Hollywood has always been technically expert. It has found the rare director worthy of its resources in Anthony Mann; whose Heroes of Telemark is the sleeper of the year.

The scene is Norway, the subject sabotage. Richard Harris plays a man of action, Kirk Douglas a scientist whom he lures into anti-Nazi resistance work. They spend two and a half hours of film time launching just two sabotage efforts. Their target is a factory that makes "heavy water" for atomic tests.

Strange. There is only sporadic violence in this "war movie." In contrast to a movie like Operation Crossbow, whose subject was sabotage of Nazi missiles, this film centers around the mere raw material of a menace. It is predictably low on suspense.

But it is full of beauty. Red Desert is the best parallel I can think of for its consistently dazzling composition. Mann's use of Western landscape has won him the adulation of French critics, some of whom vote his Man of the West one of the all time greats. In Telemark, he is working with snowcapes, and he proves his versatility beyond question.

Some ski maneuvers and pursuits through the mountains here reminded me of the underwater sequences in Thunderball: figures keep gliding around in strange, ethereal patterns -- supposedly bellicose, but seemingly choreographed. Identities blur hopelessly.

If you have eyes, you don't much mind the visual digressions Mann makes from his threadbare plot. Themeless though he would appear (by contrast to Antonioni, whose images contribute so much to characterization), and gratuitous though his beautiful compositions may be, Mann has done an exceptional piece of work.