The Bombardment (Netflix), written and produced by Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch), revisits a devastating period in Denmark’s wartime history when a 1945 Royal Air Force bombing mission resulted in a considerable loss of civilian lives, many of them children. Bornedal introduces the numerous people whose fates will coincide as the bombs fall, revealing the impending catastrophe gradually.
THE BOMBARDMENT: IS IT WORTH THE TIME?
The Big Idea: 1945 The Second World War is drawing to a conclusion, but Germany is still occupying Denmark. In Copenhagen, life goes on very much as normal. People go to work, there are open stores, and kids go to school. However, the Gestapo continues to actively seek out members of the resistance organisation with the aid of Danes from inside the HIPO auxiliary police unit. Because he enlisted, Frederik (Alex Hogh Andersen) has been abandoned by his father, who says, “What of my son? He turned into a HIPO pig, a traitor, and there is street fighting between the Gestapo, HIPO goons, and resistance fighters. While strolling with their parents or the nuns who run their French school, children see all of this. Both Rigmor (Ester Birch) and Eva (Ella Josephine Lund Nilsson) are not traumatised or desensitised to it. They have changed to living through a conflict.
Henry (Bertram Bisgaard Enevoldsen) is paralysed after an RAF Mosquito fighter-bomber mistakenly strafes a local taxi for a German staff car while Henry is riding his bike in Jutland. His mother delivers him to Rigmor’s mother, her sister, who resides in Copenhagen. There aren’t many clear skies there, and the sky is his greatest fear.
There is a fresh mission underway at Fersfield Airbase in England in the meantime. Operation Carthage will attack the Gestapo Headquarters in Copenhagen, which is housed inside the Shellhus, a revered old-town structure. The briefing officer informs the pilots that “our purpose is to destroy their archives and kill as many Huns as possible.” This is true despite the Germans using resistance prisoners as human shields close to the roof. To save many, the RAF and their allies in the Danish underground will be willing to make some sacrifices.
Sister Teresa (Fanny Bornedal) teaches Rigmor, Henry, Eva, and their students at Jeanne d’Arc School that time is relative to God and that one day might feel like a hundred years. But the brutal carnage of war has led Teresa to doubt her religious beliefs. She humiliates herself in private and blatantly kisses Frederik in an effort to get the Lord to respond.
Armed with delayed fuse bombs, three de Haviland squadrons blast across the English Channel after taking off from Norwich. On their way to the goal, they will skim the city’s roofs. The Gestapo presence in Copenhagen was wiped out by the bombs from the first squadron, which targeted Shellhus. But one plane is sent careening out of control after colliding with an observation tower. The second wave of bombers are confused as it crashes into the French school and explodes, and tragedy strikes when their bombs land on defenceless students.
Which movies will it make you think of? The Bombardment joins a group of movies that also includes Cate Shortland’s Lore, Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun, which stars a young Christian Bale, and Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful because writer and director Ole Bornedal focuses on the viewpoint of children toward war.
Performance to Watch: Fanny Bornedal, who previously starred in Bornedal’s most recent historical TV series 1864, brings a riveting mix of devotion to the Lord and to her young charges, curiosity, and a few daring acts of brazen independence to the role of Sister Teresa.
Remarkable Dialogue: After seeing Frederik beat up a member of the resistance, Teresa informs him, “If you don’t discover the Lord, you will burn.” He claims that it’s too late; his participation in HIPO will be discovered as the war draws to a close, and he’ll be doomed. She suddenly gives him a kiss. “God will undoubtedly punish me if I kiss someone like you. Then I’ll be aware that he exists.
Is There any Sex and Nudity?: Neither.
Our Opinion: The Bombardment definitely pays attention to the specific moods it creates for some of its diverse cast of characters. It focuses on Henry as a kind person who was prematurely scarred by a terrible war event, and that focus pays off when he can lend his voice and support to an even more traumatic tragedy. Even in the face of the challenging Nazi persecution in Copenhagen, Henry’s cousin Rigmor’s vivacity is contagious, and as the RAF bombing raid approaches, her lighthearted interpretation of Sister Teresa’s teachings turns into the movie’s emotional turning point. Mom and Dad are good people because they believe the conflict will end soon. which is fortunate because God just left to purchase some cigarettes. And Fanny Bornedal’s depiction of Teresa’s personal spiritual crises best supports it; she primarily communicates the nun’s uncertainty and agony through delicate eye movements. Bombardment struggles to maintain that sensitivity throughout. Too many strings are involved here, and there isn’t enough time to tie them all. Even while they are tortured and used as human shields by the Gestapo, members of the resistance go unidentified; we only have a sketch of what their situation is like. It is too harsh for Frederik to have disillusioned himself over night with his HIPO thuggery. Also largely nameless, the RAF pilots are as one-dimensional as the time delay bombs their De Haviland aircraft drop.
Although The Bombardment’s focus may be too wide, it succeeds in capturing the appearance and feel of war. A terrifyingly tense music with churning cello and feedback guitar plays during the bomber squadron’s approach and assault run, and the bombers’ raw might as horrific weapons of war is fascinating. When the time is right, the movie doesn’t hold back when it comes to showing how terrible civilian losses are. When they see the smoking remains of their children’s school in the distance, parents drop everything and hurry through the streets in a group. As the rubble is removed to release the children’s mangled bodies, regular people join the rescue effort. Images from any point in the long history of warfare tragedy could be present.
It’s time to STREAM IT. Although The Bombardment is a bit cumbersome, it is respectful of its tragic fundamental subject and is aided by the performances of several excellent young performers.
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