Thanks for the memories!

Sick Product of a Sick System

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

While not a well-known film about World War II, "Operation Daybreak" is a well-made movie about an historical event that shook the Nazis. For, up until the May 1942 assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Germans had seemed invincible to themselves and to much of the world. This film shows the Czech underground and resistance, little known to that time. For that alone, it is an important film for any WW II collection. It also shows the brutal German retaliation in its slaughter of civilians. And it shows questionable judgment about one of the men chosen by the British for a companion mission who betrays his fellow Czechs, and the consequences of his treason. This film is a joint Czech-American production. It's based on a 1966 book by Alan Burgess, a former RAF Pilot who became a prominent biographical author. "Seven Men at Daybreak" tells the story about the British Operation Anthropoid, that was planned and carried out to assassinate Heydrich. The movie was filmed in Prague, Czech Republic in 1975. I didn't see it or remember it from around its release date and only came across it in recent years. It apparently didn't have much notice when it was released – at least in the U.S. That may have been due as much to the times as anything else. By 1975, World War II was three decades past and the wave of serious films about the war had run its course. And, well before then, a splashy, fictional wave of dark comedy war films had had its run ("The Dirty Dozen" in 1967 and "Kelly's Heroes" in 1970 among the better known). Finally, the Vietnam War had just ended in 1974, and the public was tired of war. Only occasional war films would be made after that – a few about Vietnam and some yet about WW II. Most of those would be about resistance in various countries, the Holocaust, or special operations that had not been made public during the war. Then there's the question about how widely Warner Brothers distributed this film in the U.S. For whatever reasons that it's not well known, "Operation Daybreak" (aka, "The Price of Freedom" in the U.S.), is a superb WW II movie. It is based on a true story, and gives a fine depiction of the Czech underground and resistance to Nazi Germany. Other reviewers note some distinctions between the factual details and the movie. But overall, this is a marvelous portrayal of the British special operations mission, "Anthropoid." Reinhard Heydrich, aka the Butcher of Prague, was the second most powerful henchmen in the Nazi regime, right below Himmler. He was the planner of the Third Reich's Final Solution, and the chief overseer of the Holocaust to that time.The operation was planned by Czech intelligence services in exile with the British Special Operations Executive. It was carried out by trained Czech paratroopers who jumped into their homeland on Dec. 28, 1941. The two principals of the operation were Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis. Kubis was a late replacement for Karel Svoboda who had suffered a head injury in training. One of seven others sent along for other missions, Karel Curda, turned traitor for one million Reichsmarks. He revealed the Czech collaborators who were rounded up and executed, and through whom the Nazis found the hiding place of the assassins. The movie has Curda staying with his wife and child in a rural area. He supposedly wanted to protect them. As the movie credits report at the end, he was hanged for treason in 1947. As the movie shows, more than 500 people from two towns were shot or sent to concentration camps where they were killed. The towns of Lidice and Lezaky were burned to the ground, and Lidice was then razed. The bishop and priests of the Orthodox Cathedral where the Czechs hid were all killed, and all the civilians who had hid the men were rounded up and killed – some in concentration camps. Several memorials today pay tribute to the people, the towns and the heroes who gave their lives. The entire cast of this film is superb. Timothy Bottoms is Jan Kubis, Anthony Andrews is Jozef Gabcik, Anton Diffring is Reinhard Heydrich, Martin Shaw is Karel Curda, and Nicola Pagett is Anna. This is a great movie.

A fantastic film. I first saw it about 15 years ago and remembered being extremely moved by it, then I recently bought it off the web and watched it again. It was every bit as stirring.The strengths of this movie lie in the beautiful simplicity of the performances. The characters exude courage and patriotism, set against the backdrop of the savage and brutal Nazi regime in Czechoslovakia during WWII. The score is also beautiful and touching in equal measure.What really hits home however, is when you realise that this is a true story. Everything dramatised in the film actually happened. The director (Lewis Gilbert) is intelligent enough to realise that only the lightest of touches are required, there are no grandiose set pieces - he lets the narrative and the characters' emotions speak for themselves. The ending is utterly heart-rending, but the film as a whole stands as the most inspiring tale of valour against hopeless odds. Watch it when you get the chance, you will never forget it.

I saw this picture 20 years ago, and it is one of my favorite all time movies. I do not care for war themed movies, but this movie offered a great story, as well as suspense and added a very human touch, and sensibility. I do not remember where it was shot, but the movie is beautiful. Friendship, betrayal, rage, anguish can be felt. Acting was wonderful, the actor who interpreted the Heydrich was scary, and Timothy Bottoms was awesome. I just wish that I can see it once more, they do not show it on TV, plus it is hard to find at stores or rental places.If you have the chance to see it, I am sure that you will agree with me.Thanks

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'