It is a true story about a Norwegian saboteur pursued buy Nazis in WWII. For The 12th Man, the lead role as Jan Baalsrud is portrayed by Thomas Gullestad, who lost 33 pounds for this role. The next group of helpers who were supposed to come and continue his journey failed to locate the stone for nine days. The real-life horror of stories from World War 2 have been told ever since the war ended. Jan Baalsrud's story was also told in We Die Alone by David Howarth. Also, Jonathan Rhys Myers does an excellent job portraying the Nazi soldier hunting Jan Baalsrud.

While climbing the 3,000-foot mountain, Jaeggevarre, Baalsrud got caught in a blizzard.

To me, this only adds to the horror; This isn’t some Freddy or Jason villain, they are simply mortal human beings. He had been there for nine days. No, it’s actually because it seems like we need to be reminded of our own resilience. As the German ship opened fire, someone lit a 30-second fuse and they all jumped into the water. The details of Baalsrud’s escape are astonishing. Of those we know of: there was a midwife who offered to disguise him as a woman in labour and hide him in her house. Also, we need to be reminded of history to ensure it doesn’t repeat itself. They didn’t stand a chance. Eleven of the fighters are rounded up by the Germans on the beach. We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future. When three of the saboteurs woke him up in the middle of the night, told him they had come from England and asked if they could hire a boat to take them to Tromsø, his suspicions were aroused. There are no reports indicating that the Germans knew to hunt for Baalsrud, who claims that he killed two German soldiers in the fight.[4]. Most of all: it does wonders for your sense of perspective.

The 12th Man tells the dramatic story of Jan Baalsrud's escape from the Nazis during the Second World War. On the fourth day, he stumbled into a small village called Furuflaten, and collapsed inside a farmhouse. The 12th Man is based on a true story, which always brings its own kind of horror. Or at least resist in some form. Jonathan Rhys Myers only speaks German in this movie, which is no small feat, since he doesn’t actually speak the language. A bottle of homemade liqueur was his only anaesthetic. The 12th Man will be released on Friday, May 4 in New York and Los Angeles, as well as on Digital and On Demand platforms, with a national theatrical rollout to follow. They were carrying eight tons of explosives, intended to destroy German assets. Finally, a group of Sami, Norway’s indigenous people, attached the sled to a team of reindeer. He hid behind a rock as the rest were rounded up; when German soldiers approached him, he shot two, then ran up the snowy hillside, still with only one shoe. He swam from Rebbenesøya to the next island, where he was found by two girls in a fishing boat.

Two die from torture while being interrogated, the other captive fighters are executed on Tromsøya, after the German officers interrogate and torture them about their mission. Unlike the book it is based on, The 12th Man emphasizes the efforts of those who helped Baalsrud escape, which is in line with Baalsrud's own statements about the local population's courage. After escaping the Nazi occupation of Norway in 1940, he had just returned, alongside 11 compatriots, as part of a sabotage team tasked with destroying German fortifications.

A stunning story of heroism and survival during World War II. Director: Harald Zwart Even when things look extremely bad! After they left, he made a phone call to his friend, a local Nazi official. Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | May 7, 2018 | Read Time 4 min. Both as far as the language and portrayal goes. Even though the story in The 12th Man takes place during World War 2, the focus isn’t really on Nazis as such. He spent seven months in a Swedish hospital there before being flown back to Scotland to help train other Norwegian patriots, who were going back to Norway to continue the fight against the Germans. Jan Baalsrud still remains a hero as you see the battle he fought to reach the neutral country Sweden and that in harsh winter conditions. One does not necessarily expect Harald Zwart to direct a near-epic World War II drama based on the heroic exploits of a real-life Norwegian who, deployed from Scotland to his own country on an abortive mission, finds himself struggling against the harshest elements as he tries to escape encroaching Nazis. [12], Nicolai Berg Hansson, from Film Magasinet, said the film was successful as an action movie, but if one is to criticize it for something, "it may feel a bit… hollow. From Saarikoski, in northern Finland, Baalsrud was collected by a Red Cross seaplane and flown to Boden. The mission gets into trouble soon after reaching Norway, where their local contact is long dead and their identity is compromised by a German sympathiser who immediately informs the Germans about their arrival. [5], In March 2004, producer Veslemøy Ruud Zwart secured the film rights to the book Jan Baalsrud and Those Who Saved Him. This smaller scale story with real human actors and real human concerns was just the most compelling things ever.

Their mission had gone disastrously wrong and now Baalsrud, the only survivor, was making a desperate effort to escape. He died in 1988, aged 71, and his ashes are buried in Manndalen, in a grave shared with Aslak Aslaksen Fossvoll, one of the local men who helped him escape to Sweden. Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. He woke up still snow-blind and spent three days wandering through the valley, hallucinating, as he later recalled, the voices of the men from Operation Martin he had left behind. In that sense, it really does feel strangely close. The book and its film adaptation have the same protagonist as Arne Skouen's Oscar-nominated film Nine Lives (1957), in which Baalsrud's courage and stamina were also emphasized. They were prepared for just such an eventuality. Find out more, The latest offers and discount codes from popular brands on Telegraph Voucher Codes, Never give up: Thomas Gullestad plays Norwegian commando Jan Baalsrud, Steadfast hero: Jan Baalsrud and his wife, A man we can learn from: Jan Baalsrud in 1955, A story of kindness and neighbourly spirit: The 12th Man, The off-brand Bond: why Sean Connery went rogue for Never Say Never Again, John Sessions, actor and comedian, dies aged 67, UK box office report, Oct 30–Nov 1: Hallowe’en scares Boris Johnson, but not British cinemagoers, Composer Ludwig Göransson on putting Puccini in The Mandalorian and the future of Black Panther, In Hollywood’s court, Amber Heard may face the same fate as Johnny Depp, What’s on TV tonight: Trump vs Biden, Bake Off, Life, and more. When you watch a movie like The 12th Man, you already know how the story will end before it begins. At a time when looking out for one another is needed more than ever, it provides a valuable example. In fact, the 12 men on board were part of the Linge Company, Norwegian nationals trained by the British SAS in Scotland for an operation known as Martin Red. The hunter is a Nazi soldier, who prides himself on always catching “his man”. The men of Operation Martin knew they were in trouble. He also suffered frost damage to his hands. He had been there for nine days. As a Dane, I relate easily to this part. They were delayed for days by a snow storm, but eventually managed to row it across the fjord in pieces, and assembled it on the shore. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. That’s why you should watch this movie as well.

If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. In April 1940, the German army invaded Denmark and Norway simultaneously. We use cookies. Then came an avalanche. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors).

Thanks to DIY surgery and the kindness of strangers, he lived. As the soldiers continued to give chase, he plunged back into the water (which, being salty, was several degrees below freezing) and began to swim.

That is just one example of the bravery of dozens of ordinary Norwegians, without whom the exhausted, emaciated Baalsrud would never have made his escape. They were outnumbered, outgunned and trapped. [8], On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86%, based on 21 reviews with an average rating of 6.52/10. All of this and so much more is what makes The 12th Man a very relevant movie. In the process, he took a bullet to the toe. So there he lay, frozen and alone, exposed to the driving snow and sub-zero temperatures of a long Norwegian winter. One is shot on the spot and 10 are captured. I’ve seen people compare The 12th Man to The Revenant. His story is one of individual courage, but also of collective strength and community support, as ordinary Norwegians risked their lives for his. Their only option was to detonate the explosives stored in the ship’s hold, and destroy all evidence of their mission. Something that the film emphasises, and that Baalsrud himself was always keen to point out in later life, is the help he received from ordinary Norwegians, to whom he became a folk hero. Cast: Thomas Gullestad, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Marie Blokhus, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen, Vegar Hoel, Håkon T. Nielsen. My Thoughts On the Movie The 12th Man. As the ship exploded behind them, the men had no choice but to make for the shore, where the Nazis were waiting.

Via a corner of Nazi-aligned Finland, they raced across a frozen lake into neutral Sweden, just ahead of Nazi gunmen. They took him back to their home, where their mother gave him dry clothes and a new pair of boots. However, I do have relatives that lived during this time. When they did arrive, they moved him first to a mere rock overhang (where he possibly tried to take his own life, but his colt pistol was jammed with ice) and then to a cave, where he spent another 17 days, and amputated the rest of his toes. Join our mailing list to receive the latest horror reviews and news (1-2 mails per month!

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