Narvik Hitler’s First Defeat, aka Kampen Om Narvik – Hitlers Første Nederlag, is a Norwegian War History film directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg. The movie’s writers are Christopher Grøndahl, Live Bonnevie and Sebastian Torngren Wartin. The movie follows the real story of World War II when the Germans attacked a city called Narvik in Norway to loot the iron ores that could be used to create potent weapons. Moreover, the film shows how the battle went by and what happened to the common people in Norway.
The official Netflix description reads,
Against the backdrop of the WWII battle known as Hitler’s first defeat, a Norwegian soldier returns home and learns a shocking truth about his wife.
The main cast of the movie includes Kristine Hartgen, Henrik Mestad, Stig Henrik Hoff, Christoph Bach, Carl Martin Eggesbø, Holger Handtke, Magnus Dugdale, Emil Johnsen, Isak Bakli Aglen, Mathilde Holtedahl Cuhra, Ollie Campbell, Benjamin Noble, Torfinn Nag, Edvard Lie Aalstad, Kari Bremnes, Christoph Gelfert Mathiesen, Øyvind Trøite, Ole Christopher Holth, Anders Wang and Øyvind Mørk. The movie’s runtime is 1 hour and 48 minutes. It is available in Norwegian and English audio.
– Narvik Hitler’s First Defeat Review Contains No Spoilers Ahead –
The movie starts off with some real clips of Hitler discussing with his Nazi soldiers. Later the actual movie starts with a group of soldiers on a ship. Among them, three young men discuss the smell of the ocean, to which Gunnar Tofte replies that it smells like “iron ore,” the “smell of money.” It is certain that the Norwegians are shipping iron ore to a tiny city called Narvik.
Iron ore is one of the finest resources that can’t be found easily by that time. Hence, the German soldiers prepare to attack Narvik and take away the resource. To differentiate the hardships of the soldiers and the citizens, the movie follows the protagonist, Gunnar and his wife, Ingrid. They both share a son called Ole. Gunnar is a soldier, and Ingrid is a maid.
When Germans cave in, Gunnar’s perspective shows the terrible ways the Germans kill Norwegian soldiers, forcing them to work for them and such. On the other hand, Ingrid’s perspective depicts how ordinary people have to sleep in narrow places without proper food or medical service. In fact, Ole gets terribly injured, and to save him, Ingrid abides by whatever the German officials say.
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Was The Narvik War Aspect Presented Well?
Truth be told, the movie’s budget is around 62 million, and the Norwegian Film Institute also provided an additional 15 million as support. However, the movie didn’t feel like it implemented a big budget. The war scenes could have been shown better. Relatively only a handful of soldiers were shown turning certain scenes illogical.
The filming location is Norway and Narvik, which are big, but they only used specific areas for the movie. They could have used more locations to enhance the cinematography, which they failed to do. As this is a History movie, people should be delivered with the story, but the movie felt like it was speeding up at certain scenes, making it look half-baked. I wondered why so many aspects were skipped–maybe to shorten the movie?
Even from Ingrid’s perspective, her struggles weren’t majorly or adequately shown. It felt like an additional storyline to elongate the movie simply. The struggles of ordinary people during World War II were terrible, but the Narvik movie didn’t portray them well enough to touch the heart. It felt like an average sad movie.
Narvik Hitler’s First Defeat: Final Verdict
Too many storylines made the movie a little pointless. The story mainly revolves around how Hitler’s army was defeated when battling with Norwegians. They used a married couple and their war struggles to enhance the core concept. However, it lost the essence of the central war theme and totally shifted into a drama. The cast didn’t do superior work, though. Their acting was alright.
Is the movie worth the watch? Maybe a little, yes. You can learn about Narvik and its mark in history. Apart from that, the movie didn’t deliver much. If you’re planning to watch this flick, stream it on Netflix.
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Terrible review. This film was emotional from beginning to end. All storylines were relevant and gripping. And it leaves an indelible mark on our hearts.