Operation Ogre

Spain, 1973. Franco is very old and ill, and the regime's continuation is expected to rest on his prime minister, Admiral Carrero Blanco. Four ETA members come to Madrid, spend days watching Blanco go to the same church every morning, rent a basement on that street and dig a tunnel under the road. Most of the film is that wait: men in a cramped cellar arguing about whether to set off the charge at all. Gillo Pontecorvo directs, with Gian Maria Volonté in the lead. The assassination took place on 20 December 1973; the blast threw Blanco's car over the building. Pontecorvo does not declare the men heroes, and leaves the weight of the decision on them.