Bloodstained Ideals: Flame & Citron – A Brutal Deconstruction of Patriotism
When gun barrels point at “traitors,” the shooters discover they’re mere pawns in a political chess game
In 2008, director Ole Christian Madsen dissected WWII Denmark’s darkest nerve with Flame & Citron. This $15M Danish epic – the most expensive in the nation’s history – dragged two celebrated resistance heroes from pedestals into moral quagmire. Amidst Copenhagen’s fog, fiery-haired Bent Faurschou-Hviid (“Flame”) and sweat-drenched Jørgen Haagen Schmith (“Citron”) execute assassinations, only to realize their bullets serve politicians eliminating rivals.
I. Demythologizing Heroes: When Patriotism Becomes a Killing License
The film shatters war-movie conventions from its opening:
- Anti-Heroic Origins: Citron joins the resistance after vomiting at Nazi occupation; Flame seeks vengeance for his girlfriend’s torture. Their motivations expose war’s brutal truth: lofty ideals often grow from personal trauma.
- Corrupted Chain of Command: Resistance leader Winther orders the hit on “traitor” Gilbert with chilling bureaucracy (“Special Group only obeys”). The revelation that Gilbert is anti-Nazi exposes their “patriotic duty” as corporate assassination.
- Collapsing Morality: When Citron kills an innocent German, his defense – “No German officer is innocent” – mirrors Nazi racial logic. The film forces viewers to ask: Does resistance become tyranny when adopting the enemy’s methods?
II. Moral Swamp: No Clean Hands in War
Defying war-movie tropes, characters drown in ethical ambiguity:
- Flame’s Fatal Romance: The icy killer falls for femme fatale Ketty Selmer (Stine Stengade), unaware she’s a Gestapo informant. This betrayal parallels Lust, Caution with bullet-cold precision.
- Citron’s Shattered Family: As his wife leaves with their daughter, the camera reveals hidden children’s toys – exposing resistance fighters’ cruel paradox: defending your nation means abandoning your family.
The film’s gray morality deepens when Gestapo chief Hoffmann (Mads Mikkelsen) demands respect for the duo’s corpses, while resistance leaders later sacrifice them for political expediency.
III. Nordic Noir as Violent Poetry
Visual storytelling heightens thematic brutality:
- Fog-Drenched Palette: Steel-blue mists swallow blood-red gun flashes, rendering violence clinical and detached.
- Suffocating Framing: Assassination scenes trap killers and victims beneath oppressive architecture – visually crushing human agency beneath war’s machinery.
Jazz saxophones scoring executions create perverse elegance. When Citron’s sweat droplets pierce the soundtrack during a kill, physiological terror shatters heroism myths.
IV. Oscar Wilde’s Prophecy: “Patriotism is the Virtue of the Vicious”
The film weaponizes Wilde’s axiom through Citron’s confession: “Patriotism is a vicious virtue.” This viciousness manifests as:
- Systemic Brainwashing: Nazis and resistance both demand unquestioning obedience “for the cause”
- Moral Transference: Politicians shield themselves with “national interest” while executioners bear guilt
- Historical Erasure: Victors reduce complex humans to “hero” or “traitor” labels
For 2025 audiences, this transcends WWII: When patriotism stifles critical thought, are we enabling new collective madness?
Conclusion: Human Sparks in Historical Fog
The existential ending crystallizes the film’s power:
- Flame swallows cyanide to protect civilians rather than fight
- Citron – formerly dependent on sedatives – dies firing a machine gun
Both reclaim agency through self-determined deaths.
In Copenhagen Station’s dawn fog,
Ketty Selmer boards a train with new resistance documents.
The camera lingers on her handler’s lapel pin –
its metallic glint reflecting blood yet to be spilled.
