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Simply A Masterpiece

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

April 9th was the day the Wehrmacht rolled across the land border and invaded Denmark. The Danish army was only lightly armed, small in number and completely unprepared. They were mobilised but did not want to deploy in defensive positions in case the Germans saw that as a provocation – such was the politics of the day.The story is told through the experiences of a bicycle company led by Second Lieutenant Sand (Pilou Asbæk of 'A Hijacking') they decide to follow their orders and try to do the impossible of holding back the strongest army in Europe.Now this is not an epic but they have done a rather good job with most of the period detail and the acting is all really good. There was quite a bit of detail that made this memorable, but there is also a lot of doing things of a more mundane nature – like changing bike tyres etc. That said everything is integral to the story. The action when it comes is also very well done and it has the air of authenticity; if you are a WW II fan then this is one you will not be disappointed in seeing – recommended.

So I decided to review this movie because there were only 3 listed on the site and non of them were really good. They are all highly rated reviews and yet the movie is rated at like a 6 for a reason.Let me say that the historical accuracy of the movie is itself interesting. Realizing how unequipped and ill prepared people were against the German army is definitely put into historical context. However that maybe the only thing put into historical context. In some sense the movie is almost a comedy because of this context. Soldiers are referred to by number, they are on their peddle bikes which are considered important military equipment, and a huge part of military training is changing a bike tire. At one point a German commander asks why they have been fighting so long...I think they fought like 12 hours. When you get past this historical context and start looking for the story or the movie you end up walking away with someone that is simply missing. This is no band of brothers. There are no deep connections or personal attachments. Furthermore, any sense of connecting with these soldiers is lacking. There is no sense of defeat, of nationalistic pride or any such emotion you would think would be involved in a war film. The ending is suppose to bring forward a sense of senselessness of their resistance however that is simply missing as well. They are so worried about a physical story they simply left the dialog missing. It was more important to them to show scenes of changing bike tires and the bike unit peddling down the road. There simply was not much meaningful dialog between main characters. I have given this movie a 5/10, which frankly I think is fair. It has some historical accuracy but that isn't why I watch movies. It lacks character development, dialog and simply story. While an interesting movie, other than it's value as a comedy it simply wasn't worth watching.

I have to say that I'm very impressed with this movie. I had always assumed that the Danes were German sympathizers and did not put up an effective response to the German Invasion. This is definitely not so! Our little Bicycle platoon of Brave Danish Warriors, definitely gave the Huns a run for their money. In the movie, the Machine gunners are instructed to target the armored vehicles. I really couldn't understand why until I read this..."The German high command tried to present the attack on Denmark as a peaceful invasion in an attempt to score propaganda points, so German losses were never released. They succeeded in this, and most of the world believed Denmark did not put up any resistance against the invasion.[37]However, in 2005, the archives of the Danish weapons manufacturer DISA ('Danish Industrial Syndicate') were opened. DISA produced the Danish 20 mm cannon that took out (relatively) many German vehicles. The Germans were naturally very interested in this weapon and had forced the syndicate to export them to Germany. And in selling them to the German army, they got their best argument from the Germans themselves: they told the company that 203 soldiers had been killed or wounded by the guns in Jutland.[38]"

This is one of the best war movies I have ever seen. The film follows a small group of Danish soldiers thrown unexpectedly into the meat grinder to try and slow the German advance. The movie never falls for exaggerated heroism, nor for the ubiquitous pacifism one finds in most war movies. With the patience of a historian it purports to present the experiences of a small number of Danish soldiers in the early hours of April the 9th, 1940. The film is a thorough anatomy of what happens with soldiers under fire. It focuses on the soldier's training, equipment, leadership and so on. Many aspects of world war two, which we know from memoirs or journals, are present in the movie, even the adverse psychological effect of seeing huge numbers of enemy planes. Other reviewers address the pitiful state of the Danish army in this movie. This is just wrong. The movie presents an army which is well trained, well equipped, well led, well motivated and which knew the terrain of battle extremely well. They were however heavily outnumbered and out-gunned. A great war movie.