Operation: Daybreak

SS General Reinhard Heydrich (Anton Diffring) was assassinated by Czech members of the British forces in 1942 and this well made film seeks to convey their story.

Well crafted, Lewis Gilbert's film takes an understated approach allowing the story to tell itself. It's a powerful story and doesn't need embellishing, so the film benefits accordingly. However, certain touches do add to the emotion of the piece, such as a younger sister searching for her brother at a time of danger, but being unable to find him. It's a moving scene in a moving film.

The cast are universally excellent. Timothy Bottoms and Anthony Andrews do well in straight forward roles, and Martin Shaw impresses in his more challenging role as Karel Curda. Anton Diffring does his Nazi impression to perfection.

There may be one or two small changes to the story but this is a film, and not a documentary. Highly recommended.

I knew nothing about this movie until it popped up on TV one evening during the mid seventies. Being Anthony Andrews fans my wife and I settled down to watch the movie and I also recorded it on my newly acquired beta max video recorder. From the start we were drawn in to the story. The characters, the locations, actors and the magnificent musical score. It's the most moving and convincing film I have ever seen. Knowing the film is based on true events makes it all the more poignant. The pace of the movie and almost gentle unfolding of events gives the viewer time to think. It's not the high speed violence we have become used to in recent years. A film of love and hate and the darkest days of the second world war. The final and perhaps inevitable outcome in the last chapter has become etched into my memory forever. I remember Anthony Andrews saying years later on The Michael Parkinson Show that it was a film he was particularly proud to have been a part of. Too right! A star studded cast which so often can be the kiss of death in a film proved to be not the case. Every character was essential and all the actors played their parts well.I have tried to get this film on VHS and DVD but unsuccessfully. It is a film that has had quite a profound effect on the way I think. If you have never seen this movie but are given the chance to watch it, keep a tissue in your pocket. It's a tearjerker.

I first saw this movie about six months ago, recorded it, and have been watching it regularly every since (about once a month). It is such a heart-wrenching movie, and truly one that you can never forget. It's the story of ulimate patriotism and friendship and loyalty. And the best thing about it....it is about 95% true.

The score of this film is absolutely amazing. The slow, pulsating beat that plays every time the movie his a little climax is so much more effective that the rising strings of an orchestra. There's just a subtlety to this whole movie...the pauses and glances are just as meaningful as the worlds spoken.

This is really a classic...as was said by someone else...and it IS criminal that almost no one has seen this movie...but I'm only 15..so what the hell do I know, right? :)

I've seen this several times now and I can never watch the end of this movie. My husband and I watched it again last night and I simply broke down and cried for ten minutes. Such waste of young lives... To read the later fates of the characters in the credits was particularly wrenching. Very good performances, foremost of which must be Anton Difring. Beautiful use was made of Prague's older quarters. Unlike many I didn't like the music at all; I felt the subject deserved better. One wonders what the widow and daughter of Heinrich thought of the destruction of Lidice and its subsequent reincarnation in the aftermath of the war.

I first saw this movie back in 1976 when HBO, I believe, was making a run of it. It was a riveting movie I never forgot; I taped it from network TV about 12 years ago, and I recently started watching it again. Next I ordered the VHS tape, which arrived today and it is excellent, including quite a few scenes that the network version omits. The only problem is, as one viewer points out, is that in this version there is no subtitles, so you miss some of the dialog in the parts that are spoken in German. (The network version includes the subtitles, but is missing some scenes). The sound quality on the prerecorded VHS version is quite good if played back on a VHS hi-fi deck with a good sound system. I wish this movie were available on DVD! If anyone hears of it becoming available on DVD, please let me know! Hopefully a future DVD release will address the subtitle problem. It is indeed surprising how little attention this movie got. I even ordered a couple of books on Heydrich from Amazon, as well as the novel "Seven men at Daybreak" on which the movie is based. I find that the movie is nearly completely accurate. An excellent movie that anyone interested in history should see at least once.