Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

The Heroes of Telemark Blu-ray Movie Review

Ski Patrol.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 14, 2019

There are several World War II films dedicated to stories centered on Allied commandos who infiltrate enemy territory in order to destroy a big, bad, they'll-win-the-war-with-this something-or-another. The Guns of Navarone is probably the most widely known of them all, but The Heroes of Telemark isn't far behind. Director Anthony Mann's (El Cid) 1965 picture was the last feature he would direct before his passing in 1967. As with so many pictures of its era, Telemark features an all-star cast which includes Richard Harris and Kirk Douglas. The film is based on a pair of novels: 1954's Skis Against the Atom by Knut Haukelid and 1962's But for These Men by John Drummond. The story had previously been made into a film, 1948's Kampen om tungtvannet.

Norway, 1942. The Nazis are feverishly working to develop the atomic bomb. Success will assuredly win them the war in short order. One key component in assembling the bomb is research into the field of "heavy water." The Nazis are conducting that research deep inside Norway in the Telemark region. When Dr. Rolf Pedersen (Kirk Douglas) is given irrefutable evidence of Nazi plans and research, he joins a team that includes Knut Straud (Richard Harris) that is ordered to infiltrate Telemark and the Nazi research facility and destroy it from the inside. The mission is perilous, with the frigid, snowy elements and heavily armed Nazis in their way. But even should the mission prove successful, the resourceful fascist regime may only find the sabotage a momentary setback, not a back-breaking defeat, in its pursuit of the ultimate weapon.

The stakes couldn’t be higher, but the film could be better. If the Nazis develop the bomb, the war is over. It's a critical moment in World War II history to be sure, but it doesn't translate into a particularly epic film, at least not here. The Heroes of Telemark builds its story around truth but is not dedicated to telling it down to the letter of detail, embellishing and rearranging it to squeeze the most narrative impact and excitement from it, though how much it succeeds is up for debate. This is a picture built on procedure and thereby absent much soul or excitement. It’s overlong, a little stale, arguably a little underplayed by necessity, i.e. lacking a real sense of scale and danger, making something mundane like water, not something more tangibly dangerous like massive cannons, the focal target for the allied raid. The picture feels small despite an obvious effort to form it into a grand adventure that’s equal parts planning and plotting, terrain traversal, and character detail with action sprinkled in as necessary. Instead, it feels manufactured, cobbled together with a bit of history and a lot of movie procedure intermingling and yielding a picture that's adequate in every category and spectacular in none.

The script offers, and the film requires, little characterization. Basic character shapes come into focus as the primaries plan the mission, make the journey towards Telemark, meet up with other individuals they know from the past, and carry out their mission. It’s not until the end, however, that the film lifts the veil of stagnant and stale characters when Kirk Douglas’ Dr. Pedersen (he is very proud of his name), is forced to wrestle with an ethical choice between killing innocents and preventing larger scale murder and, ultimately, the annihilation of his way of life should the Nazis succeed in building the bomb. That, and the final sequence, yield the film’s most dramatically gripping moments which actually rise a little above procedure and engage and invest the audience beyond the routine scenes involving matter-of-fact planning, traveling, and mission execution, though at least through much of it Mann and Cinematographer Robert Krasker fold in beautiful, authentically snowy Norway locations that are always worth the price of admission even when the story is not.

The Heroes of Telemark Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For its Blu-ray release of The Heroes of Telemark, Sony has chosen to feature the film on a pressed MOD (Manufactured on Demand) disc. The image is not in immaculate condition, but it's also very watchable and generally pleasing within the constraints of an older title that has not received a through restoration. Picture imperfections include, primarily, splotches and speckling which carry through much of the film but do not appear in every scene. Additionally, edge haloing appears intermittently while smudges, vertical lines, and stray fibers make infrequent intrusions. Despite these drawbacks, the image is in fairly good shape otherwise, offering an organically filmic presentation that maintains a generally light grain structure that accentuates the image's best textural qualities, which include nicely defined facial features, detailed clothing (whether worn winter attire such as jackets and knitted gloves and sweaters or crisp Nazi military uniforms), snowy terrain, building façades, or close-ups that reveal fine object characteristics, such as seen on a wristwatch or weapons. Colors are favorable but not particularly noteworthy. Colors present with fair saturation and stability, including large screen-covering swaths of white snow. Clothing colors, a large fiery explosion at film's end, natural greens, and the like don't appear excessively faded or dull. Black levels are fair, only raised a bit here and there. This image is imperfect to be sure but fairly satisfying and very watchable on the whole.

The Heroes of Telemark Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The included two-channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack offers nothing of note beyond serviceably conveying the film's sonic needs. Most everything pushes towards a center-imaged position, which is good for dialogue, disappointing for music and effects, such as gusty blowing winds at the 28-30 minute mark that just sort of stagnantly hover in that center imaged area rather than, at the very least, spread along the front for a more immersive experience. Musical fidelity is fair at best, a little muddled and worse for age. The lack of wider spacing is a disappointment with the failure to more thoroughly engage the stage and support the movie's more dramatic and action scenes. The finale is as wide as it goes, with various sounds of chaos -- a shrieking alarm, screaming survivors of an explosion, falling and rolling cargo -- managing some much-needed spread. Action struggles to find depth. There's decent punch to canon fire and explosions in chapter 10 as the Nazis shell a town in a fairly long, intense, and frightening salvo. Gunfire finds modest pop and depth. The track's reserved, center-imaged nature is not a determent to the film; the audio presentation is simply not in the same league with more modern and refined soundtracks.

The Heroes of Telemark Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Heroes of Telemark contains no supplemental content. The main menu only has options for "Play Movie" and "Subtitles." No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

The Heroes of Telemark Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Heroes of Telemark is a perfectly serviceable picture within the larger World War II filmography. But it doesn't star, doesn't necessarily stand out beyond a few choice plusses like locations and several impressively executed scenes, including a chase scene partway through in which the heroes find themselves skiing away from the enemy, bullets hurtling towards them, with seemingly no escape in sight. The film is largely procedural in nature, though, in core plot mechanics and character details. Sony's featureless MOD Blu-ray delivers aged but very watchable 1080p video and an adequate two-channel lossless soundtrack. Worth a look.