April 9th (2015)

Wonderful Movie

Masterful Cinema

Good concept, poorly executed.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This movie gives a very honest account of the situation in the morning hours of the 9th of April 1940. The Danish soldiers did their duty despite being in a hopeless situation abandoned by their generals and politicians. It's a movie made by a Dane for the Danish audience and it captures the way Danish society and the Danish Army was at that time. I loved it! It's a small piece of Danish history coming to life. Just a note on some of the other reviews in here. Don't try putting Russian politics into this movie. There is no glorification of any Danish effort during the war here. And it is not looked upon as such in Denmark. Focus on good movies - not the old er new conflicts between East and West. This is not a propaganda movie in any way - maybe you seeing it that way tells more about your view on the world than on the essence of this small masterpiece of Danish filmmaking.

This film is not a cultural masterpiece; it is, however, an excellent piece of "documentary" history. The title refers to the defence of Denmark against the aggression of the Third Reich in 1940. This invasion was something of a "by the way" action, on the way to the invasion of Norway. The Wehrmacht crossed the border at 0415 and the Danish Government capitulated about 0600. Prior to the invasion the danish authorities had restricted military action to avoid allegations of provocation. The film starts with a group of danish troops returning to barracks from leave, we then see the humdrum of training exercises(changing the tyres on their bikes!). The film then ramps up to the alert and deployment of the troops in the early hours. It follows the initial actions of a bicycle engaging the invaders then falling back,and through to their final actions and eventual capture. I suspect that many people (outside Denmark) are unaware that there was any combat there. I was aware, and had done some limited research on the events. Overall I believe this to be an excellent piece of reconstructional cinema (OK there are apparently a couple of anachronisms which I had not noticed) but I believe the accuracy to be superb. I noticed a shot in the film which appeared to reflect an historic photo. Having compared a screen capture from the film with the photo I can only describe it as a "loving recreation" which term, I think sums the film up fully. If you are interested in the Second World War then you should view it.

The true story of the German army invading Denmark on April 9th 1940. The first line of defence is the South Jutland Bicycle Company, their orders are to hold back the might of the German army until reinforcements arrive.It's a little strange seeing them cycling around with a light machine gun strapped to their crossbar and being ordered to change a bicycle tyre in under 1.5 minutes!There is no connection between any of the soldiers, most of them don't seem to care one way or another weather they are defeated or not. The acting is quite forced but as a historical account of young men sent to do an impossible job it is quite interesting, although they were badly let down when the Danish government surrendered a few hours in.

This movie is one of the very best I have come across, perhaps on the level of Saving Private Ryan. It is quiet a tense movie, especially in the action scenes due to the realism factor which always leaves you on edge as to whether or not someone will die and due to the small scale nature of the unit size, you recognise someone dying.Now, character development is weak at best as there is little development of the characters beyond Second Lieutenant Sand and Menig Nørreskov so don't expect a Band of Brothers level of attachment. The movie is amazingly realistic, uniform, weapons, transport and even events are realistic and although you may find the occasional spod complaining about the Danish being portrayed as heroic their argument is very poorly founded.If you are a fan of war movies with historical accuracy, definitely give this film a try, you could do much worse than this.