The Bombardment Movie Reviews – The Bombardment (Netflix), written and directed by Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch), revisits a devastating chapter in Denmark’s wartime history, when a 1945 Royal Air Force bombing campaign resulted in the deaths of many civilians, including children.
The Danish original war film ‘The Bombardment,’ (The Shadow in My Eye) directed by Ole Bornedal, is a gritty & realistic debut into the genre.
The movie depicts the tragedy that occurred on March 21, 1945, at the Jeanne d’Arc School in Copenhagen. A shell-shocked kid, a fairy-tale-loving girl, a betraying soldier, and a nun attempt to discover God against the backdrop of a war-torn country.
According to the Danish resistance, the UK military is prepared to launch a precision raid. What starts as a slow-burning menacing atmosphere quickly escalates into a catastrophic disaster.
If you want to remember the story’s concluding moments in better detail, let’s take a closer look at the finish.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
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Netflix’s ‘The Bombardment’ (2022) Movie Plot & Synopsis
On a gloomy February morning on Jutland, Denmark’s mainland, the narrative begins. Henry is in the process of delivering eggs. Three high-powered women are out on a date, conversing and smoking cigarettes.
The motorist hears the faint sound of an aeroplane before they can understand anything. While Henry is a mute spectator, a gunner plane crashes into the automobile, killing the girls and the driver. The eggs fall to the ground, a squandered source of protein.
Svend goes to Frederik’s residence, a former friend, and asks for help. Although he is being pursued, Frederik now works for the Gestapo.
He requests a meeting with Svend in the Shell House (or Shellhuset; the Gestapo Headquarters in Copenhagen’s city centre), and Svend leaves, returning the ten kroner owed to Frederik.
When Frederik’s father returns home, he labels him a pest and storms out of the dining room.
Eva, seven, has a similar encounter to Henry while strolling with her mother and little sister. Svend Nielsen, Frederik’s buddy, is executed in front of her eyes by the Gestapo.
Greta, a student whose father is a Nazi army general, telephones Eva from her automobile, but Eva is still reeling from the shock.
Teresa, a young saint from the church that oversees Eva and Henry’s school, believes she is a sinner, but her senior understands that flogging would be futile.
The automobile they hit was a wedding party, not a Gestapo official, according to Major Truelsen of the Danish SOE. In the meantime, Henry forgets to talk, and the doctor is impatient with his treatment.
While a German official lashes out at a resistance fighter, Henry is beaten by the doctor in the hopes of regaining his speech.
A wounded nation prepares to reclaim control of its destiny. When nations clash, everlasting innocence is lost in a whirlpool of exploding violence.
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Is Rigmor Dead or Alive at the End of the ‘The Bombardment’ Movie?
Rigmor is one of the story’s most interesting characters. Rigmor and Henry are almost inseparable because he is Henry’s cousin. They form a team with Eva.
There are early suspicions of a British operation to demolish the Shell House, so the Royal Air Force launches Operation Carthage on a March morning. One bomber plane, however, loses control of the vehicle and crashes into an electric pole, landing on the ground.
Teresa and the other nuns guide the youngsters to an underground bunker after hearing the noise.
However, the structure collapses on them before they can notice much. Teresa and Rigmor become trapped inside the debris as water begins to stream in from an underground inlet. Henry arrives at the scene startled and forgets his words for a second.
However, Henry hurries to the neighbouring theatre on the orders of a Danish commander, informing the guardians of the children’s presence. When their children’s names are called out in the theatre, the guardians cry.
When Eva’s mother doesn’t hear Eva’s name, she almost breaks down in tears. Henry reassures her by informing her that Eva has most likely returned home.
Eva’s mother returns home and discovers Eva eating a bowl of porridge. However, we don’t see Rigmor’s location until the camera moves underground.
Rigmor responds when Teresa calls her name. Teresa prays to God for their literal freedom, but Rigmor reveals that she has a chunk of iron lodged in her chest. We don’t think Rigmor will make it out of the nightmare alive, especially with water flowing into her compartment.
Is Teresa Alive or Dead? Is it Possible that Frederik and Teresa will End Up Together?
Teresa gets some breathing room while Rigmor drowns. Frederik rushes to her aid after hearing her voice among the rubble. He walks inside a cave-like entrance, unsure of the passage’s stability.
Frederik follows Teresa’s voice and eventually finds her. She is overjoyed to meet her rescuer, but the ground beneath her quickly crumbles, taking her with it. As a result, Teresa dies with Rigmor, and Frederik emerges from the cave shaken.
The awkward encounters between Frederik and Teresa are among the film’s most intriguing parts. Teresa watches Frederik and his Gestapo cronies beating up a resistance worker while strolling after the church sermon.
Teresa warns Frederik on their first encounter that if he does not believe in God, he will perish in hell. In the middle of the night, Frederik approaches Teresa again, revealing his desire to find God.
She isn’t a believer, either, and she kisses Frederik to see whether God strikes lightning. Teresa later brings Frederik to the church in the hopes of praying, but Frederik tries to rape her.
Teresa creates a divine message through self-harm and theatrics, while Frederik quickly gathers himself.
Jesus appears to bleed, and the message, however insignificant, aids Frederik in reflecting on his heinous actions. We begin to notice the shift as Frederik apologises to Teresa for being a pest.
He returns to his parents and informs them that he will be leaving the Gestapo. Around 550 uniformed Danes collaborated with the Gestapo throughout the war to frighten their own people into submission.
The majority of them were tried after the war, but we believe Frederik left before that. They do not, however, end up together after Teresa’s untimely death.
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Our Opinion
The Bombardment is very aware of the feelings it creates for some of its diverse cast of characters.
It focuses on Henry as a compassionate soul who has been wounded too early in life by a terrible war event, and that focus pays off when he is able to contribute his voice and assistance to an even more traumatic tragedy.
Even in the face of Copenhagen’s terrible Nazi oppression, Henry’s cousin Rigmor’s ebullience is uplifting, and her lighthearted interpretation of Sister Teresa’s teachings forms the film’s emotional fulcrum as the RAF bombing run approaches.
“Mom and dad are friendly because they believe the war will be finished soon. Which is fortunate, because God was just about to go out and get some cigarettes.”
Fanny Bornedal’s interpretation of Teresa’s faith crisis is the best, as she expresses the nun’s doubts and agony primarily through tiny movements in her eyes.
Bombardment falls short of carrying that awareness all the way through. There are too many strings here, and there isn’t enough time to tie them all together.
Even as they are tortured and used as human shields by the Gestapo, members of the resistance remain anonymous; we only have a sketch of their plight.
Frederik’s disgust with his HIPO thuggery came on too quickly. The RAF pilots, who are mostly anonymous, are as one-dimensional as the time delay bombs that their de Havillands drop.
While its scope is maybe too broad, The Bombardment succeeds in its portrayal of battle in terms of appearance and feel.
The bomber squadron’s approach and assault run are accompanied by a tight music with churning cello and feedback guitar, and the bombers’ raw might as ruthless weapons of war is fascinating.
When the moment comes, the film does not hold back in depicting the horrors of civilian casualties. The smoking debris of their children’s school can be seen in the distance as parents abandon everything and race through the streets as a group.
As rubble is ripped away to free the broken bodies of children, ordinary citizens become members of the rescue team. They may be images from any of history’s many combat tragedies.
