hiding place in Prague. They manage to contact the command in Britain via transmitter. The required air-raid on the Škoda factory in Plzeň fails. Heydrich and Canaris visit the St Vitus' Cathedral and the Reichsprotector capriciously puts the crown of the Bohemian kings on his head - an act which, as the legend goes, will bring him death. Two of the soldiers - Strnad and Vyskočil - assassinate Heydrich. They step in front of his car, severely wound the Protector and run away. Heydrich dies and the revenge of the occupying forces is horrendous. Hundreds of citizens are executed. The village of Lidice is burnt to the ground and all its inhabitants are massacred. Due to the betrayal of one of the paratroopers, Karel Vrbas, the Nazis find the church where the others are hiding. All those who had hitherto provided them a shelter are arrested and executed. The paratroopers, however, do not give up and those who survive the fire fight kill themselves rather than surrender. (Verleiher-Text)
(mehr)Kritiken (4)
Undoubtedly Sequens' best film, nevertheless those five stars are, after all, for the subject matter, because the assassination of the Reich protector is extremely attractive, strong artistic material. The screenplay this time wrote history... Sequens did not belong to our directing elite despite all efforts, but given that he worked with the acting elite, he tried for a realistic reconstruction and avoided cheap pathos, resulting in a great film. Overall impression 90%.
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Dieses Werk sucht seinesgleichen. Für mich persönlich wurde es einfach von Anfang an, von Beethoven, bis zum Ende in der Kirche und der Krypta darunter, auf völlig realistische Weise verfilmt … Čurdas Ruf: "Jungs, kommt raus, euch wird nichts passieren. Mir ist auch nichts passiert!“ ging mir noch lange danach im Kopf herum. Kurz gesagt: Der beste tschechische Kriegsfilm, der sich durchaus mit der ausländischen Konkurrenz messen kann. Wenn man Sequens im Vergleich zu Vávra betrachtet – eine solche Atmosphäre wird nie wieder jemand erschaffen.
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As a reconstruction of one brief phase of Czech history, The Assassination works well. The atmosphere of occupied Prague is excellent, the German actors are truly evil and, from the point of view and the dramatic flow, the film is up to its serious, blood-stained premise. In addition, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is flawlessly incorporated into the opening credits, which are chilling in themselves. However, at closer inspection, the structure creaks noticeably. Everything is dealt with very quickly, especially in the first half, the assassination itself comes almost out of nowhere, and the good guys in particular are desperately monotonous – none of them gets much space and it's very hard to like any of them enough that we don't really wish them dead. That said, the riveting pace is not always a bad thing, especially in the action-packed ending, where form finally triumphs slightly over content and where the hopelessness and the vision of impending death permeating the entire story finally turns into the film's main asset. The generous 4 stars are for the excellent ending.
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Jiří Sequens simply knew how to film action movies that aren't completely dull, but will captivate you. Plus, in this case, there's essentially no ideology involved, and it focuses only on how the assassination of Heydrich unfolded or could have unfolded, as well as what happened behind the scenes and what followed. Much of it is just from dialogues, but sometimes that's enough.
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