Narvik: Hitler's First Defeat

"Kampen om Narvik - Hitler's første nederlag" (in English: The Battle of Narvik - Hitler's first defeat") directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg had a hard time reaching the cinemas, two years after first planned premiere,due to covid and then the eruption of the Ukraine war, but when it finally did it does to full houses across Norway.

The plot follows a soldier, Gunnar, and his family during the outbreak of the war, and the freeing of Narvik, a battle which kept going for 40 days, and we can feel the difficulties of war, with his wife obliged to help as a German translator.

The film is superbly filmed in locations Narvik, Drammen and Rjukan, and the sound is awesome.. the story manages to grip on several levels, and I found it both interesting and good, telling me history I didn't know about from before.

Another good Norwegian war movie, well worth a view.

This movie deserves 5 stars. It is watchable from beginning to end, but won't bring you anything more and forgettable with little to no value to talk about with those who have watched it too.

The battle for Norway of course was a note worthy, but seldom spoken of part of history as far as the timeline during the Second World War. This movie did little justice to bring any change to that.

The acting was fine from many of the main charactures, namely Kristine Hartgen, who played Ingrid Tofte. On an equal note, some of the acting seemed to be done by members taken from an after work/school acting club i.e. At least they knew not to look directly at the camera.

I can also say the cinematography was beautiful and location settings were superb. Unfortunately, where so many movies with great effects and stunning shots fall short, the story. The plot is the same as so many films which have come before, it is almost a clichè; likely so that they have something to begin filming with as quickly as possible and quite frankly, with a story line so unoriginal, you would think they might be able to get it right, or at least create it in such a way you can admire the finer details they put in. Not here though.

On a plus, which does deserve credit, the Germans were German, the Norweigens were Norweigen, the British were British and the French were French.

So, if you have found yourself scrolling for an eternity, mindlessly trying to find something to watch and about to give up, consider giving this movie a go... or don't, you will have missed nothing.

As "Narvik" (2022 release from Norway; 108 min; original title: "Kampen om Narvik" or "The Battle for Norvik") opens, we are introduced to the historical background as to why Norway declares itself neutral at the beginning of WWII, and yet Germany invades it. We then get to know Gunnar Tofte, a soldier in the Norwegian army, and his wife Ingrid, who runs a hotel and becomes an interpreter for the head of the German occupying force. At this point we are 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: this WWII movie is a nice change of pace. Did you know that Norway was officially neutral when WWII broke out? Me neither. And why the Nazis invaded Norway anyway? I'm not going to spoil any of the plot, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. I wasn't familiar with any of the cast, and it didn't bother me in the least. I really enjoyed the photography, done on location in Norway. Please note that the listing of this here on IMDb as "Narvik: Hitler's First Defeat" is inaccurate and never appears as such anywhere in the movie. Last but not least: I read that "Narvik" sold more movie theater tickets in Norway than any other movie released there in theaters in 2022.

"Narvik" bypassed US theaters, and started streaming on Netflix about a week ago. Netflix recommended it to me based on my viewing habits. Glad I checked it out. If you are in the mood for a decent WWII movie from a Norwegian perspective, I'd readily suggest you check it out, and draw your own conclusion.

While looking at what others said on here I found one outstanding and very comprehensive review. I completely agree with everything said by Erik_Surewaard and hope he won't mind me quoting part of his to make up the word count. I strongly recommend reading Erik's comments in full.

If I read quite some of the other user reviews, I see many complaints about the movie being too focussed on the story of one family. This instead of on the battle itself. And I can partially agree with those comments. But to use this as the main argument for giving this movie an IMDd rating of only somewhere between 1 to 4 stars, is totally unjustified. This is like saying that "Titanic" is a bad movie because it focusses to much on a love story between two people...

I personally think that "Narvik" succeeded pretty well considering its relative meagre production budget of 'only' 63.2 million Norwegian Kroner, equalling around 6.4 million US$. So before drawing conclusions, let's first take a look at a comparable... For instance "Das Boot" - a WW2 movie that was made in germany over 40 years ago - had a budget of 15 million US$. And mind you, those are 1981 dollars! So it seems that a budget of 6.4 million is peanuts if you want to make a WW2 movie.

Here comes another important and interesting movie about the Hitlerian occupation in Norway during the Second World War. It shows accurately how the Nazi and the Norwegian opposition wanted to defend their territory.

The locations were beautiful and the costumes created with authentically.

It's a touching story and I don't want to spoil any details here. I just recommend to check it out on Netflix. The main actors did a good job and the director too. The combat scenes are well executed with good special effects.

The Norwegian locations are beautiful and they are just perfect to turn there this documentary.

7/10.