La Bataille de l'eau lourde (1948)
Directed by Jean Dréville, Titus Vibe-Müller

Film Review

One of the more remarkable episodes in the Second World War is related with startling realism in this remarkable Franco-Norwegian film, originally titled Kampen om tungtvannet or La Bataille de l'eau lourde but now better known under its English language title Operation Swallow: Battle for Heavy Water.  The film was one of the biggest hits at the French box office in 1948, attracting an audience of 5.4 million, showing that interest in the war remained high in France, two and half years after the war had ended.  The previous two years, the most popular films in France had been WWII-related:  Mission spéciale (1946) and Le Bataillon du ciel (1947).  If the plot of La Bataille de l'eau lourde sounds familiar that is probably because it was later remade as a big budget war movie, The Heroes of Telemark (1965), directed by Anthony Mann.  Recently, the 'battle for heavy water' has been dramatised as a six-part television serial for Norwegian television, first aired in January 2015.

Directed by Jean Dréville (whose previous films included the phenomenally successful La Cage aux rossignols) and Titus Vibe-Müller, La Bataille de l'eau lourde achieves its near-documentary realism by combining archive footage with authentic reconstructions of actual events.  Only a handful of the people who appear on screen are played by professional actors - most are portrayed by their real-life counterparts, including leading scientists Frédéric Joliot and Lew Kowarski.  Of the heroic men who were involved in the commando raid on the Norwegian power plant (and to whom the entire Free World owes an incalculable debt of gratitude), all but two appear on screen as themselves; the two others (one who had declined, another who had died) were played by actors.

By its very nature, La Bataille de l'eau lourde could never have ended up a polished production.  The poor quality archive material jars with the reconstructed scenes, and it's painfully evident that acting was unlikely to be a career path for most of the individuals who appear on screen.  Rough and ready though the film is, it is one of the most compelling and authentic of all war films.  The locations sequences filmed in the Telemark mountains have an almost unreal beauty, more fitting for a fairytale than a war film; the sabotage raid on the power plant is nerve-rackingly suspenseful, particularly when you realise what is at stake; and throughout there is a perfect balance between education and entertainment.  Not only does the film accurately recount one of the most heroic exploits of WWII, it also brings us into direct contact with those who participated in it, and above all it is their ordinariness that makes watching them re-enact their great adventure so humbling.  These are not the synthetic heroes we encounter in Hollywood blockbusters.  These are just ordinary men doing what they can to prevent the Nazis from obtaining the means to build an atomic bomb.  You wonder why their names are not engraved on the memories of each and every one of us.

Film Synopsis

Not long after Norway comes under Nazi Occupation at the start of World War II, the Germans commandeer a hydroelectric power plant in the mountains outside Rjukan.  The plant distils heavy water, an essential ingredient in the production of the atomic bomb with which Germany hopes to win the war.  Realising the threat the plant poses, the Allies attempt to bomb it, but fail - it is too well protected by the surrounding mountains.  In 1943, the Allies plan a commando raid to sabotage the plant.  To that end, four Norwegians are parachuted into the Telemark mountains to prepare for the British-led raid.  The operation fails to go as planned, but a second attempt proves successful.  The plant is hastily rebuilt and it is only a matter of months before the Germans have enough deuterium to create their first atomic bomb.  After another failed Allied bombing raid on the plant, the Germans attempt to ship the heavy water out of the country.  The Allies have one last chance before Hitler has the means to build a bomb that will win him the war...