‘The 12th Man’ will keep your attention then haunt your dreams, forever

Thomas Gullestad in a scene from “The 12th Man.” IMDb photo

You think you’ve had it rough? You’ve got 16 masks, suffered a headache and soreness from your shots? You’re a sissy.

You’re about to view a story about a real hero. His name was Jan Sigurd Baalsrud, a bookish man, a map maker and adventurer, who traveled throughout the world in the 1930’s.

Jan was mapping out frozen distant fjords of Norway, when World War II broke out, and the Nazis invaded his home country.

Baalsrud escaped to Britain, where he found a place in the resistance forces that could use his expertise and knowledge of almost every foot of Norway.

1943: Operation Martin Red, a secret group of 12 men who were sent into Norway to disrupt communications and sabotage Nazi projects.

From the moment they landed, everything went wrong. Obviously betrayed, their disguised fishing boat was set upon by German gunboats.

One agent was killed instantly, but in a horrific 10-minute gunfight in the icy waters and on the blood spattered rocks of the beach, 10 of the agents and an important briefcase with plans were captured, with Jan suffering a bullet wound in his lower left leg, that within 16 days will force him to amputate his big toe to stop gangrene.

At the end of the first hour, Jan, holding the codes to the plan, escaped with dozens of Germans in pursuit, led by the fiercest, most dedicated, cold-blooded SS officer since Adolph Eichmann, Capt. Kurt Stage. This is Irish actor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers (“Elvis,” “The Tudors.” )

Alongside veteran actor Meyers, is Thomas Gullestad, a first time actor, disc jockey and hip hop performer, as our hero.

Both put their lives in the hands of Dutch director Harald Zwart (“Pink Panther 2,” “Karate Kid”) to create one of the most exciting true story movies of survival since Tom Hanks pulled his own tooth in “Castaway.”

Thomas, as Jan, will hobble, crawl, pull his body by the fingernails over ice and rocks almost over half of Norway on his way to neutral Sweden.

Steve McQueen in “The Great Escape,” used a motorcycle. In the final scenes of Jan’s journey, he is dragged towards Sweden by a …… sorry, I can’t give it away.

Jan will, along the way, be aided by Norwegian resistance patriots: Marius (Mads Sjogard Pettersen) and his sister Gudrun (Marie Blokhus.)

Obersturmbannfuhrer Kurt Stage will refuse to give up, and like “Les Miserable’s” Inspector Javert, follow the bloody trail right up to the border of Sweden.

Cameraman Geir Hartley Andreassen follows both of these men with intensity, never missing a drop of blood, discarded toe or bloody rags.

“The 12th Man” will keep your attention for 131 minutes and then haunt your dreams, forever.

“The 12th Man” streams on NETFLIX.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.

Comments are not available on this story.

Send questions/comments to the editors.

filed under: