Anthropoid (2016)

Operation Anthropoid ranks among the most audacious acts of resistance carried out during the Second World War. In late 1941, two Czechoslovak soldiers, Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, were parachuted into Nazi-occupied Prague by the British Special Operations Executive with a mission considered so dangerous that many thought it suicidal: the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia and one of the principal architects of what would become the Holocaust. The operation succeeded, making Heydrich the most senior Nazi official to be killed during the entire war, though the reprisals that followed were savage. It is a story that deserves to be told, and it is perhaps surprising that it took until 2016 for a significant English-language production to bring it to the screen with any real seriousness (there was a 1964 British film, Operation Daybreak, though it never quite lodged itself in the public consciousness the way the history warrants).

The film was directed by Sean Ellis, a British filmmaker perhaps better known at that point for smaller, more personal work, and shot largely on location in Prague, lending the production a credibility and weight that studio backlot approximations rarely achieve. The city itself, one of the few European capitals to survive the war without major architectural destruction, becomes a character of sorts: narrow streets, tram lines, safe houses and baroque churches all feature in ways that feel lived-in rather than dressed. Ellis also co-wrote the screenplay, keeping the story grounded in the documented record rather than reaching for dramatic licence. The production brought together funding and creative talent from the Czech Republic, France, the United States and the United Kingdom, a genuinely international effort that reflects the multinational nature of the resistance itself. If you are interested in other films to have come out of the Czech Republic, I have also reviewed Underground (1995) and Aferim! (2015), both of which are worth your time for different reasons.

The cast is a polished but unremarkable ensemble on paper that turns out to carry rather more weight than you might expect going in. Jamie Dornan plays Gabčík and Cillian Murphy takes the role of Kubiš, and both bring a quietness to their performances that suits the material: these are men doing something terrifying while trying to look like they are not. Charlotte Le Bon and Anna Geislerová play local women who become bound up in the operation, and Harry Lloyd rounds out the principal cast. Murphy in particular had already built a reputation for a certain kind of watchful, controlled intensity, and that quality serves the film well here. For context on what a tense, well-made thriller can do when it commits to its premise, it is worth comparing the approach here with something like 1917 (2019), another history film I have covered, or indeed the very different pressures at work in Goodnight, Mister Tom (1998), which I also reviewed as part of the thriller category.

A-Z World Movie Tour Czechia (Czech Republic) Anthropoid is the tale of the incredible bravery of a small group of Czech resistance fighters in WW2 who set out to (and successfully) assassinated Reinhard Heyndrich who was the chief architect of the Nazi extermination of the Jews. It's a tale of two movies here. It's a 2 hour movie that could easily have just been 90 minutes. The first half of the movie is a VERY slow burn where you see them planning the assassination. The second half of the film is a paranoid, tense and very gripping tale of the aftermath. The acting is fantastic (especially from Cillian Murphy) and the cinematography, sound effects.

That imbalance between the two halves is something I kept coming back to after the credits rolled. There is a version of this film that trims the planning sequences and arrives at the siege and its aftermath with more momentum already built, and I think it would have been the stronger cut. That said, the second half earns a good deal of goodwill on its own terms, and Murphy's restraint throughout is exactly the kind of performance that deserves more attention than it tends to get. When a film gets the history this right and still manages to generate genuine dread in its closing act, that counts for something. It just takes a while to get there.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 2016  | Watched: 2025-06-14

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for Anthropoid (2016) on YouTube

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Czech Republic: Van Helsing (2004) · The Kite (2019) · Underground (1995) · Aferim! (2015)
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More history: Apocalypto (2006) · Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury (2013) · Harakiri (1962) · Night and Fog (1956)
More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)