THE MAN WITH THE IRON HEART is yet another version of the famous WW2 story about the true-life assassination of the heinous Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich. The problem we have here is that the story was already told in exemplary fashion in the previous year's ANTHROPOID, starring Cillian Murphy. This version gets around the issue by instead focusing on Jason Clarke's Heydrich and in particularly his relationship with his wife Rosamund Pike. As such, the first half makes for fresh, involving viewing, family drama punctuated by hard-hitting violence and Clarke's bravura performance. The second half moves into ANTHROPOID territory with action-man Jack O'Connell, but it becomes predictable and is no match for the Murphy movie. It's a pretty decent movie overall, but not on par with ANTHROPOID.

I read that this English-language French-Belgian film was delayed to avoid clashing with the release of Anthropoid, which has exactly the same story at the centre of it, but having already seen it, I was interested to see how this it would compare. Basically, it is World War II, the Third Reich is at its peak. The ambitious Reinhard Heydrich (Jason Clarke) has taken the place of a disgraced officer of the German Navy, dismissed for indecent behaviour. Heydrich sees himself rising through the ranks as Chief of the Main Security Office of the Reich. He becomes head of the SS and the Gestapo, and the architect of the Final Solution, a Nazi plan for the genocide of Jewish people. The Czech resistance in London decides to plan the most ambitious military operation of the war: Operation Anthropoid. Two young recruits, Jozef Gabcik (Jack Reynor) and Jan Kubis (Jack O'Connell),are sent on a suicide mission to Prague to assassinate Heydrich. They are assisted a couple of times by Gabcik's former lover Anna Novak (Mia Wasikowska). We see the professional and political discussions between Heydrich and well-known Nazi leaders, including Heinrich Himmler (Stephen Graham) and Adolf Hitler (Zdenek Sedlácek). But we also see behind the "man with the iron heart", seeing the human side of Heydrich, including his family life and relationship with wife Lina Von Osten (Rosamund Pike). It concludes with Kubis and Gabcik trapped in the cellar by the Nazis with the room flooded by water pipes, and they commit suicide, killing themselves by gunshot, rather than be captured or drowned. Also starring Thomas M. Wright as Josef Valcík, Abigail Lawrie as Libena Fafek, Gilles Lellouche as Vaclav Moravek, Steve Evets as Jan Zelenka and A Quiet Place's Noah Jupe as Ata Moravek. Clarke gives a good performance as the Nazi leader, and Pike is very good as his wife. It is interesting to see the story from both perspectives, especially a Nazi character and those that love him. This version of the story feels rushed at times, and the ending is pretty much exactly the same as the film Anthropoid (which I preferred),but there are some scenes that get your attention, so it is a reasonable Second World War drama. Worth watching!

Having read and loved Laurent Binet's superb HHhH, I've been eagerly awaiting this film. Alas, it was hardly worth the wait. The earlier released Anthropoid was a far superior adaptation (or was, at least, a better depiction of the events of Heydrich's assassination).

Other reviewers here have done a nice job detailing the problems this film has as a 'film' so I will only mention two more. Most importantly, Jason Clarke is simply not 'pretty' enough to play Heydrich. Indeed, part of history's fascination with Heydrich is because, physically, he was the perfect Aryan: blonde, tall, sculpted if not chiselled physiognomy, etc. Other than his blonde hair, Clarke's marked and jowled features are completely dissimilar to Heydrich's and served only to distract. Clarke's miscasting is only slightly more jarring than the use of Stephen Graham to play Himmler. Unable or unwilling to project Himmler's menace, Graham comes across more avuncular than sinister. No one would cower in the presence of Graham's pudgy Himmler.

I was also disappointed by the movie's many historical inaccuracies and omissions. Einsatzgruppen executions are shown repeatedly as being by a bullet to the torso, whereas a shot in the nape of the neck was their trademark. The boy being tortured is shown to be around 10-years-old when he fact the real 'boy' was actually a mature 17 years, already engaged to be married. Likewise what got him to talk was having his mother's head placed in his lap (others say it was placed in a fish bowel) but not by having to watch the torture of someone else as is depicted here. And, where was Hitler at Heydrich's funeral? For some reason the writer's chose to pretend he didn't attend, but of course he attended and delivered an inflammatory eulogy while he was there. There are many more such errors. Admittedly these are small details but their cumulative effect was to take me out of the film. They also made me wonder what other, perhaps more important facts the movie had botched.