Sept hommes à l'aube

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.

This detailed account of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and the tragic aftermath, is likely about as accurate as any dramatic film is likely to be on the subject. The Nazis took an appallingly vicious revenge, and this film is a compelling, somewhat flawed, saga of the great tragedy that is war and conquest. Was the killing of Heydrich, the "Hangman" to the Czechs, really necessary, considering the consequences? It must have seemed so to the British brass and the willing Czech volunteers, but one wonders what the completely uninvolved victims in Lidice may have thought. Viewed as part of the overall slaughter of millions in the course of WW2, these were small numbers of victims, but is even one death negligible? Did Heydrich's removal shorten the war at all? You will have to find your own answers.

As a cinematic action film, this is not an especially inspired production. The story of the parachuting in from British RAF planes of an assassination team proceeds rather slowly until the final battle at the church where the seven partisans were hiding. The German efforts to dislodge them are shown in a detail that may owe something to extrapolation from the facts. Who knows? In any case this is the exciting part of the film. As shown the seven wiped out simply hordes of attacking Germans before the last two took their own lives. There is no question but that in reality the partisans put up quite a fight. They would have had no incentive to surrender meekly to Nazi "mercy".

Acting, except for the very convincing portrayal of Heydrich by Anton Diffring, is generally lackluster, with a few exceptions, and the editing can only be described as choppy. The language convention may seem a tad strange. Conversations that would obviously have been in Czech, are given in English. Conversations in German, occur in German, without subtitles. If you aren't fluent in German, you may miss some nuances. Since few of the cast are Czechs, there is not much slavic flavor evident. Who knows, this may enhance the more universal message that "war is hell". Oh, and did Gabcik and Kubis really take their own lives at the end?

Operation Daybreak is an excellent film, I first saw it about 17 years ago and have since watched it several times. The plot is pretty much as it happened, save for some artistic licence with the tear-jerking finale, in real life Kubis(Bottoms) was killed in the prayer loft prior to Gabcik's(Andrew's) suicide. If you go to Prague you may want to check out the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius on Resslova,near Karlova Nam(Charles Square)Metro station,it's the church in the film and the crypt now houses a museum dedicated to the memory of the Czech peoples suffering at the hands of the Nazi's and Heydrich's assassination. Over the river in Kobylisy is the site of the assassination, two nearby streets have since been named Gabcikova and Kubisova in honour of the assassins.

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.

If you like movies with lots of nasty Nazis and their regalia, old fashioned European train stations and exotic locales, you'll do well with Operation Daybreak. I suspect it takes a few dramatic liberties with the assassination of Reinhard Heidrich. But the basic facts are right and nobody claims it's a documentary. There are a couple of flaws. Would the allies drop agents into occupied Europe in daylight? Would the holed up assassins waste their ammunition so liberally. And would the Nazis send so many soldiers into the church basement with so many casualties when there would have been quicker and more effecient tactics. For that matter, would anyone survive multiple hand grenade explosions in an enclosed space such as the church crypt. And if they did, would they have had any hearing left? But at the end of the day --- or the film --- it's a pretty satisfying war movie, if a little on the long side, enhanced by some lovely cinematography. The brooding, low key, warm toned images of Prague, the creative angles and the pavement wet with morning rain are tremendously effective. Much better than your average war movie!