Max Manus

Aksel Hennie

Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg's Max Manus is a World War 2 film that was released outside of Norway as Max Manus: Man of War, presumably to draw in the action audience. The  2008 film revolves around Manus, Norway's most famous Resistance saboteur when it was under Nazi occupation. The film's structure is trifold. We witness Manus' exploits during the war, mostly scuttling German shipping. We also get a recurrent flashbacks of Manus' volunteer days with Finnish forces fighting off a Soviet incusion. These experiences left him deeply traumatized. Thirdly, we witness the pursuit of Manus by a slick and unrepentantly evil SS officer named Siegfried Fehmer who is well played by Ken Duken. The script by Thomas Nordseth-Tiller does a good job of delineating the doomed band of comrades that joined Manus to fight his country's occupiers. Even actors who only appear briefly, like Petter Næss and Ron Donachie as sensitive superiors, make an impression despite their brief screen time.

Though superior in its characterization than most wartime sagas, the film is better at delineating the nuts and bolts of the saboteurs' operations than fleshing out the film's parallel and ambivalent love stories. The two romantic tales have too many ellipses in their relationship arcs. The film limps to a conclusion with Manus an alcoholic suffering from PTSD. There are two scenes with Manus having visions of his dead comrades, one too many. Aksel Hennie is excellent at portraying Manus as hollowed out by his service to his country. Hennie has had continued success appearing in such international hits as The Martian and Sisu. The directors' acute sense of craft is best displayed in the action sequences which smoothly combine CGI with practical effects. Their skill gained them entrée into Hollywood, but their output has been polished but anonymous. This makes me think that what makes Max Manus a good, if not outstanding, genre flick, is the screenplay. Unfortunately, Max Manus must stand as Mr. Nordseth-Tiller's sole testament. He died of cancer in 2009. He was 28 years old.