“Anthropoid” Offers True WWII Thrills
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
In December 1941 two Czechoslovakian agents parachuted into their occupied homeland with the mission of assassinating Heydrich. The code name for the operation was Anthropoid.
“Anthropoid” is also the title of the historical thriller that’s currently showing at Tropic Cinema.
With the help of a British Special Operations-trained team of Czech and Slovak soldiers, the two Czech agents -- Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš (played by Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dorman) -- managed to attack Heydrich. Even though Jozef’s Sten gun jammed, Jan threw a bomb at his limousine. Heydrich was critically wounded.
No spoiler alert here. This is all historical fact.
Director Sean Ellis spent fifteen years, on and off, working to bring this story to the big screen. He says it was the human side of the story that really grabbed his attention, the willingness of the people involved to risk everything for their country.
Reprisals by SS Troops lay waste to several Czech villages. Over 15,000 Czechs were killed in the aftermath of the “Heydrich Terror.”
Heydrich’s was the only successful assassination of a top-ranking Nazi in World War II.
srhoades@aol.com
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