Review of Max Manus: Man of War (2008) by Mithun G — 20 Aug 2009

"Flame & Citron" went for psychological depth; this separates off the principal cause of Max's trauma - a bloody scene on the Finnish front - as flashback, and treats resistance as a boys'-own activity.

.. It's at least honest enough to acknowledge Max may only have been heroic in the sense of the last man standing, the one who survived to shape his story once the war ended; because the bare facts, as enthusiastically recounted here by directors Sandberg and Roenning, suggest a young man both reckless in resistance - jeopardising his comrades' lives at several point, and at one stage shooting himself in the foot - and rude to the opposite sex.

There's possibly a reason why the filmmakers cast Hennie, an actor with the sunken-eyed, dissolute look of the young Steve Buscemi or Christopher Walken, in the role.