Age of Heroes

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Adrian Vitoria directs. Mark Hamilton behind the camera. Michael Richard Plowman scores. Chris Gill cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English, French, Norwegian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 190 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 2Released 15 years ago.
• 3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, French, Norwegian.
• 4Directed by Adrian Vitoria, shot by Mark Hamilton. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Michael Richard Plowman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Chris Gill shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Sean Bean and Izabella Miko and Danny Dyer carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "They Were Britian's Commando Elite".
• 9IMDB entry: tt1590950 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Classified under 15 themes, including "world war ii", "behind enemy lines", "1940s", "gunfights".

The technical file

Cinematography

Mark Hamilton

Original score

Michael Richard Plowman

Editing

Chris Gill

Production design

Richard Campling

Costume design

Elvis Davis

Makeup / hair

Sarah Jane Marks

Sound

Mark Paterson

Stunt coordinator

Paul Kennington

Runtime

90 min · 1h 30m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Age of Heroes (2011) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

40% 🥫 Rotten

IMDB rating

5.5/10 · 10,388 votes

MPAA

Not Rated

Also by

Adrian Vitoria

• 
  Brookside: Unfinished Business

  2003 · ★ 7.0
• 
  The Crew

  2008 · ★ 6.0

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Age of Heroes - Trailer

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2017-01-06
  ★ 7/10

  Operation Grendel Age of Heroes is directed by Adrian Vitoria and Vitoria also co- writes the screenplay with Ed Scates. It stars Sean Bean, Danny Dyer, Aksel Hennie, Izabella Miko, James D'Arcy, William Houston, John Dagleish and Stephen Walters. Music is by Michael Richard Plowman and cinematography by Mark Hamilton. Pic is based on the real life exploits of James Bond creator Ian Fleming. This telling sees a unit of Commandos sent on a mission to the mountains of Norway to knock out an important German communication tower whilst purloining information to aid the war effort. In truth it doesn't add a great deal to an already over stocked "men on a mission" sub-genre of war films, but there's enough excitement, explosions, potent character dynamics and military shenanigans, to keep things at the better end of a viewing experience. Cast are fine, all portraying familiar types seen in countless films of this ilk, the snowy Norwegian locations are a sight for sore eyes, and Vitoria does a nice job of giving his film an old fashioned feel - complete with the obligatory Nazi atrocity to add some venomous oomph to the plotting. The inclusion of Izabella Miko on the mission sadly comes off as a token female shoehorn job, and I agree with what other reviewers have said as regards the finale, it does feel a bit rushed as this pic definitely could have done with another 15 minutes or so. Yet being an old fashioned guy myself, I liked it well enough and was glad to have viewed it. 7/10

  Read full review ↓
• Dark Jedi2017-06-15
  ★ 6/10

  A simple but fairly okay World War 2 movie. The blurb about the film talks about “true story” but as usual it is more “based on” stuff. They apparently did not have much of a budget when doing this movie and I am fairly surprised that Sean Bean is in it. It is a quite simple and straightforward movie and could easily have been a TV-movie rather than a theatre feature. I probably would have been more harsh in my review if I would have made the effort to go to a theatre to watch it. It is however, a fairly okay movie. It wont win any prizes for special effects but it has decent acting and a story that is not too bad. Sean Bean is good as usual but I do not think he gets the chance to shine like he does in some movies. The ending feels a bit rushed though. Like we-ran-out-of-money-lets-wrap-it-up. It still made for a okay movie watching evening though.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• GI

  Giant Films

  ZA

• PA

  Panaramic

  GB

• MO

  Moskus Film

• CI

  Cinema Five

• NE

  Neon Park

• ME

  Metrodome Distribution

  GB

• 

  ContentFilm

  GB

• RE

  Regent Capital

  GB

• MA

  Matador Pictures

  GB

• MA

  Magna Films

  ES

• AT

  Atlantic Swiss Productions

  GB

Key crew

• ProducerNick O'Hagan
• Costume DesignElvis Davis
• CastingUrvashi Chugani
• ProducerLex Lutzus
• CastingRohan Chand
• ProducerJames Brown
• EditorChris Gill
• EditorJoe Parsons
• Costume SupervisorIrina Kotcheva
• Art DirectionJohnny Campling
• Production DesignRichard Campling
• Art DirectionOli van der Vijver
• Stunt CoordinatorPaul Kennington
• Assistant Art DirectorLee Whiteman
• Sound Re-Recording MixerMark Paterson
• Supervising Sound EditorZane Hayward
• GafferThomas Lund
• Production Sound MixerKeith Tunney
• Key GripSimon Thorpe
• Second Assistant CameraDavid Agha-Rafei
• Boom OperatorGary Cummings
• ADR Voice CastingAbigail Barbier
• Makeup & HairSarah Jane Marks
• Camera OperatorMark Hamilton

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• world war ii
• behind enemy lines
• 1940s
• gunfights
• special operation
• nazi occupied norway
• british commandos
• sabotage mission
• enemy ambushes
• squad brotherhood
• mountain terrain
• enemy base
• radar facility
• allied forces
• winter warfare

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2011-09-09R

Also known as

International titles

• Comando de EliteBR
• Czas bohaterówPL
• Εποχή των ηρώωνGR
• Heltenes tidDK