All right, so the chances of anyone else having the chance to benefit from this review are... low.
I saw this movie yesterday, and had come prepared for 'yet another World War II movie', complete with bloody gore, evil Germans, and some heroic American singlehandedly taking out an entire regiment of Nazis or some other such nonsense.
Should've known that, as it's not an American movie, that didn't happen.
Max Manus is the story of a group of Norwegian saboteurs during the second World War working to reclaim the country that was stolen from them. The main character, Max, has gained a bit of notoriety, having been twice caught by the Germans and twice escaped. Though there is a bit of bloody gore (primarily in the scene from Finland and during some of the shootouts with the Germans), it's far from the point of the movie.
The primary aim, rather, is telling about the relationships between the men of the Oslo Group. And in this the movie really shines.
The main complaints of the reviewers about the movie was that there was no moral dilemma, that the characters didn't seem to feel that maybe blowing up ships is morally wrong. However, I believe that this is because, for them, there was no problem; they were doing whatever it took to take back Norway.
Aside from minor details, the story is actually very much true. Max's wife, Tikken, and the one remaining member of the Oslo Group (who is now 92 years old) both commented on how true it was to reality.
Some random bits of trivia:
*Norway was invaded by the Germans in WWII. Yes, really. No, the rest of the world didn't particularly care.
*The movie was filmed mostly in Oslo, where they'd just close off some streets, bring in anyone who could pass for being dressed from the 1940s as extras, and generally confuse a good portion of the population.
*When the Nazi flag flew from the Parliament building for a day of shooting, a couple of uninformed minor newspapers thought the Nazis had come to power in Germany once again.
*All the parts with other languages (primarily German and English) were subtitled, save the scene that was almost completely Swedish. Needless to say, Fel didn't understand that scene...
