Shetlandsgjengen

This is a totally unknown film.It deals with Norweigan boats that ran between Norway and The Shetland Islands in world war 2.It was made by Norwegians mainly and dubbed into English.At times it has the feel of Pat Jackson's. Western Approaches.It just shows what films are gathering dust in the archives awaiting a showing.

This post-war, low-budget film portrays the 'Shetland Bus' service which transported agents and weapons from the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland to Norway, the other side of a stormy and hazardous sea. Initially, trawlers were used, crewed by Norwegians (the film simply refers to them as 'Vikings').

Leif Larsen, who was involved in the actual service, plays himself, and the events of the film appear to be fairly closely based on fact. While Michael Aldridge, playing the RNVR officer commanding the base, is a familiar face, most of the actors are amateurs, like Larsen.

For me, the amateur cast is less of a problem than the script: Larsen is actually really good, the commanding presence that he was (by all accounts) in real life, and the other Vikings are also excellent - especially the cheerful crewman whose unconventional headgear raises the eyebrows of a visiting Admiral. The dialogue is poor, a mix of exposition of Downton Abbey proportions and tepid banter.

The film's US title was 'Suicide Mission', but the film makers (the director was the little-known Michael Forlong, who wrote the screenplay with Sidney Cole from a novel by David Howarth) opted for a lighthearted tone. The dangers the Vikings faced were considerable: attack from the air German planes, betrayal by Quislings in Norway, and the North Sea itself.

All of these threats are played out in the storyline, and the action sequences of the film - and the shots of trawlers contending with massive waves - are the best part. Larsen completed more than 40 missions and was decorated more times than any other non-British person and any other merchant seaman.

A truly exciting war picture, probably the most realistic picture I've ever seen. Virtually all the main actors are the actual people portrayed in the events, and the settings appear also to be genuine. I don't think you could make such a picture any better. I was on the edge of my seat for the whole movie.

Larsen and his loyal crew make the run on small fishing vessels from Norway. They wish to run guns to fight the resistance against the Nazi occupation of Norway. The stormy and cold North Sea is a bleak and inhospitable place even in peaceful times. The resistance fighters boats, lightly armed, must evade German planes, brave the stormy weather, and dodge collaborators. Will they survive the impossible conditions? It's as exciting as they come. A great watch for the true war movie lover.

Something rare and authentic about this slightly amateurish (I mean that as a compliment) WW2 naval story.

My father served in the Royal Navy during WW2 (including the Arctic convoys) and I think the film captures something of the spirit and the time which a more modern, bigger budget film would miss.

The English title implies something more like 'The Heroes of Telemark', but it's actually a much more sober affair that one might have taken for a wholly Norwegian production dubbed into English save for a dashing young Michael Aldridge (also obviously post-synced) interacting with the native cast; although he's absent from the atmospheric sea footage and the scenes shot in Bergen itself depicting the activities of the wartime Norwegian resistance.