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So many war films are just Hollywood idea of how chisel jawed clean cut Americans defeated the Nazi hoard across Europe.

Not so Max Manus.

For once a war film with a proper story that isn't just a story but all true. After watching this film I went straight to the library to look him up.

A remarkable chap and a credit to his nation.

A great boys own adventure, no gooey love seen, not full of gallons of fake blood and thousands of rounds being fired. Just a no nonsense as it happened film.

Go see it.

The film evolves around Max Manus as one of the central heroes of the young Norwegian resistance during the World War II. Together with Gunnar Kjakan Sønsteby, Gregers Gram and the other brave youngsters not willing to see the free Norway become a part of the German Nazi empire The Third Reich.

After the fun flick "Bandidas" no one expected Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg to be able to do such a correct and true told story of one the Norwegian resistance heroes. But they have managed to make a great film, without messing up in any way.

We get the feeling that the heroism was not just a one-sided thing. For every action the resistance made, more civilians had to die. Max Manus, brilliantly played by Aksel Hennie, was an adventurer, and very lucky to be one of the survivors, more than once thanks to the cold-minded Gunnar Kjakan Sønsteby, warning him about the reality of it all.

The film also shows the psychological effects on the adventurer, who got to be a heavy drinker during the war, and after. Being a hero is just a part of the whole story.

A strong part of this film is the human relations. The boyish ways and friendships. The love-story is beautifully made. One can really relate to the persons. That's good acting as well! Some find Fehmers girlfriend as unnecessary. I don't agree. This is to show that the Nazis had both charm and feelings too. This gives balance as well.

Some have been criticizing the Norwegian resistance for being young silly adventurers. Some of this might be a little bit true, but what they did, and what the sacrificed, is impressive. Most of us would not even think of trying, or dare, to do anything as to stop an invasion of a big and threatening force. Thank God for the likes of Max Manus. He never stopped believing that the Germans could be beaten, even though he was far down after losing his friends one by one in the battle for freedom.

A solid mark is given for true storytelling of brave young spirits, making Norway what the country is today.

Although being a Norwagian WWII film, Max Manus has that international appeal because it's about something the whole world experienced.

Following Max and his saboteur friends is a real pleasure and a very realistic depiction of the occupation of Norway. It's the first time i have seen a Norwagian film of this "epic" quality and i hope we get more in the future.

If you have seen a lot of WWII movies don't think this will be just another one. This one gives you a take on the more hidden parts of the war and follows a small resistance group trying to save their small country from one of the biggest empires the world has seen.

So in conclusion i would recommend anyone interested in good foreign films or just good historical films in general.

In Norway, Max Manus was a hero. And, I am sure that because of this that "Max Manus: Man of War" was such as successful film. Norwegians flocked to it like lemmings. However, if you aren't from Norway, I doubt if the movie will bowl you over like it did these folks. Now I am NOT saying it's a bad film--Manus was an incredible guy and the film is exciting. However, the film isn't perfect and I only mildly recommend it. Why? Well, although there are lots of wonderful scenes, the film has two huge problems. One, and this is a personal one, it uses the cursed unsteady cam--featuring lots of shots that look they were shot by a cinematographer with the DTs. The film shook so much on many of the closeups I felt like I was becoming motion sick! Second, the film is VERY sketchy. Too often, the film jumps from one scene to the next--many, many months apart. And, because of this, some of the characters are woefully underdeveloped. There apparently was supposed to be some sort of budding romance between Manus and his contact with the British consulate--but you'd never really know it--it just happened very abruptly. The same was Definitely the case with the blonde lady--who was she, why was she featured in the film and why should we care?! By the way, although this is an exciting film, be forewarned that it's VERY bloody. If you don't want to see tons of blood and gruesomeness, try another film.

Awesome film based on a true story about a small but significant resistance group in Oslo Norway during WW2. and the most prolific member is Max Manus with his daring operations and back breaking escapes from the Nazi's. in terms of Norwegian films in general ,this film differs from the rest because of it's massive budget and interesting source material. the thing that really surprised me was the detail and skill of the cgi effects from making Oslo look like it did 60 years ago to various explosions and action sequences. foremost this film is for people familiar with the story's of Max Manus and his daring exploits. Aksel Hennie did a great job portraying Manus. i didn't like Hennie before but i do now. A must see for any Norwegian or war enthusiast.

I just watched this film. I had no idea really what the film was about, I had never heard of Max Manus.

I had high hopes after reading the reviews here, but maybe having high hopes made this movie fail a little for me.

It was good, but I feel a little confused about many things. I will not go into the details here, but I just feel the film should have been longer. Everything just happens without much explanation (I think it is made in such a way assuming that the viewers already know the facts, but alas, outside of Norway nobody knows anything about the Norwegian resistance) so many times I was left wondering.

I would have liked to have learned about Great Britain (especially Scotland) and how the relationship between them and Norwegian resistance was formed and how they travelled between the countries. I know at one point fishing boats from Scotland were rescuing people from Norway, but I have never seen this depicted in a film.

But over all, this was a good film, very beautiful cinematography and very well acted. It was nice to hear Norwegian too, I don't understand it, but it added to the authenticity of it and really made you feel a connection with the gang.

I'm not sure where to start but my anticipations for this film were sky-high, and boy were my prayers answered! I have difficulty seeing how the story of Norwegian resistance fighter Max Manus could be told in any other way. The friendship in the tight-knit group of saboteurs and resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Oslo is portrayed with great warmth, comedy and boyish charm (most of these guys were basically just kids!), and the original and very special relationship between Max and his future wife Tikken is both credible and beautiful. Together with some intense action-scenes this all makes for a great WW2-film that takes you through every emotion.

Almost refreshingly it's told in a straightforward manner, none of those new fashionable gimmicks where a storyline is suddenly turned on its head just for cheap effect. The fact that this film is very close to reality - according to both Manus' widow Tikken and Gunnar Sønsteby, one of the legendary resistance fighters portrayed in the film - makes this even more fascinating.

An honest sweeping war drama deeply rooted in reality and history, that should interest any fan of WW2-stories, anywhere in the world.

And why watch fictional heroes like gladiator Maximus Decimus Meridius when you can enjoy real life ones like Maximo Guillermo Manus? :)

Saw this movie yesterday at colosseum in Oslo. It was the pre-premiere with all the cast and war veterans attending. To say the least it was pretty easy getting carried away because of the atmosphere but i will at least try to give a balanced review.

The first thing that grabs your attention is the production values, for a norwegian movie this one looks great. Its really great to see that norwegian movies have made leaps and bounds during the recent years in special effects. It sure as hell looks authentic, and it feels that way to. Both visuals and atmosphere is highly successful. Also the score is highly satisfying, and complements the visual style perfectly.

Despite these strengths, there are some negative things to point out about Max manus. Much of the acting is stale, I don't know what it is. But i think some of these actors have acted better before. It could be that the characters are somewhat hard to project considering that these where real people, and they have to take into account on how they where, i don't know, but somethings not right. Aksel Hennies acting ranges from mediocre to very good during the movie. Hes really good at the emotional scenes, but when he is supposed to be more neutral it feels like he is holding back. Now Ken Duken on the other hand, gives a perfect performance, its kind of amazing how he delivers the norwegian lines better than the norwegian actors. I haven't seen this guy before, but he seems to have tons of talent. (The scene in the cell is pretty good from both Aksel and Ken).

The movie as a whole is pretty entertaining and informative, its nice to learn about what happened back in WWII. And its nice to see the past of some of our most decorated war heroes. all in all i think it would have benefited the movie to have some more tight pacing and more solid acting. It has some really good parts, but the complete package doesn't really satisfy as much as i would have hoped to.

I found this war film very enjoyable. The story and acting was good as was the design. It has good moments of suspense and was like an old fashion picture of bravery and winning over the bad guys. The characters are interesting with the central protagonist Max Manus being someone we do care about.

It is good to look at with some very good photography at the outside locations. I particularly enjoyed the night scenes during the sabotage sequences in the harbour.

I would say a good film to watch for teenagers and adults.

It is a foreign language film with subtitles.

It was a great movie. I was not bored for a second! Movies like this could very fast be ruined by to much focus on action, to much focus on drama or all to many characters. This movie handle all the parts very well. It's very good balanced movie. It goes on from 1940-1945 telling the story and feelings of Max Manus, who was a saboteur under the war. Good Norwegian action movies are rare, if you have some fearful memories of bad Norwegian movies, this will change your mind.

None Norwegians: I gave this movie 10, and that may be because I'm a Norwegian and feel this movie in a different way then you. But it's no less then a 8 if I should be harsh. This will most likely "pop" up in your rental store as a DVD with subtitles. If you not used to subtitles it can be hard I know, but it's worth it (And you will hear some German, English and wonderful Norwegian-English in the movie). It's a rental, heck, it's one to own!

I saw Max Manus on it's premiere date, December 19th on Konsertpalèet 1 Bergen, Norway. As usual when I've seen a movie, one of the first things I did when I got home was to vote for it here on IMDb.com. And when I did I couldn't even see the average vote since it hadn't even got 5 votes yet. Now it's got 2.200 votes and an average of 8.5. And that's very high. You could say that this is because only Norwegians has voted for it. True, true. It's the, if not greatest, certainly BIGGEST movie in Norway for a very long time, maybe ever? But then I saw something: The U.S. average, only 20 people though, is 9.1! How did this happen? Americans with Norwegian heritage? Or is there really something very special about this movie?

Me, a Norwegian myself, find 8.5 very appropriate. I don't think this movie is a 10, heck, I rarely never give any movie a 10. 9...I considered 9 when I got home from the theater, but for a 9 I felt that I would have to be blown away in a way that I hadn't got. So I settled for 8, still very good! Cause it is very good, and if I could have voted in halves I would have given Max Manus 8.5.

And since then I have wondered; How about Max Manus in the top 250? If Americans can give average higher than Norwegians? Most Americans would like this movie a lot if it was in English. And with the weighted average system, Max Manus now lies on 7.8, and if it passes 4000 votes with 8.5 it will indeed be on the list if my calculations are correct and if IMDb isn't hiding something important about how they calculate.

Personally, I think that it is a better movie than enough of the 250's to deserve a spot in there. The Swedes has Ingmar Bergman in there, let us have Max Manus, our biggest movie.

So how about it? It's not the deepest of movies. I can't say that I felt I cared so much about Max or the other characters and I can't say that I found the acting superb (except for Ken Duken). But one thing I can say is that it is beautifully filmed, it's great as an action flick, it's very exciting, it's a war movie as good as any and visually it couldn't have been any better. It even has a little love story inside it, for those who likes that. For many of my friends, for many Norwegians and for many Europeans and Americans; that is all there is needed for them to love it. And that is quite alright.

Enjoy Max Manus, a very good movie for everyone aged 10 or more. 8/10

This film is one that I have waited for a long time awaiting it's theatrical release.

When that came I were not disappointed,alltough they did leave out a LOT of really exiting stuff. f.ex: his eventful trip around the globe via neutral Sweden and pre war(Barbarossa) Russia then to Turkey where they were almost ensnared by two beautiful female German agents.Then to North Africa(Egypt) were they almost joined the British 8th army,but didn't because they would be seen as deserters by the Norwegian army then.

They also shot down a french plane that were attacking them in the Mediterranean,then via cape town ultimately to New york and then via convoy to England,I think a sequel is in order to cover this journey. That being said ,this is by far the best Norwegian or foreign for that matter film I have ever seen,the effects is beautiful and blends in perfectly,the story have been comprised a bit to fit in a movie script and I understand that perfectly as I went to film school myself. Production value is top notch in this and you can really see every dollar(or kroner) is put on that screen. Hennies portrayal is spot on,so are the other performances. I would warmly recommend this film to everyone especially those who are interested in WW2 history.

PS: I read a review on here that said Manus never fought in the Finnish campaign,while it is true that most of the Norwegian volunteers never got to the front (all from alcoholism to bad nerves,a total of 128 Norwegian troops reached the Salla front and were put into the Swedish "friviligakåren" (volunteer corps). Please do your research properly if you are going to make statements like that.

Max Manus is a rather authentic depiction of Norwegian resistance fighters, but unfortunately not very deep. As can be expected by a Scandinavian film, it's great to see that the actors speak the right languages at the right time. Besides Norwegian they speak German, English and also some Finnish, Swedish and Russian. I can attest that all German actors speak proper German, not silly foreigners accents like in many other movies.

Ken Duken in the role of Fehmer quite looks the part of a German officer. And it was nice to see an actor in the role who speaks both German and Norwegian. Yet he talks all the time with a very deep, somehow contrived voice, which I found a bit annoying. And he doesn't seem to have a character, like most people in a picture that does't go deep in showing people with real human characters. All the resistance fighters are cheerful, nice guys. There are no traitors, weaknesses or people with conflicts. That's all a bit too shallow, especially when the real Max Manus apparently had alcohol and emotional problems. Of course the film attempts to develop his friendship with Gregers, the loss of comrades and a deep love story with Tikken, but it isn't all that memorable.

Special effects are OK, but not great, when CGI effects are used they stand out clearly from the rest of the picture. Especially the sinking ship at the end was really weird. I think like many films from this era it will not age well because of the CGI.

Overall a very watchable film, and a solid effort of Norwegian cinema, but the complete potential is not fulfilled.

This is a high quality production, Hollywood level. The overall production design is incredible and the costume department is perfect. The movie is about Max Manus, a very important man in the Norwegian resistance and the writers and Aksel Hennie does a remarkable job of bringing justice to the deceased war hero. I didn't know that Norway had a resistance until a month ago and after doing some research and now watching this I just want to visit the WW2 museum in Oslo. I've found out that Scandinavian productions usually make superb war movies, always unique and realistic.

The cinematography is superb, it deserved its prize for that and every other Amanda award. The directors hard work is seen in every scene, making sure everything is authentic and right they made an incredible and realistic war movie. It should have been nominated in the Oscar's for best foreign language. As I wrote before, Aksel Hennie's performance was great. Making an believable and fantastic performance and also keeping the looks right as he really does look like the real Max Manus, the hair and clothes playing a big part of it. Great performance in a extraordinary biopic/war movie.

I am sure that Hitler didn't expect, that the most Arian of all Arians, Scandinavian people, show much dissent to the Nazi regime. After all in his delusional world of Wagnerian bloody operas mixed in with horrific reality, there was not much room for logic. On the other hand poor Norwegians got saddled with Vidkun Quisling, shameful collaborator, to give the new name to all future traitors. " Max Manus" tells a different story, of proud, patriotic young men with utmost desire to wipe the shame of treachery and fight for their country. The long bloody war will decimate them, and the survivors will slowly continue reliving the horrors. Thankfully, this movie doesn't forget that heroes can suffer too, even more than passive victims.

First off, I must say that I didn't expect much even if Aksel Hennie was in the main role. And as a bonus, Nicolai Cleve Broch is in it as well. Both are two of the greatest actors in Norway, and boy.. They play well together (wich they also proved in 'Uno') But I was surprised. VERY surprised.

This movie had it all! Good in-depth characters, good story, action, love, sorrow.. you name it. I was thrilled. I had goosebumps at several times and could feel the tears pushing on a at least three of four times.

If you want to see a movie that got it all, even if you don't like movies about war. See it. I promise you that you wont regret it.

This movie became my favorite, and I will see it again for sure.

A strong 10\10.

Thus speaks Wikipedia: "Max Manus (1914–1996) was a Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II. He was a pioneer of the Norwegian resistance movement and was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941. He escaped to the United Kingdom for training and went back as a saboteur for the Norwegian Independent Company 1, better known as Lingekompaniet. He became a specialist in ship sabotage, was famous for being one of the most brilliant saboteurs during World War II, and after the war he wrote several books about his adventures." Hmm, sounds like it was only a question of time before this guy's life story would be made into a movie!

In its native Norway the film has been highly popular among the public which is not hard to understand considering it is a very traditional and technically well-made war film. The basis of the plot was already summarized in the first paragraph: a volunteered veteran of the Finnish Winter War, Max Manus (Aksel Hennie) is enraged to see his beloved Norway being taken over by the Nazis in the early 1940s and quickly organizes an underground resistance movement with his friends Kolbein, Tallak and Gram (Christian Rubeck, Mats Eldøen and Nicolai Cleve Broch). Ships are sunk and bullets fly but Manus never loses his hope in the face of the enemy, personified in the Gestapo officer Siegfried Fehmer (Ken Duken).

The filmmakers are clearly well aware of the conventions of heroic war movies and utilize them unrestrainedly in the story. The cinematography is pleasantly brownish-yellowish in the interior scenes and creates an atmosphere of old photographs that always suits well movies set in recent history. The exteriors are also filmed beautifully, particularly the short training scenes in Scotland, and the night scenes bask in pretty twilight blue. Unfortunately the professionalism of the production also leads to overt Hollywood-style conventionality of the plot: of course there is a romance (with a woman named Tikken, played by Agnes Kittelsen), of course friends get killed, of course the good are good and the bad are bad. I understand that many of these things actually did happen in real life but since this is not a documentary, they could have been changed a little in order to spice up the tale with something more unexpected than the obvious hero plot.

OK, some of the mine-setting scenes are fairly suspenseful and the story occasionally catches a beautiful sense of melancholy, most notably at the end. In general, the plot is at its most interesting when examining Manus' traumatic Winter War memories and feelings of guilt when his friends and innocent people are punished for his rebellious actions; I wish such inner demons would have been paid more attention at the expense of the Nazis, the obvious enemy. There are also some flat-out clichés in the movie, such as the bad guys being lousy marksmen, and the overly shaky camera during several emotionally charged moments annoyed the heck out of me.

Be that as it may, I am sure there is an audience for Max Manus outside Norway as well. Personally the thin drama plot did not get me hooked very much but friends of traditionally heroic resistance tales should find everything they are looking for in the film. Furthermore, Aksel Hennie in the titular role bears an uncanny resemblance to a young Steve Buscemi – never a bad thing! So, go ahead and give it a look if it sounds like your kind of movie; you might end up enjoying it a lot more than I did.

It's 1940. Finland quickly falls to the Nazis. Max Manus is injured fighting the Soviets. After recovering, he and his friends organize to resist. Their carelessness gets Max arrested but he escapes by jumping out of a hospital window. He gets training in Scotland and returns to sabotage against the Germans. He and his comrades are successful at first but are hunted by local Gestapo chief Siegfried Fehmer. Their handler is female agent Tikken. As security is heighten, Max must somehow sink a troop transport ship.

It has some good action and some good resistance intrigue. It's also a bit rambling. It's probably a struggle to fit a real life story into a simple Hollywood style thriller. It also could have given Max Manus more of a personal drama during the war. It seems to give him his personal demons only after the war. If that's the real case, this could have started the movie with his modern day demons and then do the movie as a flashback to find the roots.