I was extremely lucky to win an advanced screening to go see a new film called Anthropoid on August 10th (The film comes out August 12th). I’ve been following this movie, ever since I saw the trailer on IMDb about 4 or 5 months ago. After watching the trailer, 3 times in a row, I knew I needed to see this movie as soon as I could. Mostly considering my major in university was History, and what made me want to study history was World War II.
Anthropoid is based on the true story of Operation Anthropoid. This operations mission was to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the main architect behind Hitler’s “Final Solution” and on top of that, Heydrich was the third in command in Hitlers Third Reich after Hitler and Himmler.
My excitement for this film was through the roof after the trailer, but I am not familiar with the director at all. His name is Sean Ellis, he best known for writing and directing a film called CashBack (2006) and Metro Manila (2013). After seeing this film, I want to track down a couple more of his films to check out, I have seen the light in Sean Ellis. After Anthropoid, and seeing the ways in which his story and his way around a camera created a very high tension, historical thriller.
The film stars Jamie Dornan as Jan Kubis (best known for Fifty Shades of Grey, Marie Antoinette, and a TV series where he stars opposite Gillian Anderson (Scully from The X-Files) called The Fall). I’ve never seen any of Dornan’s films until today, but I have to admit I enjoyed his acting. Cillian Murphy who plays Josef Gabcik (I’m most familiar with Murphy’s work prior to this film than anyone else, Murphy was in Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010)and The Dark Knight Trilogy, he was also in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later(2002) and Sunshine(2007). I’ve always really enjoyed his acting, he takes some very unique roles and always plays them very well. Other than the story of Anthropoid, it was Murphy’s name on the credit page that was the cherry on top.
I feel as if this film will transcend into many different genres and types of movie goers. Yes it is based around historical facts and based on actual events, but it is definitely a brilliant thriller. It is a perfect, very slow burn but high pay off film. Usually, I find these films that try to attempt the slow burn, lose me in the burning. Anthropoid is like a candle, the film starts off with a BANG in the beginning scene and doesn’t really let go from the grasp of your skin until the credits roll.
The third act of the film, is a beautiful game of cat and mouse. Without spoilers, the whole film is delightfully building up to this brilliant third act. But allow me to introduce you to the edge of your seat, because you won’t be leaving that edge until the finale.
My only gripe with the film, was the accents were difficult to hear… now this could be just because the sound in the movie theatre could’ve been crappy, but as the movie progressed it was much easier to understand what some actors were saying.
If you enjoy thrillers, I definitely recommend checking it out. If you love history or World War II, you owe it to yourself to check it out. If you just want a damn good movie, and you want to learn something… WHAT ARE YOU DOING STILL READING THIS! GO SEE THIS MOVIE NOW!
I love this movie, I give it a rating of 5/5.
I will be going to see this movie again in theatres, and I will say this… this is the best film I have seen in 2016 so far.
Just wow!
-Andrew
**my next review will probably be War Dogs, as I see an advanced screening of it on wednesday**
Update – August 29th – I keep thinking about this film, and I went back to see it again and it was even better the second time. I’m actually going to take my Uncle to see it as he is a history buff as I am and I think he will really like it, thats 3 times i’ll be going to see this movie in theatres, and it’ll be a day one purchase on blu ray. For that, I upped the score to a 5/5.