Operation: Daybreak (1975) Reviews

• Excellent film on a difficult subject

  frank-ruddock2006-01-03

  While not perfectly accurate in every respect, it is as near to accurate in all of the important respects: the incredible risks (personal and national) and courage of the Czechs; the importance of Heydrich and his cold, brutal and efficient nature; the ending for all involved, in which no punches are pulled; betrayals and loyalty; how, in military operations, always expect the unexpected. Good understated acting, appropriate to the real people. Portrayal of Heydrich equally understated and disturbingly normal. Great music. Haunting, gut-wrenching ending. Slow build-up to climax finely done. I saw the original in the 1970s; video purchased a few years ago is fine except the subtitles are missing for the short German-speaking parts (which I remember in any case). Key event of WWII: if anyone merited assassination, Heydrich did. Quite apart from his activities in "Bohemia and Moravia" where he was known as the "Butcher of Prague", his top position in the SS and police apparatus (second only to Himmler) and his key role in planning and executing the Holocaust left him with the blood of millions on his hands. Of interest, if you watch Wannseekonferenz (1984; German, with English subtitles) and Operation Daybreak back-to-back, you have a continuous and accurate portrayal of Heydrich's last months. The former covers the 90 minutes of the Wannsee meeting in January 1942 in Berlin in which Heydrich, as second most important police official in the Reich, coordinates the implementation and industrialization of the Final Solution, the latter covers from January to June (his death), in which he has added to his CV by becoming the political administrator of Czechoslovakia (also a likely clue to his future ambitions). The two films could not be more different (one almost a stage play, the other more suspense/action), but are unified by excellent portrayals of Heydrich. It also underlines that while the Czechs assassinated Heydrich for purely national reasons, there was no lack of other justifications. If you cannot obtain Wannseekonferenz, the more recent (2001) English remake (Conspiracy, with Kenneth Branagh) will do. IMDb members rate the German version (8.0) slightly higher than Conspiracy (7.7), a judgement I agree with.

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• Accuracy of film

  bob-11352006-03-23

  I have studied the Heydrich assassination at some length as an historian, and the film does take some liberties with the facts. However this is to be expected as this is drama – not a documentary. The battle at the end does contain some errors such as the end of the agents in the main church, one was fatally wounded and the other two took poison, instead of being killed in the gun battle, but this in no way detracts from the overall accuracy of the film. The battle in the crypt likewise ended with the four agents committing suicide by gunshot, rather than a mixture of enemy action and suicide. I have been in the crypt many times and have never failed to be impressed by the astounding courage of these men. 'In their darkest hour they lit a beacon that illuminated the world'

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• Brilliant film and, surprisingly, almost completely true

  reedy-42003-01-16

  I have loved this film from the first time I saw it in 1977. Great music, amazing story and competent acting (Anton Diffring was brilliant and very, very scary just as Heydrich was supposed to be). I had to find out more about the story and, to my surprise, found out that it is almost completely true ( gun jamming, Heydrich dying ten days later, grassed up by one of their own, killing dozens of germans in the church, both committing suicide at the end etc etc). I noticed previous comments about this film have queried whether it was worth the sacrifice of thousands of innocent people to assassinate one man, namely, Heydrich. Well let me just fill you in on this monster ( The butcher of Prague, The Hangman ). It was Heydrich that was mainly responsible for the 'Final Solution' and in all probability 11,000,000 Jews would have been murdered if he had lived. Also he alone would have been responsible for the 'General Ost Plan', Hitlers determination to exterminate 30,000,000 ( yes 30,000,000 ) Slavs in Russia & Eastern Europe. One last point - Leningrad & Stalingrad would certainly have been German victories if Heydrich had lived. 40% of the wehrmacht (tanks and artillery) were produced in Czech protectorate factories. This production fell by 70% after Heydrich's death, and not surprisingly lead to the collapse of the Russian divisions, who relied mostly on the weaponry produced in Czechoslovakia. He was also in charge of the SD spying network which was incredibly successful. Make up your own mind - great film though.

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• One not to be missed

  ni-82007-09-21

  Yes the music does date the film (were ARP synthesisers ever a good thing) but does that matter? No!! Some poetic licence is taken with the facts (how Jan Kubis really died or the romance with Anna) but the portrayal of the occupiers, particularly Reichsprotektor Heydrich in no way understated how heinous these people were. The depiction of siege at St Cyril's conveys a whole range of emotions as tension builds. The motivation of the resistance was unquestionably heroic at this part of the episode. This is so much more than an action story. However the issues tend to be portrayed in a very polar black / white manner. Even Karel Chudra's motivation is shown in very clear terms (he is treated far less sympathetically in Czech history). It is unfortunate that the film did not have time to develop the political tension between London and the local resistance. How aware was London of the probability of reprisals following the assassination? Was it their intention that reprisals would do more to stir local opposition to the occupation than the assassination itself? Why did Karel Moravec later take his own life? Overall, however, this is a film to see and for the most part it is very realistic. Visit Prague and leave the tourist traps to see St Cyril's - it looks just like the movie and is almost guaranteed to make you cry for all the victims of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia.

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• Very good classic movie

  pmakres12004-01-13

  I first saw this movie back in 1976 when HBO, I believe, was making a run of it. It was a riveting movie I never forgot; I taped it from network TV about 12 years ago, and I recently started watching it again. Next I ordered the VHS tape, which arrived today and it is excellent, including quite a few scenes that the network version omits. The only problem is, as one viewer points out, is that in this version there is no subtitles, so you miss some of the dialog in the parts that are spoken in German. (The network version includes the subtitles, but is missing some scenes). The sound quality on the prerecorded VHS version is quite good if played back on a VHS hi-fi deck with a good sound system. I wish this movie were available on DVD! If anyone hears of it becoming available on DVD, please let me know! Hopefully a future DVD release will address the subtitle problem. It is indeed surprising how little attention this movie got. I even ordered a couple of books on Heydrich from Amazon, as well as the novel "Seven men at Daybreak" on which the movie is based. I find that the movie is nearly completely accurate. An excellent movie that anyone interested in history should see at least once.

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