Operation Crossbow, story by Duilio Coletti and Vittoriano Petrilli - 9.6 out of 10

Operation Crossbow, story by Duilio Coletti and Vittoriano Petrilli

9.6 out of 10

This is the kind of motion picture that would enthuse, excite, inspire audiences, for it presents and incredible – and mostly real, except for artistic license that would have to create dialogue that perhaps the protagonists have not had – story of outstanding valor, self-sacrifice, intelligence, patriotism of the noble sort and not the false patriotic, ridiculous nationalism flaunted by the likes of Trump.

A spectacular film, Operation Crossbow is included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made: https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/checklist/16

Although World War II had been progressing to the advantage of the Allies, but the Nazis had been developing a frightening, terrible, doomsday machine – that would later result into the missiles we now know – that could not only destroy lives, machinery and buildings in allied territory, but eventually, if their progress would be left unchecked, they would have been able to put the end of the war in question, especially with the ‘New York rocket’.

Some of the British men in command become aware of the awful danger they are in, while others dispute what their aerial espionage has brought back and think it could be air balloons, torpedoes for submarines, up to the point where the first V1 rockets hit London and then the bombardiers are all mobilized, even if it is a very risky endeavor, for if the Germans would have managed to hit hard the airplanes, they could hold so many cards and change the fate of the conflict.

By destroying the facilities where the new weapons were tested and launched, the allies – Americans during the day and the British at night, if this recollection is correct – the right people managed to keep the evil at a standstill, but alas, not for long, since the Nazis manage to find the solution in the mobile launching pads, which are cannot be detected and destroyed, unless an airplane happens to fly above it, with chances of millions to one to be there and ready to attack.

Therefore they need inside information, agents that would penetrate the enemy defense, willing to take overwhelming risks and enroll in the German weapons making system, the part which would make the dreadful missiles, eventually the new models, which travel at over 400 miles per hour and seem to be impossible to intercept before creating massive destruction in London.

The cast of this movie is stellar, iconic and – hard to believe for millennials – better than what Avengers End Game – or any other – can ever have, with Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Tom Courtenay and so many more legendary, iconic actors.

Lieutenant John Curtis aka George Peppard, Robert Henshaw aka Tom Courtenay and others are trained, given false identities and they have to learn all the biographic available details about the people they would ‘replace’, before being parachuted into enemy occupied territory, where they would try to enlist and enter the facilities where the dreadful weapons are made, given that they had been selected for their knowledge of German and their prowess in technical matters.

It is understandably a nearly impossible, superhuman task – again, much more compelling, interesting, educational, inspiring than any Avengers feature – and Robert Henshaw has to face Gestapo interrogators rather quickly, given that the character he has to pretend to be is accused of murder and wanted by the police, who have witnesses – in a heroic, suicidal gesture, the prisoner accepts his blame, confessing, in order to avoid his real identity to be exposed, for they would state that he is not the real killer and thus the investigators would realize he must be a secret agent.

A dramatic moment takes place when John Curtis meets with Nora Van Ostamgen aka Sophia Loren, for the woman is the wife of the man whose identity he had assumed, she does not know his real spouse had died and she could expose the agent and the whole Crossbow Operation if she had told the Nazis that this is not the man she had come to see.

John Curtis tries to explain the situation to Nora and have her convince him she would not inform the authorities under any circumstances, so that he would be able to tell the others that she is to be spared, for in order to keep the Crossbow on track, they could not take any chances, with millions of lives at stake, populations that could be affected by the terrible weapons the Germans were developing.

Alas, even if lieutenant Curtis is convinced and then has a document signed about the trip back that the woman would make, to return to her children, for whom she would not take any chances with the Nazis – the American maintains that Nora would compromise the lives of her kids, were she to try anything to compromise her travelling papers – his liaison is not sure and thus shoots and kills the poor, innocent casualty of the war.

The allied command need to know where to bomb in order to incapacitate the V2 rockets and not only that, but they have to have access to the inside of the facilities, which are located deep underground and thus inexpugnable, almost any amount of explosives would be ineffective unless the way is found to send them into the core of the outfit.

For this heroism is needed, the two people that have been able to get inside have to open the gates, which are normally apart only when a launch is in progress and this is authorized at the highest level – all this is getting ever more daunting when the real identity of Curtis is exposed and within minutes he would caught, tortured and then executed.

For some reasons of spoiler alert, the note will stop here, although the fate of World War II is known, the fact that the Nazis have managed to kill many with their rockets is also public knowledge, but details of the Crossbow Operation are only familiar to historians and a small number of history enthusiasts.

This is indeed one of The Best Movies Ever Made!