HHhH

This film tells the story of the man who was in charge of hideous war crimes, i.e. The Extermination program, in Nazi Germany. A group of Czechoslovakian people try to rebel and attempt to assassinate him.

The first hour of the film is all about Reinhard, as he climbs up to the top with the most terrible policy. The film shows that many people are brutally murdered for no reason, and Reinhard has no passion or compassion for the victims. In fact, he has no feelings at all, even towards his wife. The story is engaging up to this point, and Rosamund Pike is great a well. However, in the second part of the film, the story is derailed to tell the story of the resistance force. I may have missed why the resistance fighters decide to stand up and fight, and indeed their background story. I don't feel any connection to them at all, and the sudden shift in the spotlight to the resistance fighter appear to be a distraction to me. The final scene at the church crypt is touching though.

The acting was quite good although I felt some of the actors were miscasted--Himmler is almost fat where as he was slim and taller in real life than the actor who looks really outcast in this role. Heydrich is so, so, portrayed but his collar rank insignia is not accurate all the time--he is shown as a Gruppenfuhrer sometimes and as an Obergruppenfuhrer other times. Heydrich did not carry a Luger as shown in the movie but carried a Walther PP. I don't think that Clarke gave the best portrayal of Heydrich, something about his looks. The chase and shootout scene with Heydrichs driver leaves you to believe he was killed where as he was not and only wounded. Heydrich did not die during Himmler's visit as shown, but later. I believe the assassins in the church were only armed with pistols, not multiple machine guns. Don't know why with a bit of research they can't get the history straight. There are other inaccuracies as well, inserting Heydrich into scenarios where he never actually was present. Anyways, not a bad movie but could have been better. If left alone to the actual facts it still would have been a good story instead of adding in ridiculous fiction.

Let me just start out by saying that this movie is literally two separate movies, that are merely tied together by a brief moment. The first half half was engrossing, rich in character development, and extremely well paced.

Without spoiling anything, I would just like to say that I would have given the first half of this movie an 8 or 9. Unfortunately for whatever reason they decided to tell a story that was a great injustice to the quality cinema that was setup. In the end you get the same story that Cillian Murphy trudged through almost scene for scene recently. If you are a fan of the pervious movie, and want another take on the situation, I do recommend at least watching this film for the first half. Otherwise it has been done before, and much better in all aspects.

This movie feels like someone shot two separate movies - one being Heydrich's biography, second being action thriller about his assassination - cut the run time of each one to half and merged them together. The first half follows Reinhard Heydrich on his rise to power, orchestrated by his wife Lina. It's not exactly a thrilling spectacle, but both Jason Clarke and Rosamunde Pike deliver solid performances (although Clarke is far from the brilliance of Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's list). The problem is that the story line seems absurdly rushed, many important events are left out or shown through short collages with voice-over and music playing and it just feels incomplete. I would love to see a full 2 hours long Heydrich's biography that would dig deeper into Heydrich's relationship with his wife, his rise to power and his work and status in the Nazi regime.

Unfortunately, after one hour of this rushed biography, the movie almost completely abandons Heydrich and his wife (both have literally minutes of screen time in the second half, most of it together) and shifts focus to Czechoslovak paratroopers in Prague. Since then, it feels like Jimenez just took the movie Anthropoid (2016), cast new actors, re-shot the movie shot by shot and cut out half of the scenes. If you have seen Anthropoid, you can skip the second half in its entirety and you won't miss anything. The fact that Jack O'Connel and Jack Reynor look alike to the point it's easy to confuse their actions doesn't help either. The only upside of the second half is Mia Wasikovska who does much better job than Ana Geislerova in Anthropoid. HHhH (or The Man with the Iron Heart) is not a bad movie per se, it's just oddly structured, rushed and given the existence of Anthropoid, feels a bit redundant.

Solid performances all round (Jason Clarke is excellent!) However, movie should have fleshed out the Heydrich / Butcher of Prague story more rather than re-telling the post death aftermath - an angle already covered by the Cillian Murphy/Jamie Doran movie (Antripoid). Their (brilliant) movie told from the perspective of the Czech Assasins.

If you really want to see a movie about Heydrich (and the lead up to the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question"), watch "Conspiracy", the Kenneth Brannagh/Stanley Tucci TV movie. SHOCKING!