I Have Enough Burdens Without Command, Thank You

The Heroes of Telemark was one of those war movies that makes me distinctly aware of how unsuited I'd be for that sort of thing. All the more so since it's pretty historically accurate, as far as I know.

In Norway, the Nazis have a facility they're using to produce "heavy water" the substance they believe will help to stabilize the fission of an atomic bomb. The Resistance movement in Norway gets wind of something going on their, and manage to smuggle some photographs out, which Knut (Richard Harris), brings to a playboy scientist known as Rolf (Kirk Douglas). Rolf initially wants no part of it. Every time the resistance does something, the Nazis kill a dozen innocent people in reprisal. But once he sees what the photos are of, he understands the situation, and they make their way to England (hijacking a ferry to do so). The British send them back to work with their fellow Resistance members to prepare things for a commando landing that will destroy the installation. While in the middle of making a landing strip (the commandos are coming in by glider, rather than parachute), they're observed by Jensen, a Norwegian not associated with the Resistance. Which presents a question of what to do with him.

The commandos die in their landing, putting Rolf, Knut, and the rest in a bind, and the remainder of the film is a real back-and-forth. The resistance tries to stop the Nazis, the Nazis bounce back and keep going. There's a lot of talk about what's acceptable risks, and who gets to decide who takes those risks, and that's the kind of thing I find interesting. Knut doesn't know what the significance of heavy water is, only that the doctor working there felt it was important enough to risk his life getting those photos to Knut. Rolf knows, but won't tell Knut, because it's classified. Knut is good enough to risk his life trying to destroy it, but not good enough to know what it is he's risking his life to destroy. This is the sort of thing that always bothers me: sending somebody off to die when, for all he knows, it's a completely pointless mission. This unwillingness to even explain why it's necessary just emphasizes the fact that he's considered expendable, and ultimately irrelevant. In this particular case, Rolf's attitude when dealing with Knut probably didn't help, since Rolf is a real condescending dick when he isn't hitting on everyone that doesn't have a Y chromosome. Rolf certainly makes it clear he has no problem with Knut walking off into the meat grinder in ignorance.

Then there's the whole sequence with Jensen. From the moment he explained why he wasn't working with the Germans, you could see how things were going to end. Which is maybe why Rolf wanted to shoot him. But Knut and the other Resistance members outvote him. They keep Knut tied up at their hideout, but they don't harm him otherwise, and it comes back to bite them. But I understand their decision. It's hard for me to see how killing a man just because he might not be your ally is the right road to liberating your country. It's that question of how much like the enemy are you prepared to become.

When the Resistance's initial sabotage proves less successful than hoped, and the British aerial bombardment fails utterly (because "precision high altitude bombing" was an oxymoron in those days), Rolf and Knut are left with one path open to them. The Germans are loading railcars full of heavy water on a ferry. Sink the ferry, all that hard work by the Nazis is undone. But the ferry is full of people, Norwegians*. How many of them are they prepared to kill to stop this? What's an acceptable number? I don't know, myself.

* One thing I was curious about, but neglected to ask my dad: Did the Nazis put it on the ferry as camouflage, figuring the Allies wouldn't suspect such a vital cargo would be shipped that way? Or was it to dissuade any attacks, using unwitting civilians as human shields?