iTunes Exclusive Episode Anthropoid
Rob and Don Ford review Anthropoid, director Sean Ellis's World War II film about Operation Anthropoid, a resistance mission to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich. Starring Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy, the film features strong performances and cinematography but suffers from pacing issues, particularly in its middle section, leaving the hosts emotionally disconnected from the characters despite the film's historical importance.
About this episode
Key takeaways
- Strong performances and beautiful cinematography throughout, but the script collapses under its own weight due to pacing problems
- The middle section of the film (roughly one-quarter to halfway point) is unnecessarily slow and could have been significantly trimmed
- Despite slow pacing, the story jumps between multiple directions too quickly, preventing emotional connection to characters
- Some dialogue is difficult to understand due to thick accents
Q&A
Who stars in Anthropoid?
Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy play the two agents who parachute in to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich, with supporting cast including Toby Jones.
What operation does the film depict?
Operation Anthropoid, a resistance mission where agents parachute behind enemy lines to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, described as the architect behind the final solution and the third-ranking figure in the Nazi hierarchy.
Would the hosts watch this film again?
Yes, but only on HBO or cable if nothing else is available—neither would go out of their way to watch it in theaters or purchase it.
Read Transcript
Greetings Empire member and or members. Sometimes I got to press the button. If you are hearing the sound of my voice it means the following conditions have been met at least once in your lifetime you have listened to the clubhouse podcast live every Sunday night seventies from for pacific your one-stop shop for all things pop culture.
It also means you subscribe on iTunes because it is time for another iTunes exclusive greetings. My name is Rob. I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast and sometimes I can't spell words right when I'm looking for the names of movies not afraid to say it.
Joining me for this particular episode across the desk is the official fact checker of this show and a man who's seen almost as many movies he may have seen more movies than I have this year. It's going to be a close race right now. You may know him is fun don go but his mom and name him Don Ford.
I'm going to call him Don Ford welcome sir. You probably shut up a more and it's going to be close right now but screenings were about the same. I'm thinking about I think I'm at 47.
I'm almost to that because I wasn't sure I get past 52 because that's one a week but don't worry about your spilling because mine's nothing compared. Whatever we do one of these things it is to review something this particular episode is no different today. We are here to review the latest film from director Sean Ellis so you might remember from a few years back about 10 years ago now did a movie called cashback very small indie film.
This one is called Anthropoid. For what's up this whole thing? Yes, we got to think Julie and her band Sly Fox for the same name.
Zanyningning. Zanyningning. Zanyningning.
We can't be the only people that get that to that. But we're such fans and those guys. Such fans are our friends and Sly Fox.
Well it's time for another World War II movie. It's not Chandler's list. No, it's not safe at pride right.
The name Anthropoid is actually the name of an operation that a bunch of people from the resistance parachute in on their way to try to assassinate. Basically the third guy in the hierarchy of the third rank. His name is Rhine Hart Hydric SS General.
He's a good, he's the architect behind the final solution and there's only one guy between him and Hitler. And they call him the butcher of Prague for they do. So Jamie Dornin, who you might know as I believe that's Christian Gray isn't not from the 50 shades of gray films.
Oh, let me check on that one. And Sly and Murphy, who you might remember from the movie begins as the scare crow. But no, yeah, it's from.
They played two agents that parachute in behind enemy lines basically because they're going to assassinate this guy. And they're helped out by a lot of people, including Toby Jones, one of my favorite actors. So you might remember from some Marvel films.
He also played Alfred Hitchcock, and it would be called the girl. Yeah, I remember that. Very, very good.
There's a lot of people that you've never heard of in this movie. Because I think what would you try to do here is we'd really try to shine else, try to really cast people that had just give it a genuine feel. Yeah, culture, all there are the accent, the top there.
And this is a solid two hours. From a performance standpoint, I have no issues with this film at all. No, I've thought I thought everybody played their their role strong.
Dornin, Dornin and Murphy had really great chemistry between the two. Absolutely. You could tell like their characters were very, very close and they conveyed that very, well, yeah, totally shot beautifully.
Yes, I went to first start off the first two three minutes when it starts, it gives that little history of what's going on. Or a little history lesson to try to get, getting that mood of knowing what's going on. I thought that was very good.
You know how the writing came up and said, you know, check over Slovakia was taken without a bullet, all that stuff. I thought that was really good. But this is two hours.
Yeah. Downtown New York City at five o'clock on the Tuesday goes faster than this film. And I really, I mean, I thought about it.
I've had some time to think back and I thought maybe it was my frame of mind, maybe because I'd had a long day. No, this this film was incredibly slow. I agree.
Now, I don't know, but let me go ahead and say one thing. I thought the first 10 15 minutes was great. Peace.
Well, I really love what they did when talking about up to the point where they get into the city. Yeah. Okay, I see we're very good there.
I thought the last 45 minutes of the film were very good. Myself personally. Okay.
I thought you gave it, you know, good ending. It was that part of the film was based, was based well. But about the quarter to the halfway mark, it could have been five minutes instead of 30.
Here's the weird thing for me. Yeah. It's incredibly slow.
Yes. But from a story standpoint, I don't know how much fat you could trim out of this. That's where it gets weird for me.
Because I don't know that trimming fat is going to improve it. It managed to prove it a little for me. Because I understand how they're planning this, the assassination attempt and all that other stuff.
But that was a lot of too long in a lot of unnecessary stuff they put in there. Be personally. It just seemed like the climax of there's a lot of where is the chase and how can I cut to it for me.
Yeah. But there was also once we cut to the chase, the chase took too long. You thought that.
Yeah. I mean, well, you know, reality, the ending thing, like they said, was about six hours. Right.
And they said that afterwards. But I didn't need it to feel like six hours. For me, I disagree.
I didn't see it that way. But that's what we're here for. Right.
Exactly. But go ahead and it's a lot more. He's like, I'm putting my upcoming written review of WWW that clubhouse podcast.com.
That is our website. Eventually he got there. Yes.
But I just thought, you know, about the quarter of the halfway market could have a lot of 90% could have. If that did, if they did that, I thought it would be a way better film. Shot felt, you know, like you said, beautifully look beautiful.
Really historically very well on the history of the props and the scenery and all that other stuff and only those certain weapons and everything else. And, you know, there are a couple of brutal scenes. And of course, there's brutality because you're talking with war and everything like that.
But just that middle part really killed it for me. Can I tell you what else was weird for me? Was that?
It was so slow pace, but there were also so many different directions the story went that I don't think that I ever got the effort. Well, hold on, let me finish saying. I don't think I ever got the opportunity to have to feel one way or another about any of these characters.
It was like they just kind of shoved everybody in different places and like I didn't have enough time to root for the good guys and I didn't have enough time to hate the bad guys and the good guys that became bad guys and the bad guys that became good guys. I didn't care. And that was weird for me because if you're going to take that kind of pacing, give me something.
Give me some kind of emotional connection that I can have. I'll give you an example. This probably hit the nail.
All right. There's a character who we meet for the first time in the city. Okay.
Okay. And this person passes away. Okay.
People die in this film that is true. But they try to make it such a big deal, but I didn't feel like it's a big deal. You want talking about it?
No, I hear. And that's a priming example for exactly. That's the want to feel something for this person.
And all of these people, but I just didn't. For a movie that slowly paced, I should feel more than I do. And it's just such a weird thing for me.
But I can't like razzy it either. You know what I mean? I thought it was, I would have liked to have seen more about the planning of it and how they got to the point where they executed the plan.
It was just, it was like, we will meet the day after tomorrow. There was a lot of that. There was a lot of the day after tomorrow going on here.
And then we're just there. And it was like, if you're going to take this kind of time, tell me the story. And the other problem I had was some of the accents were so thick in this that some of the dialogue got muddy.
Where I was kind of was really having the concentrate to hear what they were saying. Well, when they were playing the assassination attempt, they showed it in a movie, but they did it so wrong. Well, we have to follow him here.
And there's the map there. And there we go. You'd be in there.
You'd be there. It was just weird for me. It ended and I was like, that was a thing.
You know, there was never a moment where I was just like, there's the moment that there's what I can point to. I probably know the answer. Watch 10 minutes.
Okay. And then every 10 minutes after that. There were times I was like, okay, we should be here.
And we were like 15 minutes behind that point. That was like, oh my god. I don't see it as bad as you do, but I a lot can't been kind of it.
It did it. But the weird thing is even if they could stuff out of it, I don't know that it would have made the film better. It would have made for me.
They could have made better use of the time. Yeah. I think you're, there's some time management issue.
What's up with the word is is that there's a lot of good stuff in this film. There really is. I was acting the photography, the look.
I mean, it's the script collapses under its own weight. Perfectly said. And I hate to say that because I love the people involved.
And I think Sillian Murphy just hasn't found that project that's going to launch him into the superstar. And he deserves to be in outside of that man begins, but good Lord, that was over a decade ago. But let me say the assassination attempt, even that kind of look confusing when it hit.
Yeah. You're like, hold on. Where's that?
Where's the turn into a game of mouse trap? What did I miss? There's a lot of good stuff, but something just kills it.
It's like when you bake a cake, but you actually put salt in there and stand sugar. Oh, I mean, it looks beautiful. You can make the most perfect cake, but if you put salt in there and stand sugar, and it looks beautiful, it's a frosting's perfect.
I mean, it looks something now beyond the cover of, you know, food and food magazine incorporated food, whatever you name it. Bon appetit. Why not?
Bon appetit. Okay. You, and then all of a sudden, you cut into that cake, you take it by and it's salt instead of sugar.
Everything else of the cake is perfect. It's just, yeah. I guess it just kind of ruins the whole cake in that way.
And it's just, I saw the trailer for this and I was like, okay, this looks like it could be a thing. And then it just wasn't really a thing. Like, and I can't say like the best parts are in the trailer.
And my part is, but I did hate it, but it was too long. Right. There's a lot of stuff I love.
Yeah, so I'm still conflicted on it. And when two hours is too long, you have a problem. All right, so we ready to put some final analysis on this?
Yeah, let's get it done. The way we do the final analysis on the show, we're not going to give you thumbs up, thumbs down, but our grade stars, green, clovers, blue diamonds, whatever. We're actually going to ask two questions, because our audience whom we affectionately refer to is the empire.
They want us to go deeper. That's how we roll. Question number one, is what do we see this film again?
If the answer's no, then we're done here. The answer's yes. Then we, where did we rate it on a spectrum?
There's your word for the day. Spectrum. The top of the spectrum would be full price at the theater.
From there, we go down all the way. We go down to Twilight, down to Matinee, down to early morning, down to second run at the dollar theater, down to Red Box, down to Net Flux, down to Cable. Dawn, would you see this film again?
I'm going to give it a yes. All right, how far are we going to go? I'm going to do the HBO.
And I'm going to absolutely agree with you. If I'm clicking around and there's nothing else going on in the end scene was on, yeah, watch it. Yeah, yeah, but I take it.
You're not going to buy the DVD. I'm not going to go out of my way. You're not going to buy the DVD for the extended version.
Probably not. It is anthropoid. It is directed by and covered by Sean Ellis.
Before we had this thing, we got to think Julie there. But it's live Fox. See any, thank you guys so much.
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