Kampen om tungtvannet

This decade or so, Norway has created several series depicting life and events during WW II in Norway, under German annexation, but still different way than in e.g. Central or Eastern Europe. But still, people had to make hard choices, and very often you were between rock and hard place, trying to see/predict a bigger picture and "sniff" potential outcomes. Kampen om tungtvannet gives a broad overview, through different angles and participants, of a successful, yet controversial operation (thus, in my opinion, the UK title The Saboteurs is not felicitous), with many real episodes and characters, performed by good character actors (more as a team, no one really sticks out unnecessarily). It is also to my liking that characters of different nationals were played by respective representatives, so different languages heard are always correct and without accent. Well, the run of scenes is not always smooth, some of them are excessive and tensions are sometimes fading, but still - this series is worth watching, at least for Northern Europeans interested in the events during WW II not commonly known.

A variety of languages, with subtitles as needed. Dramatic but in keeping with history. Outstanding sense of the challenging times of WW2 & the decisions made by different groups & individuals, courage & compromise. Risking life & decisions made to protect others & self as the Nazi noose extended itself into Norway.

After watching this, I mentioned to a friend of mine with a degree in physics that Heisenberg really was compromised working for the Germans during the war. He corrected me and suggested I read "Heisenberg's War" by Thomas Powers. Thank goodness, I did. It's an excellent book, and sets the record straight about what Heisenberg did and didn't do, and did and didn't think, during the war.

The miniseries show him trying to dazzle the German military with the destructive potential of his nuclear research, and it shows him working diligently on developing a bomb. What Powers shows, though, is that Heisenberg and the scientists who worked closely with him tried in various ways to discourage the Nazis from pursuing a bomb. And they were successful. After a critical meeting with Speer in 1943, in which Heisenberg emphasized all the problems and pointed out that a bomb, even if it could be developed, would take too long to be used in the war, bomb research stopped, and nuclear research was aimed at a reactor or "energy machine." The Heisenberg group were so horrified by the idea of an atomic bomb that they even signaled to scientists outside Germany that Germany was not working on a bomb, hoping to prevent a world of nuclear weapons. (This was misunderstood by many distrustful Allied scientists, who feared Heisenberg was trying to stop their work so that he could proceed without competition on his own.)

So enjoy the series, but please don't do as I did and take it as factual about Heisenberg's participation in a German atomic bomb program. I suppose that part of the story was added to crank up the excitement and drama.

Incidentally, after the destruction of the Norwegian hydro/heavy water plant and the sinking of the ferry carrying the heavy water, Germany's was completely crippled in its supply of heavy water, never to recover.

For us Scandinavians there is a lot of familiar faces in the cast. They really brought the big guns for this one. Casting is great, acting is superb and we all in all get the same from this series as we got from Max Manus, maybe even more. It's based upon what actually happened, with some artistic freedoms of course. But largely sticks to the story. If you can somewhat understand Norwegian or enjoy foreign cinema/tv series (not in english), you should definitely give this a try.

I'm flabbergasted by the few critical reviews of this film as I think it's one of the best series on WWll ever made. Telling the story of Britain & Norway's efforts to destroy the heavy water production by the Nazis (used to create an atomic bomb) it covers the same ground as the 1965 film with Kirk Douglas. This an intense, gripping war drama showing the amazing bravery and tenacity of the Allies to stop Hitler from getting the bomb before them no matter what the cost. Critical reviewers might want to read their history as I found this film to have no "fluff" or "PC" elements at all. Gut wrenching with tons of action not to mention political drama and also blending personal stories into the characters it succeeds on every level in my opinion. I've seen/own every WWll film available and this is one of the best.