World War II’s Operation Anthropoid has always seemed to be tailor-made for the cinema. Not only is ‘anthropoid’ a really cool sounding word, but a mission to assassinate a high-ranking Nazi that concludes with just lobbing an anti-tank grenade at his car sounds intrinsically awesome. And so we come to HHhH, the English-language debut of French director Cédric Jimenez which dramatizes the mission and whose international trailer has just been released.
Starring Jack O’Connell, Jack Raynor, Rosamund Pike, Jason Clarke and Mia Wasikowska, this preview makes the film look like a slightly less stylized Inglourious Basterds, featuring an exciting looking church-based firefight, lots of behind-the-scenes Nazi villainy, and oodles of apocalyptic fascist speech-making. As far as Naziploitation films go it doesn’t look half bad, though it’s hamstrung by what is, in my opinion, one of the worst titles for a movie I’ve ever seen. Not only is HHhH essentially un-Googleable, but it sounds very silly to say. Can you imagine many people saying “two tickets for *strangled gasp*… please?”
Another strike against the film is that 2016 saw the release of Sean Ellis’ Anthropoid, starring Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan. That well-received effort dramatizes the same events in pretty much the same way. Perhaps this is why HHhH has been in the can for a while but is yet to see a release date from The Weinstein Company. It leaves the studio in a tricky position; this looks like a pretty expensive production, so to maximize returns the smart thing to do is sit on it for a bit until audiences have forgotten Anthropoid.
Either way, HHhH definitely has our attention, and we’re sure you’ll be intrigued as well after giving the trailer above a watch.
