Daily Movie Rec 8/18/2023
Hangmen Also Die! (1943)
"Svoboda, three years ago, we lost our army. We stood on the streets, crying like children and watched it surrender. So we built a new one, a ghost army that will haunt them until their blood runs cold."
Directed by: Fritz Lang
Cinematography by: James Wong Howe
Country: United States
Plot:
A loose retelling of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, an excessively sadistic, high-ranking member of the SS known as "The Hangman of Prague," and the cruel repercussions the Nazis aimed at the Czech people in searching for the badass who assassinated a high-ranking Nazi.
Reasons to watch:
Despite the low-quality print I watched that makes the movie look 10-15 years older than it is, Hangmen Also Die! is one of the most formally intricate films Lang made after leaving Germany in the early 30s. Judging by how much he opened his repertoire here and the variety of his shot selection, it seems like the director was given much more creative freedom to craft this tension-filled wartime thriller with the necessitated impact. And a gripping story with compellingly distinct character archetypes that forefront the cruelty of the Nazis and the indomitable spirit of the Czech people only serve to deepen that impact further.
Where to watch:
Prime Video/Tubi
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