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Rating: 
Summary: An old warrior is not willing to let the Nazis have Norway
Review: "The Last Lieutenant" tells a story we have seen before, about people decided to be collaborators or become part of the resistance when the Nazis occupy their country. But what is different in this 1993 film from director Hans Petter Moland, is that the story is set in Norway (can you even name another film set in Norway during World War II?). Espen Skjonberg plays Thor Espedal, a retired naval lieutenant who reenlists to defend his country on the eve of the Nazi invasion, overcoming the bureaucratic red tape. However, when it becomes clear that Norway is going to surrender, Thor takes his own little group of ragtag volunteers on one last mission. Skjonberg's performance is impressive as the stoic man who refuses to let the enemy win without a fight, but what really stands out for me in this film is the way Moland deals with the whole issue of collaboration. Certainly this is a period of conflicting thoughts and feelings for Norwegians, and the film deals with the "two" sides honestly and without becoming preachy. As I indicated on top, the elements of the story are certainly familiar to anyone who has watched a lot of World War II films, so what I really appreciate here are those "Norwegian" elements that make this film different from those about the French Resistance.
Rating:
Summary: World War II in Norway
Review: "The Last Lieutenant" or "Secondløytnanten" as it's called in its original language gives the viewer a good insight in how the World War II was for the Norwegian Army. As a low-ranking officer of the Army-reserve, the main character show up for service as soon as he learns that his country is under attack by a foreign force. The war came as a great surprise to the Norwegian armed forces. As he shows up to start his fight, he first has to fight the bureaucracy to be allowed into the war. As he gets his own unit of poorly-trained and ill-motivated reserve soldiers, he takes the fight to the Germans despite most of the Army being either in chaos or surrendering. The movie raises a few ethical questions as he wants to execute one of his own for letting out POW's. The movie is a captivating illustration of how futile the resistance in most of southern Norway was to the powerful German war-machine. I recommend this movie for anyone with an interest of World War II in Europe. This is quite a different story than those told of The war on the res of the continent.
Rating:
Summary: An old warrior is not willing to let the Nazis have Norway
Review: "The Last Lieutenant" tells a story we have seen before, about people decided to be collaborators or become part of the resistance when the Nazis occupy their country. But what is different in this 1993 film from director Hans Petter Moland, is that the story is set in Norway (can you even name another film set in Norway during World War II?). Espen Skjonberg plays Thor Espedal, a retired naval lieutenant who reenlists to defend his country on the eve of the Nazi invasion, overcoming the bureaucratic red tape. However, when it becomes clear that Norway is going to surrender, Thor takes his own little group of ragtag volunteers on one last mission. Skjonberg's performance is impressive as the stoic man who refuses to let the enemy win without a fight, but what really stands out for me in this film is the way Moland deals with the whole issue of collaboration. Certainly this is a period of conflicting thoughts and feelings for Norwegians, and the film deals with the "two" sides honestly and without becoming preachy. As I indicated on top, the elements of the story are certainly familiar to anyone who has watched a lot of World War II films, so what I really appreciate here are those "Norwegian" elements that make this film different from those about the French Resistance.
Rating:
Summary: An old warrior is not willing to let the Nazis have Norway
Review: "The Last Lieutenant" tells a story we have seen before, about people decided to be collaborators or become part of the resistance when the Nazis occupy their country. But what is different in this 1993 film from director Hans Petter Moland, is that the story is set in Norway (can you even name another film set in Norway during World War II?). Espen Skjonberg plays Thor Espedal, a retired naval lieutenant who reenlists to defend his country on the eve of the Nazi invasion, overcoming the bureaucratic red tape. However, when it becomes clear that Norway is going to surrender, Thor takes his own little group of ragtag volunteers on one last mission. Skjonberg's performance is impressive as the stoic man who refuses to let the enemy win without a fight, but what really stands out for me in this film is the way Moland deals with the whole issue of collaboration. Certainly this is a period of conflicting thoughts and feelings for Norwegians, and the film deals with the "two" sides honestly and without becoming preachy. As I indicated on top, the elements of the story are certainly familiar to anyone who has watched a lot of World War II films, so what I really appreciate here are those "Norwegian" elements that make this film different from those about the French Resistance.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Movie / Bad Transfer
Review: I rented this movie because I was intrigued by the cover. It turns out it was a pretty good movie and the lead actor does a very good job. It's an intriguing war story. Before you rent or buy this on DVD (region 1) be aware that the transfer for this DVD is extremely bad and amateur. The titles are blurry and so are the end credits. Other than that movie looks ok for about the first hour, but then at about 1 hour in (I'm assuming at a reel change) it abruptly becomes VERY NOTICABLY BLURRY (you'll want to yell at the projectionist to focus the movie) and SOUND COMPLETELY DROPS OUT (no sound at all for the rest of the movie). After the sound drops out at about an hour, you'll just have to read subtitles in silence to figure out what is going on. At first when the sound dropped out, I thought I had a problem with my DVD player--but it has the same problem on my OTHER DVD player (and the sound is ok before that). This is just a bad, bad, bad job of mastering/transferring this movie. The subtitles are also part of the transfer and you cannot turn them on or off since they're part of the optical image. (You can turn the subtitles on or off or change them on most DVDs since the subtitles are stored as seperate data on most DVDs.) Maybe they've corrected the problems with this DVD in second pressing, but I kind of doubt that enough people bought this DVD for it to ever sell enough for a second pressing.
Rating:
Summary: Good Movie / Bad Transfer
Review: I rented this movie because I was intrigued by the cover. It turns out it was a pretty good movie and the lead actor does a very good job. It's an intriguing war story. Before you rent or buy this on DVD (region 1) be aware that the transfer for this DVD is extremely bad and amateur. The titles are blurry and so are the end credits. Other than that movie looks ok for about the first hour, but then at about 1 hour in (I'm assuming at a reel change) it abruptly becomes VERY NOTICABLY BLURRY (you'll want to yell at the projectionist to focus the movie) and SOUND COMPLETELY DROPS OUT (no sound at all for the rest of the movie). After the sound drops out at about an hour, you'll just have to read subtitles in silence to figure out what is going on. At first when the sound dropped out, I thought I had a problem with my DVD player--but it has the same problem on my OTHER DVD player (and the sound is ok before that). This is just a bad, bad, bad job of mastering/transferring this movie. The subtitles are also part of the transfer and you cannot turn them on or off since they're part of the optical image. (You can turn the subtitles on or off or change them on most DVDs since the subtitles are stored as seperate data on most DVDs.) Maybe they've corrected the problems with this DVD in second pressing, but I kind of doubt that enough people bought this DVD for it to ever sell enough for a second pressing.
Rating:
Summary: The second pressing (release Oct 2002)
Review: This new edition have fixed the sound problem, and the movie now have excellent sound through the whole movie. The picture quality is excellent the first hour, but the rest is still kinda blurry videoquality. The opening and end credits are still hard to read and the subtitles are still impossible to remove. This DVD still recives 4 stars because it may be the most personal war story I've ever seen. German and Norwegian troops are treated equally and followed closely in their struggle.
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