Saturday, February 6, 2016

Female Agents (2008)


So many battles were fought on land, air, and sea during World War II. Many of the battle were learn about in classes throughout our school years are the most pivotal and important. Yet, there are battles that are not common knowledge and the only way you will hear about them is if you dig deep and do a ton of research. These battles were fought in secret by soldiers or local partisans many of whom were women. They were spies undercover face to face with the enemy gathering information. Allies had special organizations dedicated to reconnaissance work. One such organization was the Special Operations Executive run by the British.
            In the French movie Female Agents, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) sends out a group of female war agents on a reconnaissance mission.  
            A British geologist has been captured by the Germans as he was collecting samples of the sand at Normandy. Colonel Maurice Buckmaster of the SOE has been tasked with putting together a group to save the geologist from the Germans. He asks French agent Pierre Desfontaines to gather a group to help him. The plan also involves going after a German ranking officer Karl Heindrich. For that part of the mission Pierre turns to his sister Louise who had been a partisan in France before her husband was killed. He needs her to gather up three other women including one who had been engaged to Heindrich before the war. Louise and Pierre use blackmail and other unscrupulous methods to get the women to join the mission.
            The group is able to complete rescuing the geologist. The other women were not told about the second part of their mission. Pierre refuses to let the women they leave they have to go back into Paris to complete the rest of the assignment. They have to practically go on a suicide mission to kill Heindrich because he knows too much about the possible Normandy landings.
Image result for female agent 2008
Image result for female agent 2008
            This mission starts off well but quickly goes wrong when Pierre and one of the women are captured.
            I really liked Female Agents. I am endlessly fascinated by women’s roles during World War II. It is one of my favorite historical topics to research. Stories dealing with spying and going undercover are also something I really enjoy (I was a massive fan of Alias back in the day, still am). It was fascinating for me to see how spying and going undercover was done during WWII even if it was fictionalized. Female Agents was a really good story about these women who were forced to top sacrifice their lives for France and for the war. It is I watch Agent Carter, which is like a dream show for me, and in the episode this past week the audience learned that Peggy had been recruited by the SOE. I honestly thought the SOE was a Marvel thing I had no clue it was an actual thing until I watch Female Agents! I’m looking forward to researching the Special Operations Executive to see what exactly they did during the war.
 Female Agents is an all-around excellent movie that I highly recommend watching especially if you like movies about World War II. It is available to watch on Netflix. 
Image result for female agent 2008

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