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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Narvik’ on Netflix, a World War II Historical-Fiction Saga About the Nazi Invasion of Neutral Norway

Where to stream:.

• World War II

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File Norwegian action-drama Narvik (now on Netflix) under Earnest Not Widely Told Stories of World War II, now Significantly More Widely Told thanks to director Erik Skjoldbjaerg (who notably helmed the original version of Insomnia , famously remade by Christopher Nolan, as well as Prozac Nation ). It’s set in 1940 in the title town, a seaside community that, as a series of opening subtitles outline, was a strategic linchpin in the conflict between Allied forces and Nazi dickheads, the latter of whom invaded Norway, betraying the country’s status as a neutral state. And as these movies so often go, a smaller story finds itself ensconced in the larger one, in this case, that of a Norwegian soldier who heads off to fight the bad guys while his wife half-works for the occupying German jerks as a translator. The premise sets up some potentially fraught drama; now let’s see what Skjoldbjaerg delivers.

NARVIK : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Yes, even neutral countries need armies, or “neutrality guards.” Norway had them during the WWII era, but they weren’t neutral for very long – a railway cut through the country transporting iron ore from Sweden to the waters of the Ofotfjorden, and both the British and the Nazis wanted to control this resource. In the long run, it might’ve been easier for Norway to just drop the neutrality thing and join the morally upright forces against fascism, but they didn’t, and Narvik paid the price. But we’re not here to talk about foreign policy. No, this story is about the Tofte family: Gunnar (Carl Martin Eggesbo) is a corporal in the neutrality guard. Ingrid (Kristine Hartgen) works for a Narvik hotel where negotiations between British and German diplomats go poorly. They have a little boy, Ole (Christoph Gelfert Mathiesen), and Gunnar’s father Aslak (Stig Henrik Hoff) helps take care of the child.

We meet the Toftes as Gunnar begs for a few hours’ leave in order to give Ole a toy train for his birthday. Gunnar and Ingrid are pretty much still in the refractory period when they hear explosions near the water. German forces have occupied Narvik. Gunnar catches up with his squadron, tasked with blowing up a key railway bridge. Ingrid is “compelled” – read: not given much choice, really – by German Konsul Fritz Wussow (Christoph Bach) to stay behind at the hotel; she speaks German, English and Norwegian, and has value as a translator. The Norwegian soldiers successfully knock out the bridge, but Gunnar is captured, and Ingrid watches, terrified that he’ll be executed.

And so Ingrid is trapped between a rock and a hard place, and another rock, and another, and probably yet another: She doesn’t know if her husband is dead. Konsul Fritz seems to be sweet on her. She does her damnedest to keep Ole safe. She helps the British diplomats escape the hotel to a cabin in the forest, and then they pretty much threaten her into helping feed them intel so they can strategically order their forces to retake Narvik. And so she does, and British shells hit the town, never discriminating German forces from civilians, tragically. Is Narvik her story? Sure seems to be, until we get another series of title cards outlining what happens in the following weeks, and then the movie reunites us with Gunnar, whose bone-deep weariness and filthy, chapped face reveal that being a POW under German control is wretched, just wretched.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Defiance tells a similarly small-scale story about civilians on the ground (in this case, in Belarus), trying to survive a Nazi invasion.

Performance Worth Watching: Hartgen is terrific here, and proves to be fully capable of holding Narvik together, and maintaining our emotional involvement.

Memorable Dialogue: Ole sings a little improvised ditty about Der Fuhrer: “Hitler, he cheated, he peed in his pants.”

Sex and Skin: Just a bit of horny smooching.

Our Take: It’s a wretched experience for Gunnar, but it’s always roughly PG-13, so don’t expect the gruesome realistic violence we see in many other war films. Narvik does reasonable service to its not-quite-parallel storylines, which run about 60 percent for Ingrid, 40 percent for Gunnar. The former is considerably richer thematically, being the story of a woman fighting a quiet war to keep her family alive, and carrying the omnipresent cognitive dissonance of clashing ideologies inside her at all times, knowing that her life-or-death decisions make her the target of disapproval from one group of people and the potential target of gunfire from the fascist group of people.

Ingrid’s situation is fascinating, but the film only grazes the full potential of her moral quandary because it insists on dropping into the more rote war-movie-isms of Gunnar’s predicament. He shoots and scampers and takes fire and retreats and finds his resolve and takes out a machine gun nest and all that, accompanied by fellow soldier friends who are gray, undeveloped faces instead of characters with, you know, any character . Meanwhile, Skjoldbjaerg directs action and dialogue sequences with the reliable, steady eyes and hands of a veteran filmmaker, although one senses him wrestling with the choppy narrative.

So Gunnar represents the physical dilemma of the German occupation, and Ingrid, the psychological conflict. Guess which one is more dramatically compelling, and feels like it should’ve been the film’s primary focus? Right – not the same old masculine display of violence and patriotism. His dilemma is complicated in a last-second contrivance that would be unnecessary if the screenplay allowed its characters to clearly communicate their emotional and logical conundrums, and didn’t feel the need to pause to explicate context via title cards so often down the stretch, which derails the story’s dramatic momentum. Yet Ingrid’s predicament lends the movie just enough depth to make us feel invested in the outcome.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Narvik is a perfectly serviceable wartime drama, nothing more, nothing less.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com .

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Narvik Reviews

Narvik is a thrilling, crowd-pleasing war picture. It deserves all the love that All Quiet on the Western Front has gotten and then some.

Full Review | Feb 14, 2023

It depicts the heroism of the proverbial "ragtag" soldiers fighting back against seemingly impossible odds, but it's more than firefights and bombings.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2023

... With old-school war melodrama strokes, Narvik executes its functional war sequences with precision, without frills, and weaves small intrigues that stem out of power politics. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 27, 2023

A perfectly serviceable wartime drama, nothing more, nothing less.

Full Review | Jan 25, 2023

Erik Skjoldbjærg’s Narvik is a stunning-looking war film that’s naturally gripping and does an above-average job playing up the moral dilemmas despite, at times, being frustratingly inert.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 24, 2023

Riveting...a compelling, compact and action-packed WWII combat thriller from Norway.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 23, 2023

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Home » Review » Narvik review: An immersive, emotional portrait about wartime loyalty, trust & hope »

Narvik review: An immersive, emotional portrait about wartime loyalty, trust & hope

Erik Skjoldbjaerg directs the Netflix release based on Cristoph Grøndahl's screenplay.

• Swaroop Kodur

Last Updated: 04.08 PM, Apr 03, 2023

Set in the small port town of the Norwegian town of Narvik, the film explores the history and the makings of Adolf Hitler's Germany's first critical defeat in World War II. Norway has declared 'neutrality' in the war but also offered its port to the Germans so that the iron ore, which is coming from Sweden, to be shipped out to Germany. Despite the clearly-stated stance, Norway's neutrality is violated by German troops who invade Norway under the pretext of protecting them against the British & French (allied forces) aggression. With the Norwegian army now forcefully drawn into the drama, what unfolds is the biggest battle on Norway's land, also known as the Battle of Narvik.

Narvik , the film casts a compassionate light on the moral conundrums of wartime through the story of a family of a Norwegian soldier that is entangled in the hysteria in myriad ways.

'Neutrality' is the operative word in Erik Skjoldbjaerg's Narvik and the Norwegian filmmaker extrapolates the title as a metaphor in more than one compelling way. Through a fictional portrait of a major real-life event in the country's history, Skjoldbjaerg paints a poignant portrait of trust and how the act of breaching it, regardless of the circumstances, comes with its share of moral & ethical baggage. In essence, Narvik is an intimate story of Norwegian soldier Gunnar Tofte and how his little family, also comprising his wife Ingrid Tofte, their young son & Gunnar's father Aslak, wade through wartime and enunciate the challenges and compromises that one has to endure in order to emerge alive. While Gunnar takes part in a physical battle as Norway's one of most competent soldiers, his wife Ingrid wages one against her own self as she goes through a most testing moral course.

Gunnar and his troop of soldiers reach the Norwegian shores in 1940, assuming that their nation's neutrality vow is still as sanctimonious as before. He frees himself from the duties for a few hours to visit his wife Ingrid and son Ole at their home but is ordered to return to the camp by midnight. Gunnar fails to do so and when he does make his way back, he encounters bombing in his town and runs into troops marching on a dreadfully wintery morning. Turns out, Germany has violated Norway's neutral status and has already begun its invasion under a dubious pretext of offering protection against British attack. Gunnar then becomes a part of a new troop that decides on countering the threat by blasting the bridge that allows the German train carrying the iron ore.

In parallel, Ingrid Tofte, a translator and staff at the Narvik hotel that is currently hosting both German & British representatives, gets caught in a fiece battle of her own. While Gunnar marches along, Ingrid reaches the hotel the same morning to find that it has been taken over by the Germans, led by Consul Fritz Wussow (Christoph Bach), who now seek the whereabouts of the British folks living under the same roof. Still very much 'neutral' outside, Ingrid offers refuge to the Brit representatives, not fully aware of what's unfolding outside the four walls. While Gunnar pledges his life to his country's safety, Ingrid holds the fort back at home - but can they sustain the mounting pressures & mortal threats?

Where Erik Skjoldbjaerg succeeds the most is by drawing our empathy toward the Tofte family and using their relatable plight to discuss a larger idea. Just as in any war movie that's worth its salt, Narvik's core is an emotional one that is filled mainly with type of conflict that one goes through either once in a lifetime or never at all. The film has a heightened sense of sentimentality, no doubt, but Skjoldbjaerg & his team is unabashed in bringing that to the fore or making that the essence. And in his pursuits to understand and unravel the psyche of a community during such times, he poses many intriguing challenges to his characters who may or may not overcome them at the end of it. It's a story of loyalty, yes, but beyond that Narvik is about the necessity of hope in one's life.

One of the most heartwrenching sequences in the film comes in the first hour of the film's runtime when Gunnar is ordered to blast the aforementioned railway bridge. As a skilled young soldier, Gunnar forges on towards the task despite knowing that his own wife and child are on the train that the bridge is expected to carry in a couple of minutes. Skjoldbjaerg shoots the sequence with relentless energy, switching between Gunnar's panting demeanour, the imminent danger of the bridge collapsing and Ingrid & Ole surviving it all. Cinematographer John-Erling Holmenes Fredriksen, ably supported by Christine Hals's stirring soundtrack, uses the camera to juxtapose the breathtaking beauty of the locales with the blood and the filth that are about to be splattered and one of the main charms of Narvik is its visual storytelling. The war portions, in particular, are shot with an eye for reality and extreme detailing and with the camera perched in the heart of the action, Narvik is as immersive as it gets. 

Netflix is now host to a slew of war movies and with the stellar success of All Quiet in the Western Front with an Oscar nomination, the streaming giant is sure to feel a lot more buoyed. Narvik, a credible addition to the growing list, is a moving drama that never uses the context or the resulting warfare to endorse a false sense of machismo and bravado. Instead, the film comes across as a tender and empathetic tale of human survival that is sure to tug at our heartstrings. However, Narvik is derailed slightly by its predictable narrative that one finds in most films of this category and despite the tension that surrounds the plot, one finds the beats and the rhythm of the screenplay a tad too repetitive. The writers, led by Cristoph Grøndahl, still manage to salvage the film from this by imbuing the story with compassion. Should you be the warfilm afficianado, Narvik is a valid entrant to your watchlist that, charmingly, won't take more than 1 hour and 50 minutes of your time!

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Home » Endings Explained

Narvik Ending Explained — how does Gunnar get back to his wife?

We discuss the ending of the Netflix film Narvik which will contain spoilers and major plot points.

The story of Narvik takes place in the coastal town in Norway that is one of the world’s greatest iron ore resources. Of course, Hitler, as his master race, wants to expand his ever-growing empire. Defending the northern then is a regiment including Corporel Gunnar Tofte ( Carl Martin Eggesbo ), who visits his wife Ingrid ( Kristine Hartgen ) and small son Ole ( Christoph Gelfert Mathiesen ) for a bit of rest. When he returned late at night, the Germans landed on the beach, and the Norwegian Colonel surrendered his weapon.

Gunnar and the remaining soldiers refuse to surrender their weapons, so they leave town, led by their commander, Major Omdal (a very good Henrik Mestad ). He orders them straight out of town because they refused to lay down their weapons. All so they can set up their next mission to blow up the bridge that carries the precious ore out of town. Meanwhile, Ingrid knows German and becomes a translator for a German officer Frtiz Wussow. The man takes a shine to her as she works at the best downtown hotel. She even helps the English diplomats ( Billy Campbell ) escape. Ingrid has a coworker hide them in the mountaintop cabin who were there the day before to negotiate peace.

Narvik ending explained

Gunnar’s family.

Gunnar’s father puts Ingrid and Ole on a train out of town while Gunnar is looking for dynamite to blow up the bridge. The germans stop that train and kick the passengers off. They walk through a tunnel on top of the bridge. Gunnar and the Major see them and rush them off. That’s when the German soldiers show up, and Gunnar damages the bridge enough to be too dangerous to drive a train across. However, he is captured by the enemy while he sees Ingrid and Ole escorted back to town.

For the next four weeks, Gunnar is used as slave labor, and Ingrid works for the Germans at the hotel. She steals maps from Fritz’s office and hands them to the English, who then bomb the town and her home. Gunnar’s father is killed, and Ole has shrapnel near his lung. To get a doctor in the city, Ingrid tells Fritz where the English counsel is hiding in exchange for a doctor to perform surgery on her son. This makes Ingrid a pariah around town. Meanwhile, Gunnar is freed by French troops and helps them take out a machinegun nest. Gunnar then hears that his father has been killed.

Do the soldiers take back Narvik?

In the film’s best scene, the Major pulls out his pistol and fires it in the air to stop joint Norwegian and French troops from retreating. The Norwegian soldiers storm the Narvik beaches, taking out five machine gun nests and a cannon attacking opposing forces. The soldiers find their way back into town, but after Ingrid turns down Fritz’s offer to take her to Berlin.

How does Gunnar get back to his wife?

How does Gunnar get back to his wife? He heads back into town, and the town celebrates. However, Gunnar hears something about how Ingrid is close to German officers and assumes she slept with one. However, she informs her husband it is for their son, but Gunnar still views his wife as a traitor.

Ingrid leaves, packing a bag and heading for the boat. Gunnar listens to a speech from the Major that the soldiers should hold everything they hold dear. As Ingrid walks to the ship, her fellow citizens push her and ostracize her. That’s when Gunnar shows up, no longer in uniform, and helps Ingrid to her feet, and they walk onto the boat as a family and then embrace.

The victory of Narvik was short-lived. Per the film’s ending, the British, French, and Polish soldiers returned home without notifying Norwegian forces, and the town was reclaimed by the Germans a few months later. However, the battle was considered Hitler’s first loss.

What did you think of the ending of the Netflix film Narvik? Comment below.

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Article by Marc Miller

Marc Miller (also known as M.N. Miller) joined Ready Steady Cut in April 2018 as a Film and TV Critic, publishing over 1,600 articles on the website. Since a young age, Marc dreamed of becoming a legitimate critic and having that famous “Rotten Tomato” approved status – in 2023, he achieved that status.

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The Unbelievable True Story Behind WWII Epic 'Narvik'

Exploring the real WWII saga behind Netflix's latest war drama, 'Narvik'

The Big Picture

• Narvik, a small Norwegian town, played a crucial role in WWII due to its strategic iron ore that Adolf Hitler needed for weapons.
• The Battle of Narvik saw a fierce fight between German and Allied forces, resulting in heavy casualties and significant destruction.
• After the battle, the people of Narvik faced tragedy as they were forced to evacuate and German bombers destroyed the city in 1940.

Netflix's movie, Narvik , explores an intriguing World War II story that you may not have heard of involving a small Norwegian town at the center of an iron ore struggle between Germany and Great Britain. Norway is the world's top producer of iron ore and Narvik, founded in 1902 , is the tiny coastal port city in Norway on the coast of the Norwegian Sea that held the key to its distribution during the war.

Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich were dependent upon the ore they secured from the strategic, ice-free harbor of Narvik and Norway to build a large portion of its arsenal after the Nazis started the war in 1939. Meanwhile, it was in the best interest of the British, and the Allied Forces, to cut off that supply to Hitler making it much more difficult for the power-hungry regime to manufacture weapons. A dangerous and deadly situation had developed where this small 1,680 acre town of less than 10,000 people with its refineries and port outlet emerged as a pivotal stronghold between the two powers, and forced Norway to give up its neutrality. Narvik is the tale of the people and events that surrounded the 1940 Battle of Narvik , which is still the largest battle ever fought on Norwegian soil and is regarded as Hitler's first loss of World War II.

April 1940. The eyes of the world are on Narvik, a small town in northern Norway, source of the iron ore needed for Hitler's war machinery. Through two months of fierce winter warfare, Hitler is dealt his first defeat.

Were the Characters in 'Narvik' Real People?

In the film, Kristen Hartgen plays Ingrid Tofte, a young Norwegian woman who works at the town's largest inn, and is married to Gunnar Tofte ( Carl Martin Eggesbø ) who is a corporal in the army. Together, they have a young son named Ole ( Christoph Gelfert Mathiesen ). The WWII drama does a remarkable job of portraying the very simple and normal day-to-day lives of the people of Narvik before the German occupation and subsequent English response forced them into taking sides in the interest of protecting their own people. When the Germans forces decide to take up residence in the entire hotel where Ingrid works, she becomes extremely useful to them as she knows German and can serve as a translator between the town's mayor and the German officers who are in the process of commandeering the city.

Meanwhile, she unwittingly harbors a British operative, Konsul George L.D. Gibbs ( Billy Campbell ) who is forced from the inn after the German occupation and sent to hole up in a tiny mountain cabin provided generously by Ingrid, free of charge. She is later blackmailed by Gibbs forcing her to provide information on the German installations in Narvik that resulted in an Allied airstrike that killed many of the townspeople. The Toftes are not real people , but are an accurate representation of the turmoil that these regular people faced during the period.

The True Story Behind the Battle of Narvik

In the spring of 1940, after the Germans had easily overtaken the small Norwegian forces and the town of Narvik, the Norwegian Army was called upon by the English to join them in waging war with them against the growing Nazi occupation. The Germans were trying to establish positions in the mountains near Narvik, and the British, French, Polish and Norwegian forces took to the mountains to thin out the German numbers that were building by the day. It was a brutal and bloody battle fought in frigid temperatures on the icy terrain of Norway not too far from the Arctic Circle.

In the film's epilogue , it states that there were 85,000 casualties, 65 boats sunk, and 86 planes were shot down over the span of the battle that lasted 62 days. Many of us think of WWII as a battle fought primarily between Germany and the Allied Forces of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, but even neutral countries like Norway couldn't avoid the catastrophic collateral damage caused by Hitler's warmongering campaign of death. The forces did retake control of the mountain, dealing Hitler his first loss, but it came at a heavy price , and the Nazis reclaimed Narvik just a few short months afterward, as also stated in the film's final scene.

Tragedy After the Battle of Narvik

After the people of Narvik are forced to evacuate their homes and flee on every available fishing boats, British and French troops pulled out of Norway (something they had planned on doing even before the Battle of Narvik) and the German bombers laid waste to what remained of the port city in June 1940. It is still a grim and stark story that illustrates the toll one madman's delusions extended far beyond the area in Europe that Germany was attempting to conquer. No one was safe from the Nazi campaign, especially if you lived in a strategic city that was important to Hitler and his regime.

Narvik currently streams on Netflix in the U.S.

WATCH ON NETFLIX

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Common sense media reviewers.

Powerful WWII drama has violence, language, smoking.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Heroism, courage, and resiliency.

Gunnar and his friends, serving in the Norwegian A

Norwegian movie with a Norwegian cast.

War violence throughout. Civilians are injured and

Brief sexual innuendo. Passionate kissing, implied

Language throughout. "F--k" used several times. Al

Cigarette smoking.

Parents need to know that Narvik is a 2023 war movie that depicts how the Norwegian army and the Allies fought and won the first battle against the Nazis in World War II. Expect war violence throughout. Civilians are shown getting bombed, injured, and killed. Dead bodies are shown floating in the water. A…

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

Gunnar and his friends, serving in the Norwegian Army, display courage, heroism, and valor when the Nazis invade their village. The movie also explores how the community treats one of the characters when she is forced to make a difficult decision that helps the enemy.

Diverse Representations

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

War violence throughout. Civilians are injured and die from bombings. A young boy has a piece of shrapnel removed from his chest; bloody. Fighting with bombs, machine guns. Dead bodies in water after a ship is sunk. Character found dead from burning to death -- scars and wounds on face and hands.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Brief sexual innuendo. Passionate kissing, implied sex.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language throughout. "F--k" used several times. Also: "goddamn," "damn," "hell."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

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Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Narvik is a 2023 war movie that depicts how the Norwegian army and the Allies fought and won the first battle against the Nazis in World War II. Expect war violence throughout. Civilians are shown getting bombed, injured, and killed. Dead bodies are shown floating in the water. A character burns to death, with his face and skin burned and scarred. A young boy gets a piece of shrapnel removed from his chest; some blood. Fighting with bombs, machine guns, grenades, and explosives. Some language throughout, including "f--k." Cigarette smoking. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In NARVIK , the year is 1940, and as a neutral country, Norway allows both Great Britain and Nazi Germany to access the iron ore mines around the tiny village of Narvik. Gunnar (Carl Martin Eggesbo) is a soldier in the army who is married to Ingrid, who works in the local hotel. Soon, their worlds and the worlds of the others in the town are turned upside down when the Nazis decide to ignore Norway's neutrality and undertake an invasion of the country. When the Nazis take over Narvik, Gunnar and his fellow soldiers try to run off to hide and fight back. Meanwhile, Ingrid is hired as a translator for the Nazis while also providing intelligence for the British. As the Norwegians await help from the Allies, Gunnar and his friends must find a way to survive the trials of prison camp, and Ingrid is forced to make a difficult decision that's likely to have serious ramifications.

Is It Any Good?

This is an excellent World War II historical action drama that effectively balances the courage and bravery of war with the far-reaching consequences of its ravages. Narvik tells the story of what's considered to be the first victory over the Nazis in World War II. It depicts the heroism of the proverbial "ragtag" soldiers fighting back against seemingly impossible odds, but it's more than firefights and bombings. It also depicts the difficult, if not impossible, decisions some were forced to make during Nazi occupation in order for themselves and their families to survive.

There's a sense when the movie is over that the story is completely and fully told, from all angles. It manages to be as thoughtful as it is exciting. There are all the expected war movie verities like heroism and valor, but the fact that Narvik digs deeper than that is what separates it from so many other movies centered on the battles against the Nazis from 1939-1945.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about World War II action-drama movies like Narvik . How is this similar to and different from other movies centered on events from World War II?

How did the violence highlight the horrors of war on both soldiers and civilians?

Ingrid is forced to make a difficult decision, one that leads her to be ostracized by her neighbors. What are your thoughts on her decision? Was it the right decision? Did she have a choice?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : January 23, 2023
• Cast : Kristine Hartgen , Carl Martin Eggesbo , Henrik Mestad
• Director : Erik Skjoldbjaerg
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : History
• Character Strengths : Courage
• Run time : 108 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : February 17, 2023

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Narvik (War, Drama, History) (2022)

Director: Erik Skjoldbjærg

Writer: Erik Skjoldbjærg, Christopher Grøndahl, Live Bonnevie, Sebastian Torngren Wartin

Stars: Kristine Hartgren, Carl Martin Eggsbø, Christoph Bach, Christoph Gelfert Mathiesen

To control an immense source of iron ore for use in Nazi warfare throughout Europe. The port town of Narvik is claimed, and while surrender seems immediate, these hardened Norwegian inhabitants aren’t giving such an advantage over easily. Initially premiering in Norwegian movie theatres, Erik Skjoldbjærg presents a substantial defeat for the Nazis and a significant victory for the Norwegians during the Second World War. While the director isn’t a fresh face, ‘’Narvik’’ captures an international audience by being published through a streaming service. Like many other films, it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic before releasing late 2022. It has been produced by Nordisk Films and distributed by Netflix. After several naval battles across the Norwegian shoreline between the British and Nazi Germany, the port town of Narvik became occupied by Nazi forces, claiming the settlement and its ore reserves. The remaining Norwegian soldiers fled, escorting civilians to the border and settling down for a final stand by destroying the bridge, a significant blow to Nazi operations. As yet another untold tale of WWII, ‘’Narvik’’ portrays a vital piece of history also labelled ‘’Hitler’s First Defeat’’. Warfare in frigid temperatures and self-preservation provide a unique look into this Nazi occupation.

A victory for Skjoldbjærg.

Contact information

Mark de Graaf T : +31 0639889981 E : [email protected]

Enjoyed Narvik? Here Are 8 Movies You Will Also Like

Originally titled ‘Kampen Om Narvik,’ ‘ Narvik: Hitler’s First Defeat ‘ AKA ‘Narvik’ is a Norwegian historical drama film. The Erin Skjoldbærg directorial encapsulates the real events of the battle between German and Norway, along with its allied forces, through the lens of fictional soldiers and survivors. At the forefront of the movie is Ingrid Tofte (Kristine Hartgen), who puts her life on the line for her son Ole (Christoph Mathiesen) while her husband, Aslak (Stig Henrik Hoff), revolts for the freedom of their country.

It is a harrowing movie that unveils the trauma of commoners who face the consequences of decisions they never made. But it’s also a tale of heroism and bravery that brought the first defeat to the Nazi regime. If you found this movie to be impeccable and a brilliant portrayal of war and its realities, we have a catalog of similar films to amuse you.

8. Defiance (2008)

‘Defiance’ is a war film based on the book ‘Defiance: The Bielski Partisans.’ The movie entails the true story of the Bielski brothers — Tuvia, Zus, Asael, and Aron ( Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, and George MacKay), who vow to avenge the death of their parents, who were murdered by the Auxiliary police under German occupiers. In their quest, they encounter a group of Jewish escapees and take them under their wing.

What follows is a gut-wrenching struggle for survival in the Belarus forest and finding hope in dark times. Set in Nazi-Occupied Eastern Europe during WWII, the central theme of the Edward Zwick movie is survivorship and undeserving circumstances of civilians, which is also predominant in ‘Narvik: Hitler’s First Defeat.’

7. The King’s Choice (2016)

Helmed by Erik Poppe, ‘The King’s Choice,’ is a biographical war film inspired by the eponymous novel written by Alf R. Jacobsen. Originally titled ‘Kongens Nei,’ it centers on the German invasion of Norway and how the royal family handles the catastrophe. It is an exceptional portrayal of the monarch’s patriotism and choices that led to this lesser-known yet epic tale. With a lifelike representation of the tragedy and similar themes of nationalism, ‘The King’s Choice’ should undoubtedly be a part of your watchlist.

6. The Siege Of Jadotville (2016)

Directed by Richie Smyth, ‘The Siege Of Jadotville’ is an action war film based on the book ‘The Siege at Jadotville: The Irish Army’s Forgotten Battle’ that was inspired by real events and written by Declan Power. The movie is a story of an Irish peacekeeper troop led by Patrick Quinlan ( Jamie Dornan ) to Katanga to protect the miners. After a turn of events, the battalion is pitted against the French and Belgians and their 3000 mercenaries. Much like ‘Narvik: Hitler’s First Defeat,’ the film outlines how the unpredictability of politics and war can squander the lives of innocent people.

5. Unbroken (2014)

‘Unbroken’ is a biographical war movie inspired by Laura Hillenbrand’s novel, ‘Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.’ The film depicts the journey of Olympian Louis Zamperini, AKA Louie (Jack O’Connell), who survives a plane crash and spends 47 days stranded on a raft with two other crew members. However, they are discovered and imprisoned by the Japanese navy as prisoners of war. The men are then forced to endure many atrocities induced by the Japanese army. This inspiring film has all the essential elements of ‘Narvik: Hitler’s First Defeat,’ such as the strength of the human spirit and the importance of hope.

4. Anthropoid (2016)

‘Anthropoid’ is a historical drama film that entails the true story of Operation Anthropoid, a mission in which two Czech soldiers assassinate the highest-ranking official of the Nazi era, SS General Reinhard Heydrich. Jozef Gabčík ( Cillian Murphy ) and Jan Kubiš (Jamie Dornan) scout and plan in Czechoslovakia as the political tensions increase and obstacles skyrocket while attempting the assassination. The film is directed and co-written by Sean Ellis, who masterfully displays the mission and creates a suspenseful atmosphere throughout the runtime.

3. Max Manus: Man of War

Based on the young Norwegian revolter Max Manus, ‘Max Manus: Man of War’ is a biographical war film that showcases the rise of the titular character (Aksel Hennie) from a commoner to the leader of a movement against the German occupation in Norway. The movie also explores his PTSD, personal demons, struggles with women, and everything that stemmed from his involvement in World War II.

Directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg did their best to pay homage to the country’s war hero through this Norwegian cinematic gem. The revolt and retaliation angle in ‘Max Manus: Man of War’ is similar to ‘Narvik: Hitler’s First Defeat.’ Moreover, both movies have the flare and grit of Norwegian cinema.

2. The 12th Man (2017)

‘The 12th Man’ or ‘Den 12. Mann’ is a Norwegian film that serves as an adaptation of Tore Haug and Astrid Karlsen’s book ‘Jan Baalsrud and Those Who Save Him.’ Directed by Harald Zwart, the historical drama centers on Jan Baalsrud (Thomas Gullestad), who is sent on a mission with 12 saboteurs (Norwegian resistance fighters) to wreck a German ship. However, their plan goes southwards, and the men are captured.

Though Jan manages to escape the Nazis, he faces several mental and physical hardships along the way. The movie’s commitment to being historically accurate and displaying the moral dilemmas faced by Jan’s helpers is commendable. The narrative, setting, and unique visual style of storytelling will remind the viewers of ‘Narvik: Hitler’s First Defeat.’

1. Land of Mine (2015)

‘Land of Mine,’ also titled ‘The Under Sandet,’ is a Danish historical war drama film inspired by real gruesome events about the German prisoners of war who were forced to clear the landmines on a beach in Denmark after World War II. A Danish sergeant, Carl Leopold Rasmussen (Roland Møller), is entrusted with supervising these young German soldiers.

Initially, Carl is full of hatred for them but slowly grows compassionate. Director Martin Zandvliet exhibits the impact of wars that poison both sides on the battlefront. Moreover, both movies are bound to influence you with themes of human compassion and unwavering bravery.

Read More: Is Narvik Based On A True Story?

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for a... Read all Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike. Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

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• Goofs Despite being a bonobo, Proximus Caesar's design is clearly that of a regular chimpanzee.

Proximus Caesar : What a wonderful day!

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• May 12, 2024
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Review: The simians sizzle, but story fizzles in new 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes'

The issue of humans and simians in existential conflict arises again in a new “Planet of the Apes,” this time with a coming-of-age sci-fi adventure that’s a piece of visually stunning world-building more thoughtful than coherent.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters now) is a sequel to the stellar “Apes” trilogy led by Andy Serkis’ iconic chimpanzee leader Caesar, set in a landscape where people have gone feral while super-smart apes rule thanks to a man-made virus. Director Wes Ball ( “Maze Runner” ) is a proven commodity in the post-apocalyptic space, and “Kingdom” aims to bring big ideas into a sprawling blockbuster atmosphere, though that gambit winds up weighed down by its own ambitions. 

The new “Apes” is set “many generations later” after the death of Caesar, a kind and compassionate sort who believed humans and apes could one day live together. His specter looms large over “Kingdom,” which centers on a naive young chimp named Noa (played via performance capture by Owen Teague) and an Earth where nature has reclaimed the land. Noa and his friends, Anaya (Travis Jeffery) and Soona (Lydia Peckham), ready for a big day in their lives among the Eagle Clan – so called because of the birds they raise. But the peaceful existence in their village is disrupted by a brutal attack from a horde of masked apes, who burn Noa’s home and leave him for dead.

Noa wakes, battered and vowing to save his friends and family who’ve been taken, and he first falls in with Raka (Peter Macon), a wise orangutan who lives by Caesar’s idealistic beliefs. They meet a young human named Mae (Freya Allan), who’s at first distrustful of her new allies until they save her from the same big bad apes that torched Noa’s village.

The trio learns these villains are goons for the tyrannical bonobo Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand). Ruling a coastal kingdom of apes, Proximus has taken Caesar’s name yet twists his words to force his prisoners to crack a large vault and plumb the mysterious human treasures within. He’s both a fan of mankind and a symbol of our innate cruelty in ape form.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Just like the previous films, the main draw is the apes themselves, computer-generated simian wonders who immerse audiences into their world. They look better than ever, with Noa’s tearful eyes delivering so much fragility and emotion in a close-up after a tragic scene, and the performance-capture wizardry, a signature aspect of these new "Apes" movies, feels more groundbreaking than ever.

At the same time, none of the major players in "Kingdom" reach the same level of acting or personality as Serkis’ Caesar. That is an extremely high bar, though, and there are some pretty great apes: Teague's Noa grows on you because of his plight while Macon makes Raka a scene-stealing hoot with a kind soul. Allan, a regular on Netflix’s “The Witcher,” also shines in a meaty role as a human who’s more complicated than she appears.

The early “Apes” movies from the ‘60s and '70s were defined by genre innovation and shock endings, and the Caesar movies were simply a great tale well told. “Kingdom” is less confident in its storytelling: It explores themes of legacy and species coexistence with a metaphor-laden plot that feels too long at 2½ hours, and it begs for more exposition at the beginning before overdoing it later on. The movie ultimately does satisfy by its end, even as it emphasizes philosophy and message over logical narrative choices.

“Kingdom” checks most of the boxes for longtime “Apes” fans, and newbies don’t need to any prior homework as a standalone story that mostly explains itself. And as humans, you do commiserate with the onscreen apes themselves, because everything felt a little better back when Caesar was around.

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Movie Review: In ‘The Idea of You,’ a boy band is center stage but Anne Hathaway steals the show

This image released by Prime shows Nicholas Galitzine, left, and Anne Hathaway in a scene from “The Idea of You.” (Prime via AP)

This image released by Prime shows Ella Rubin, left, and Anne Hathaway in a scene from “The Idea of You.” (Prime via AP)

This image released by Prime shows Nicholas Galitzine in a scene from “The Idea of You.” (Prime via AP)

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In the warmly charming rom-com “The Idea of You,” Anne Hathaway plays a 40-year-old divorcee and Silver Lake art gallery owner who, after taking her teenage daughter to Coachella, becomes romantically involved with a 24-year-old heartthrob in the boy band August Moon. They first meet after she mistakes his trailer for the bathroom.

There are a few hundred things about this premise that might be farfetched, including the odds of finding love anywhere near the porta johns of a music festival. But one of them is not that a young star like Hayes Campbell ( Nicholas Galitzine ) would fall for a single mom like Solène (Hathaway).

Solène is stylish, unimpressed by Hayes’ celebrity and has bangs so perfect they look genetically modified. And, most importantly, she’s Anne Hathaway. In the power dynamics of “The Idea of You,” Hayes may be a fictional pop star but Hathaway is a very real movie star. And you don’t forget it for a moment in Michael Showalter’s lightly appealing showcase of the actor at her resplendent best.

“The Idea of You,” which debuts Thursday on Prime Video, is full of all the kinds of contradictions that can make a rom-com work. The highly glamorous, megawatt-smiling Hathaway is playing a down-to-earth nobody. The showbiz veteran in the movie is played by Galitzine, a less well-known but up-and-coming British actor whose performance in the movie is quite authentic. And even though the whole scenario is undeniably a glossy high-concept Hollywood fairy tale, Showalter gives it enough texture that “The Idea of You” comes off more natural and sincere than you’d expect.

The only thing that really needs to make perfect sense in a movie like “The Idea of You” is the chemistry. The film, penned by Showalter and Jennifer Westfeldt from Robinne Lee’s bestseller, takes its time in the early scenes between Solène and Hayes — first at Coachella, then when he stops by her gallery — allowing their rapport to build convincingly, and giving each actor plenty of time to smolder.

Once the steamy hotel-room encounters come in “The Idea of You,” the movie has, if not swept you away, then at least ushered you along on a European trip of sex and room service. At the same time, it stays faithful to its central mission of celebrating middle-aged womanhood. The relationship will eventually cause a social media firestorm, but its main pressure point is whether Solène can stick with Hayes after her ex-husband ( Reid Scott ) cheated on her. This is a fairy tale she deserves.

While Showalter ( “The Big Sick” ) has long showed a great gift for juggling comedy and drama at once, “The Idea of You” leans more fully into wish-fulfillment romance. That can leave less to sustain the film, which has notably neutered some of the things that distinguished the book.

The May-December romance has been shrunk a little. In the book, the singer is 20. Given that Galitzine is 29 and the 41-year-old Hathaway is no one’s idea of old, this is more like a July-September relationship. In the book, the daughter (Ella Rubin) is a huge admirer of the pop singer, adding to the awkwardness, but in the movie, August Moon is “so 7th grade” to her.

There are surely more interesting and funnier places “The Idea of You” could have gone. But Hathaway and Galitzine are a good enough match that, for a couple hours, it’s easy to forget.

But the most convincing thing about “The Idea of You”? August Moon. The movie nails the look and sound of boy bands so well because it went straight to the source. The original songs in the film are by Savan Kotecha and Carl Falk, the producer-songwriters of, among other pop hits, “What Makes You Beautiful,” One Direction’s debut single.

That connection will probably only further the sense that “The Idea of You” is very nearly “The Idea of Harry Styles.” The filmmakers have distanced the movie from any real-life resemblances. But one thing is for sure: With August Moon following 4(asterisk)Town of “Turning Red” (whose songs were penned by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell ), we are living in the golden age of the fictional boy band.

“The Idea of You,” an Amazon MGM Studios release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for some language and sexual content. Running time: 115 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

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‘dark matter’ review: joel edgerton and jennifer connelly in apple tv+’s relentlessly glum take on ‘it’s a wonderful life’.

Blake Crouch adapts his own novel in this nine-part dimension-spanning sci-fi drama also featuring Alice Braga and Jimmi Simpson.

By Daniel Fienberg

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Have you ever watched It’s a Wonderful Life and wished that Frank Capra had paused to show us Clarence the Angel explaining to George Bailey how he was able to present him with the experience of a world in which he was never born?

Dark Matter

Related stories, apple tv+ cancels 'constellation' after single season, joel edgerton on failing 'guardians of the galaxy' audition: "the world is a much better place".

Joel Edgerton plays Jason Dessen, a Chicago-area physicist living an unremarkably content life with his wife Daniela ( Jennifer Connelly ), an art gallery something-or-other, and teenage son Charlie (Oakes Fegley). At one point, Jason had dreams of making big discoveries and winning big prizes, but in prioritizing his family, he chose a life that has him giving lackluster lectures to uninterested college students. In familiar TV/movie fashion, we happen to meet Jason as he’s trying to explain Schrödinger’s Cat and the paradox of “superposition” to a class; he’ll spend much of the rest of the series repeatedly trying to explain the same to us.

Jason’s friend Ryan (Jimmi Simpson), who does other science-guy stuff, has won some big science-y prize and Jason is semi-secretly resentful — something about the path not taken and the life not lived.

It might sound as if that summary, as well as the trailer for Dark Matter , is spoiler-y. It isn’t. One or two unexpected things happen in Dark Matter , but what I described was the premise, and the show is generally without twists. Also, it might sound from that summary like Dark Matter is a confusing show. It isn’t. All confusion in the story comes either from the characters on the screen functioning five steps behind the audience or from intentional decisions by the directors/editors to present simple things in confusing ways as an odd substitute for presenting confusing things in entertaining ways. This is not Counterpart , the short-lived Starz drama about the intersection between parallel worlds that may have been too smart for its own good. It’s more like Discounterpart .

The impressive line that Capra walks in It’s a Wonderful Life allows us to simultaneously see all the failures in George Bailey’s life and yet still know, even without Clarence telling him or us, that it was a good life. It’s both at once! Talk about superposition. Dark Matter wants to do something similar, which you’d probably understand even without the multiple winking nods and then the not-so-winking nod of a character running through a snowy street and past a movie theater showing It’s a Wonderful Life . Yet it fails.

It’s exactly the wrong way to start a series, because it puts the immediate emphasis on shadowy mystery, and we only then witness Jason1’s life and it, too, is muted. If the series doesn’t establish Jason1’s life in a way that makes us understand why he’s eager to get back to it, we’re only invested in his journey in a perfunctory way. We spend nine episodes watching Jason1 attempt to get his life back because cosmic disorder is bad, not because there’s any warmth to what we’re introduced to. Over the three episodes Verbruggen directs, there are almost no smiles, no jokes, no colors in the cinematography, nothing Capra-esque.

This is clearly what Crouch, creator and showrunner, wanted in his take on his own novel, because even after subsequent directors take over for Verbruggen, a downcast affect reigns. Multiple episodes occur in a conceptual realm known as The Corridor, a manifestation of the multiverse, a concept that Jason1 keeps needing to talk Amanda through, as if the Marvel Cinematic Universe didn’t exist in Jason2’s universe.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an actor taking less visible pleasure in a project that lets him play two different versions of the same character than Edgerton here. Edgerton keeps both men similarly intense and mumbly, so much that it’s nearly a thought experiment in anti-entertainment. If Jason1 didn’t acquire some facial wounds as part of the initial abduction there would be no distinguishing between the characters 95 percent of the time. The other five percent of the time, Jason2 has a “hard edge” so obvious that you want to shout at Daniela and Charlie for missing it.

Although she gets to try on several different hair styles — Jason isn’t the only character to exist in multiple realities — there’s little in Daniela to require an actress of Connelly’s stature. She has one meltdown in a later episode that’s so earned and so well-executed that I wished she’d been given more. Still, she has a bounty compared to Braga, who, for her part, at least gets a small mid-season arc, compared to several key characters from Jason2’s world so comically underdeveloped that their “storylines” are resolved in a closing montage after they’ve already been gone for three or four full hours. A show with this many actors playing this many alternate identities should be a smorgasbord of acting opportunities. Dark Matter is not.

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Review: Columbia, Chicago, and the Movies About ’68

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Columbia, Chicago, and the Movies About ’68

Exploring the parallels between the social unrest of then and now on film..

On April 30, 1968, the New York Police Department stormed the campus of Columbia University, arresting hundreds of students who had occupied Hamilton Hall during escalating protests. And on April 30, 2024, the New York Police Department stormed the campus of Columbia University, arresting hundreds of students who had occupied Hamilton Hall during escalating protests.

While the circumstances surrounding both incidents were different—much of the ’68 protests had to do with campus facilities encroaching on the predominantly Black neighboring community—there are some similarities, including the fact that a primary demand is to disassociate the university from the mechanics of war. Decades ago, students discovered that Columbia had ties to a military think tank, the Institute for Defense Analyses, then working closely with the U.S. Defense Department during the Vietnam War. Today, many students are urging the university to divest from Israel, which may sound at first like they want them to stop writing checks to the Jewish National Fund, but actually means to pull investments from any corporation that has ties to Israel’s government, such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.

The ’68-’24 pattern may continue when you consider the next big chapter in the earlier era’s demonstrations, the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which led to a violent police clash, a meltdown of the incumbent party, and the election of a candidate who had previously lost a presidential campaign.

Where is this August’s DNC? Ah, yes: Chicago. Someone very clever is writing this screenplay.

With screenplays in mind, it can be helpful to look to the era’s movies for context—specifically, two that may not be all that well known to mainstream audiences, The Strawberry Statement (1970) and Medium Cool (1969).

Actors Booker Bradshaw, Bob Balaban, Bud Cort, Bruce Davison, and Kim Darby, seen moments before clashing with police in The Strawberry Statement. MGM Studios

Hollywood reflected (some might say capitalized) on the counterculture movement as quickly as production methods allowed them, but the most successful examples weren’t necessarily ripped directly from the headlines. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) were movies about rebellious hippies without being explicitly about rebellious hippies. Easy Rider (1969) became an essential text about rejecting U.S. society because it was a film that rejected anything so square as a plot or mappable character development.

In 1970, things got more specific, with four films hinging on campus unrest. First came Zabriskie Point , a long-in-development cri de coeur on everything revolutionary from Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni collaborating with playwright Sam Shepherd and financed by MGM, which had unexpectedly hit hippie paydirt with its “ultimate trip” film, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The surreal, desert-set Zabriskie Point was a notorious bomb (it has since been reclaimed by some critics ), but before it goes all far out with its Pink Floyd soundtrack set to exploding packages of Wonder bread, there are some great documentary-style scenes of New Left factions chaotically planning a campus protest that later becomes violent.

Next came Getting Straight (the only real box office success of this bunch), in which Elliott Gould played a Vietnam vet returning to campus who has trouble connecting with the demonstrators (including Candice Bergen) until he realizes the kids are alright. And the very serious Stanley Kramer picture R.P.M. , pretty much forgotten now, starred Anthony Quinn as a campus president who tries to forge a peace with the kids on the barricades.

The movie directly inspired by the events at Columbia, however, is the endlessly fascinating The Strawberry Statement .

The film was adapted from a sharp and sarcastic but slim volume written by James Simon Kunen, a 19-year-old Columbia student who, while hardly a militant (he was on the crew team and called the hippies “pukes”), got swept up in the demonstrations. His funny, tender, and pensive book remains a fine example of lightning in a bottle, even if the movie is a bit of a mess. Its title is a play both on the Port Huron Statement and a comment made by Columbia’s Vice Dean Herbert Deane ( seriously ) who famously opined that “Whether students vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on an issue is like telling me they like strawberries.”

Bruce Davison’s character Simon, with his hands up on the ground, is based on author James Simon Kunen, who wrote The Strawberry Statement while a student at Columbia University. Archive Photos/via Getty Images

The book and its screenplay adaptations (written by New York-based playwright Israel Horovitz) are soaked in the kind of jazzy East Coast Jewish patter you’ll find in the comedy of Lenny Bruce and the pages of Mad magazine. The movie, which moved the action to San Francisco, was directed by a hack named Stuart Hagmann, known for episodes of Mission: Impossible , who later found his métier in television commercials for clients including IBM, McDonald’s, and (no joke) the Church of Latter-Day Saints . As such, there certainly is some razzle-dazzle to the movie, especially when things escalate and the cops start cracking heads, but periodic breaks for musical montages romping around the park make much of the picture feel like an ad for toothpaste. It certainly lacks the heft of revolution—but then again, there is a cloud of “this isn’t going to work, is it?” looming over the whole enterprise.

What the characters, played by Bruce Davison, Kim Darby, Bud Cort (mostly interested in going to protests to meet girls), Bob Balaban, and others, soon recognize is that you can’t just win on righteous youthful energy—you need to have a plan. (The funniest line, though dated, comes when Jeannie Berlin’s character, worried about supplies, kvetches, “now that the Mau Maus are here, we’re gonna need more orange juice.”)

While at least one clip of today’s Columbia protesters has gone viral for seemingly out-of-touch with their demands to be allowed to have food delivered to their encampment, one key differentiator compared to ’68 is the organization of the modern encampments. Indeed, many have noted the uniformity of the tents used at various universities, and how many of the demonstrators were sticking with the same slogans and only letting leaders of the movement speak to the press.

Columbia has not met the demands to divest, but the university has canceled the main spring commencement ceremony, and the action on campus has inspired students at dozens more schools across the country.

Actors Peter Bonerz and Robert Forster play characters reporting for duty as broadcast journalists, capturing moments of violence for television audiences in Medium Cool. Paramount Pictures

As we look to events scheduled this summer, the most remarkable film about the anti-war protests, police reaction, and subsequent riots surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago is one that was actually shot there—Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool . (Though the recent Aaron Sorkin-helmed The Trial of the Chicago 7 , released in 2020, certainly has its moments of amusement.)

The independent project concerns a television news cameraman in Chicago, played by Robert Forster, who seems happily checked-out of society except for doing whatever it takes to capture the most sensational images. His partner, a sound guy played by Peter Bonerz, is the same way, at one point jokingly calling himself a living extension of a tape recorder—an echo of one of Marshall McLuhan’s theories on media production. McLuhan’s description of television being a “cool” (as in detached) medium gives the movie its title.

The story, like Easy Rider ’s, is almost nonexistent. You are just watching these guys wander around and collecting footage, much of it actual documentary footage. They cover National Guard exercises (with faux protesting hippies); they head to Washington, D.C., for a protest (keep an eye out for Jesse Jackson) and later Robert Kennedy’s burial; and they talk to voters in the street and at an upscale pool club. There’s also a minimal romantic plot, with a weirdly violent scene at a roller derby and a flashy sequence at a rock club where the obscure group the Litter mimes the music of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

“Real” footage of police and protesters clashing in Medium Cool. Paramount Pictures

Story machinations eventually bring Forster’s character—who makes a stink when he learns that his work is being given to the FBI—and his love interest (played by Verna Bloom) to the center of the conflagration. Forster is working to cover the events of the chaotic convention (e.g., Sen. Abraham Ribicoff vs. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley , Dan Rather being belted in the stomach) and Bloom is out looking for her son during the hectic demonstrations. As the protesters shouted “the whole world is watching,” Wexler took full advantage of the production value the city was offering. Bloom, in a bright yellow dress (a canary in a coal mine?), wanders around as police start shoving and protesters start shouting.

The craziest moment comes when tear gas is deployed and we hear someone shout “look out, Haskell, it’s real!” on the soundtrack. (That this audio was actually added later only makes the “what is reality?” aspect of the picture more invigorating.)

At one point during the melee, we see an NBC News van drive away, and a protester shouts “NBC, stay with us!” marking another key difference between then and now. How many of the Columbia students give a whit about what’s on NBC?

Medium Cool is a delight for anyone that fetishizes analog technology of the period. The portable 16 mm cameras and Nagra tape recorders were relatively lightweight (and, indeed, their ease of use was key to “bringing the war home” during Vietnam), but even this state-of-the-art system involved sending negatives to the lab, matching sound with picture, and making physical edits. The protesters cried out for NBC because without its reporters, no one could see what was happening—the whole world would not be watching.

Today, even a 10-year-old cell phone with a cracked screen is a television production studio. Self-made footage and social media are driving the story—not the mainstream networks.

Jordan Hoffman is a film critic and entertainment journalist living in Queens, New York.

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