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Waste of time

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Jan Baalsrud in 1943 was a Norwegian commando involved in running guns from the Shetland Islands to the Norwegian resistance fighters. His fishing smack was intercepted by a German patrol boat and sunk. All of his colleagues were killed, but Baalsrud managed to leap overboard, losing one boot, and swim through the icy waters of the fjord to land, pursued on sea and on land by enemy soldiers. After he climbed onto the shore, his uniform froze solid and encased his body in ice.It didn't get better for Baalsrud for months. If you can imagine any catastrophe associated with snowy mountains in brutal winter weather, he went through it -- snow blindness, avalanches, frostbite, gangrene. A manhunt was underway and Baalsrud became a symbol of the Norwegian resistance. He entered a kind of underground railway, the kind used to help slaves escape from the South before the Civil War, with lots of spots where the rails aren't connected and somebody has to schlepp him through the wilderness. .If I may, I'll just quote a summary of Baalsrud's tribulations from the New York Times Magazine, otherwise I'd just have to paraphrase it."What happened over those nine weeks remains one of the wildest, most unfathomable survival stories of World War II. Baalsrud's feet froze solid. An avalanche buried him up to his neck. He wandered in a snowstorm for three days. He was entombed alive in snow for another four days and abandoned under open skies for five more. Alone for two more weeks in a cave, he used a knife to amputate several of his own frostbitten toes to stop the spread of gangrene. He spent the last several weeks tied on a stretcher, near death, as teams of Norwegian villagers dragged him up and down hills and snowy mountains. By the end, Baalsrud was less a hero than a package in need of safe delivery, out of Nazi hands. For decades, his escape made him into a Norwegian national folk hero." It's an enthralling story of endurance. As a film it's virtues are mixed. There are stunning shots of snowy landscapes, blindingly white, with morbid black crags sticking out of them. The acting is passable, no more than that, although anyone who wants to take a peek at a generic Nordic face ought to check out Henny Moan as the wife of one of Baalsrud's helpers -- sharp-featured, determined, slope nosed, and pretty. The editing isn't so hot. There isn't enough sense of where we are or what's going on or how much time has passed. There are some images I still can't decode.You know what? This is a heroic tale, an epic story, and it needs to be remade by a sensitive and talented director. It wouldn't be simply the story of a lone man overcoming odds, a Scandinavian Hercules. It would be the story of an entire network, with the people at one end complete strangers to those at the other end, except for a dim spirit of national identity.

This movie is a true story!If you are a Norwegian and know your history, you know the enormous sacrifices ordinary Norwegians (sivilians) put them self through throughout the war, but you still may want to know more about Jan Baalsrud (search Wikipedia). MANY like him fought and died with the goal to free Norway.Another well known Norwegian story from WWII, is the sabotage mission against Norsk Hydro, manufacturing heavy water, to be used by the Germans. Two movies was made:Norwegian version: "Kampen om Tungtvannet" (1948). The actual saboteurs play the roles themselves. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040504/American version: "The Heroes of Telemark" (1965). Starring Kirk Douglas. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059263/For you who may not know what kind of people these movies is about, I will try to explain:Norwegians has always been a proud population, and have always been known to fight for our freedom. We have our history with Denmark and Sweden, but that is another story. In WWII we were invaded by the Germans. It happened fast. But, we never would except this and civilians got together secretly, often called "Gutta på skauen", in English; "The boys in the woods" - The Resistance Movement", to start to fight against the Germans. Some did minor sabotage jobs and other went to England for further training, and bigger missions. This movie is based on one of those people, Jan Baalsrud, who went to England for training for missions in Norway.Directly related to this movie: He and many other Norwegian commandos was on a mission to destroy a German air control tower. Under this time they also tried to recruit for the Norwegian resistance movement. And, it's here the movie begins. One civilian they contact, betrays them, and contact the Nazi's. The mission fails because of this.Jan Baalsrud survives the failed mission and must escape to Sweden (a neutral country).This escape IS the movie, and he needs all the lives he can get to survive this trip (that's why it's called "Nine Lives").It is quite a fantastic and horrible journey, and we get a insight on how much these people are willing to sacrifice (pain/death) to save this man. Jan Baalsrud himself, goes trough as much pain a human being can stand.I will not tell the story, watch the movie. Just remember, it's a true story!Verdict:7/10 for the genuine performance. The movie is a little dated, but still quite watchable.

...no beast could have done it! (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Guillaumet's words ,in "les Camarades") This famous sentence was on my mind all along the movie, which I had never heard of before and which was a big surprise for me.Once again,thanks to my good IMDb pal,Oystein ,who provided me with one fine work from his native country.I will try and introduce it to my French cinebuffs friends cause it is virtually unfairly unknown over here.A resistant fighter ,during WW2,stays in an hospital.He seems seriously wounded.He remembers :the film will consist of a very long flashback.After all his companions have been killed or captured ,the hero begins a long odyssey to get to the Sweden border.Little by little,we realize that the enemy is no longer the Nazis who occupy his homeland :it's the white spaces,the frozen fjords ,the cold,the wolves ,a hostile nature .The film is so intense that we often "feel "the hero's sufferings.Remarkable sequences:the hallucinations,the hero sees a woman ,then a neon reading "GRAND HOTEL" while he is lost in a white hell;all these humble people who risk their life for their compatriot,particularly the woman and her baby and the good old grandpa;the "resurrection " when Jan rose from the snow,like a Nordic Lazarus;the final rein deers stampede .This is really a splendid effort from Norway.

One of the most astonishing and enthralling true adventure stories ever put to the screen It begins with an ambushed commando raid which leaves all but one of the expatriate resistance fighters dead or captured. Though he too has been shot,that one survivor, Jan Baalsrud, takes off on a courageous, incredible trek into the wilds of the Lyngen Alps. The Nazis pursue him relentlessly; he suffers frostbite and snow blindness, a terrible fall in an avalanche; at last,delirious and near death he chances on a cabin where the first of a series of remarkably brave and clever men and women come to his aid. These `ordinary heroes' will eventually get the crippled Baalsrud to safety and freedom, and the amazing story of how they do it, and of how Baalsrud lives through the doing. It fill us with admiration and wonder at what the human spirit is capable of. Most highly recommended indeed.