The Real Heroes of Telemark (TV Movie 2003) Poster

(2003 TV Movie)

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8/10
Heros That Should be Remembered
chrissso22 February 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Survivalist Ray Mears took things into his own hands! Seeing that the corny Kirk Douglas film of 1965 does little to demonstrate the amazing effort behind this fascinating piece of WW2 history ... Mears and BBC opted to produce a 3 X 50 min documentary to ensure we don't forget.

Well done Ray! This is an entertaining and insightful and informative documentary that highlights the Herculean effort of these heroes. Certainly worth any history buffs time.

Sadly BBC has yet to release the documentary in DVD form so it is fading into history (seriously BBC? seriously??)

The good news is that the Norwegians decided that this is their story and that they should be the ones telling it and in turn in 2015 released an 6 X 45 min mini-series called "The Saboteurs." I highly recommend it!!!

POST: Let's Thank IMDb for disabling the message boards ... way to treat your dedicated customers who want to share their passion for films and history! Hopefully it proves to be a bad business decision and some well-paid Execs learn about unemployment!!!
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10/10
Second World War Documentary with a Difference
de_niro_200121 January 2008
Having had an interest in the Heroes of Telemark since I saw the film as a young boy and being a bit of an outdoor guy I naturally wanted to see this. It was excellent. Ray Mears visited the actual drop zones and hideouts and employed the same survival techniques that they used. Most people's concept of the sabotaging of the Nazi atomic programme is based on Kirk Douglas's film (which, as I've said in my review on it, is excellent). That film certainly stays fairly close to the historical facts but Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris play amalgams of several different people. It was very interesting to see the interviews with the actual men who carried out the raid. In the first programme Ray Mears even went so far as to give a scientific talk on heavy water, illustrating it by dropping two heavy water ice cubes into a glass of water. Both ice cubes sank to the bottom. There was also an interview with the Norwegian skier who doubled for Roy Dotrice in the scene where he is pursuing Kirk Douglas in the film. It was a very full documentary, even including footage of the wreck of the ferry on the bottom of the lake. Well done Mr Mears and I hope this documentary is released on DVD.
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