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The Heroes of Telemark is a 1965 British war film directed by Anthony Mann based on the true story of the Norwegian heavy water sabotage during the Second World War from Skis Against the Atom, the memoirs of Norwegian resistance soldier Knut Haukelid. The film stars Kirk Douglas as Dr. Rolf Pedersen and Richard Harris as Knut Straud, along with Ulla Jacobsson as Anna Pederson. It was filmed on location in Norway.

The Heroes of Telemark
Directed by	Anthony Mann
Written by	Ben Barzman Ivan Moffat
Based on	Skis Against the Atom 1954 memoir by Knut Haukelid But for These Men 1962 novel by John Drummond
Produced by	Benjamin Fisz
Starring	Kirk Douglas Richard Harris Ulla Jacobsson
Cinematography	Robert Krasker
Edited by	Bert Bates
Music by	Malcolm Arnold
Production company	Benton Film Productions
Distributed by	The Rank Organisation
Release dates	23 November 1965 (1965-11-23) (London-Premiere) 26 November 1965 (1965-11-26) (UK)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Languages	English German Norwegian
Budget	$5 million[1]
Box office	$1,650,000 (est. US/ Canada rentals)[2]

Plot

The Norwegian resistance sabotage the Vemork Norsk Hydro plant in the town of Rjukan in the county of Telemark, Norway, which the Nazis are using to produce heavy water, which could be used in the manufacture of an atomic bomb.

Kirk Douglas plays Rolf Pedersen, a Norwegian physics professor, who, though originally content to wait out the war, is soon pulled into the struggle by local resistance leader Knut Straud (based on Knut Haukelid), portrayed by Richard Harris.

They both sneak out of Norway on a passenger steamship to Britain that they hijack so they can deliver microfilmed plans of the hydroelectric plant to the British. Then they return to Norway by parachute to plan a commando raid against the plant. When a British plane carrying a force of Royal Engineers to undertake the raid is shot down over Norway by the Germans, Pedersen and Straud lead a small force of Norwegian saboteurs into the plant. The raid is successful, but the Germans quickly repair the equipment.

The Germans then plan to ship steel drums of heavy water to Germany. Pedersen and Straud sabotage a ferry carrying the drums, and it sinks in the deepest part of a fjord.

Besides this sequence, the raids (Operations Grouse, Freshman and Gunnerside) and the final attack are filmed on-site, with mountainous and snowy Norwegian locations serving as a backdrop for the plot.

Cast

Production

Knut Haukelid wrote a memoir of the attack called Skis Against the Atom published in 1954.[3] John Drummond wrote a novel based on the same story called But for These Men. Both books formed the basis of the screenplay.

The film was originally announced in 1963.[4] It was made by Benton Film Productions, a company of director Anthony Mann and producer S. Benjamin Fisz. Financing came from America's Allied Artists and Britain's J Arthur Rank Productions.

Scenes early in the film when the main characters escape from occupied Norway were filmed around Poole and Hamworthy in Dorset with the former Channel Islands ship TSS Roebuck playing the role of the hijacked steamer. SF Ammonia was used to represent the train ferry SF Hydro in the final fjord scenes.

The movie was originally titled The Unknown Battle and was to have starred Stephen Boyd and Elke Sommer and be written by Ben Barzman.[5] Later, Anthony Perkins was announced as a star, though he withdrew.[6] Eventually Kirk Douglas signed as the lead.[7] Cliff Robertson was mentioned as a possible co-star before Richard Harris came on board.[8]

"I hear they are spending five million dollars, so it's got to be spectacular and that means more fiction and less fact", said Haukelid during filming.[1]

Stephen Boyd later sued Mann for half a million dollars when funding for the initial project fell apart in early 1964. "I missed out on four good roles and plenty of money when he signed me without financial backing and then dropped the project", said Boyd later. "He asked me again later but I'd made other commitments, so Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris made it under another title."[9]

Unlike the scenes in the film, the saboteurs had already left the area when the bomb exploded. Also omitted is the death of 18 Norwegian civilians in the sinking and the rescue efforts of local fishermen.

Reception

It was amongst the 15 most popular films at the British box office in 1966.[10] The film has a 67% rating in Rotten Tomatoes, based on six reviews, with an average rating of 6.10/10.[11]

Other versions

Ray Mears made a documentary called The Real Heroes of Telemark. Despite mainly sticking to the factual evidence, some scenes in the documentary, like the film, were partly dramatised, focusing more on the survival skills involved in the operation.

The same story was also covered in the 1948 Franco-Norwegian film Kampen om tungtvannet (La bataille de l'eau lourde — "The battle for heavy water"). Quite faithful to the real events, it even had many of the original Norwegian commandos starring as themselves.

In 2015, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation showed a TV series called Kampen om tungtvannet (also known as The Heavy Water War or The Saboteurs) based on the events.

See also

• Norwegian resistance movement
• Quisling regime
• List of World War II films

References

External links

• The Heroes of Telemark at IMDb
• The Heroes of Telemark at the British Film Institute
• Heroes of Telemark at Rotten Tomatoes

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