Number 24 (2024)

I picked the first war epic I could find for Veterans Day. Not much has been written about it yet, because it's a Norwegian indie with limited screening, but it gets a warm reception among viewers.

In old age, Gunnar Sønsteby guest-lectures a class about his life from shortly before World War II to the end of it, during part of which he was Agent #24 of Britain's Special Operations Executive. In particular, he coordinated the Oslo Gang, which specialized in sabotaging German occupation projects, usually with explosives, but expanded to assassinations.

I have opted not to list the actors this time, partly because most of them are not famous enough for their own Wikipedia pages and partly because I don't feel like discussing many characters in particular. Very few get enough attention for me to know how they really differ from their co-workers. The only one I'd heard of before, who gets too little screen time for remotely high billing, is Vidkun Quisling.

This is not to say that the story isn't worth telling. Sønsteby did get the highest Norwegian military honor ever, after all. And it's pretty exciting even outside of action scenes, as when he narrowly avoids identification by enemy units.

Mind you, violence by the Oslo Gang is not made out to be delightful. Sure, you won't shed tears for SS soldiers, but killing everyone in the resistance's away, including people once counted as allies if not friends, gets into a grayer area. The gang also creates traumatic messes for bystanders. Sønsteby is actually too ashamed of one moment to answer a student's question honestly in front of the class.

At least the Oslo Gang restricts its MO to handgun shots, with follow-up close-range head shots as needed. When something's about to blow up, agents have the courtesy to warn everyone to clear out. By contrast, Germans employ worse torture than the Brits in The Wind That Shakes the Barley, sometimes to death. That's why I figure the film would have an R if released in U.S. theaters.

By default, Netflix showed me the dubbed version, which still uses subtitles for Norwegian writing and German speech. I could not find out who provided the English voices, but they do a fine job. More importantly, the dialog sounds natural.

Would I see more from the filmmakers? Maybe, but none of their prior work. At 112 minutes, N24 feels pretty stuffed, so it'll take me a while to feel ready for another round.