Shaolin_Apu Reviews

There Be Dragons (2011)

Not great but at least it does not support communism

[6/10 · 13 September 2016]

While the film generally manages to avoid the worst pits, it still falls to some of them. The absolutely best thing about the film is, that it does not attempt to establish one side as the good side and the other as bad. The sentiment is fairly neutral, though it may be seen leaning more to Franco's side than to the Republican. It is also stated in the opening credits, that wars start long before the battles, and will end only long after those. Also true.

The main characters appear to be fighting for both sides, and especially Kurylenko is doing a fine job. Other main characters include a good-willing Catholic priest who has to testify atrocities committed against the church. That the church is depicted as a victim, could be to some a 'refreshing alternative' in this contemporary context at least.

This maybe sounds good to some, but unfortunately it does not seem that good. Many scenes are shot in dark, and at least I was totally confused what was going on then. Maybe it was a fault of my DVD and television set, but maybe it was not. Another annoying thing was the soundtrack that seemed to live its own life regardless of what was happening on the screen. I also wished that the film language had been Spanish and not English. Using English was a big loss of immersion for me.

Tobruk (2008)

About some action near Tobruk and nothing like the "Battle of"

[5/10 · 5 July 2011]

This narrow insight into the famous battle of the North African Campaign during the Second World War could just leave you cold. Agreed, there generally aren't too many productions about the (Czecho)Slovakian participation in the war but I have to say that Dark Blue World was simply the better and the more interesting movie. Maybe I was just too much disappointed by the advertising of the film that promised to consider the whole battle but this film presented only very small portion of the action. More highlighted were some shocking twists of a runaway soldier, which maybe have a fair anti-war purpose but then the movie should have had entirely a different name than "Tobruk". Avoid this if you want to see a film about the battle of Tobruk; and watch this if you were looking for a film about war in bare bones.

Näin se tehtiin: PMMP - Kovemmat kädet (2009) Season Unknown, Episode Unknown

Songwriters' self-review

[9/10 · 21 December 2010]

In 2002 the PMMP started off as little more than a joke but in few years PMMP evolved into one of the most progressive and professional groups in Finland. While never losing their all-out or nothing -mentality and originality, PMMP managed to combine quality and entertainment value in their later albums as well, though vastly improving in the former with time.

The documentary was produced mainly for TV, as an accompaniment to an intime live show, and therefore there are no show titles or anything like. The program starts right from the interview with the vocalists Paula Vesala and Mira Luoti, and later on it ensues with a discussion with the producer/composer Jori Sjöroos and the vocalists, Paula and Mira, in Jori's home studio. The band members discuss nearly all the songs on the album Kovemmat kädet, others quite deeply while others barely get a mention. The documentary leaves out the two additional songs that become famous but were not included in the original pressing of the Kovemmat kädet album.

The song that mostly gets highlighted is Päiväkoti, of which we also get to listen to the original demo. Also we get to hear an additional Latin language verse that was intended for the song Onni, that also remains as the only so-far co-written song by Vesala and Sjöroos. The other songs get a brief commentary but only the most extraordinary song histories get an interview. I would give the topmost score, but I feel compelled to leave one star out for I know this was not everything you wanted to hear about all the songs on the album.

Prinsessa (2010)

The reality just is too boring..?

[9/10 · 12 September 2010]

In 1945 a mental hospital receives a patient who will be known to all as Princess. The patient is fortunate because the staff at hospital will attempt to cure the patients relying on various new methods, that aren't too schoolbook-like. In this somewhat 'liberal' environment Princess will become known to all as some kind of Her Royal Highness who can, maybe surprisingly too, treat everyone as if she really possessed the grace and power of a sovereign. But of course the reality will always strike back, softer or harder.

The movie is based on real events which roll by in fast but still at an enjoyable pace. The film could be enjoyable too because it contains a good deal of the top cream of contemporary Finnish actors, not to mention the Finnish rock star Paula Vesala who makes a decent, if not just great, debut on the screen as a supporting actress. Despite the film is about a serious mental illness I couldn't but laugh at few scenes - even if some scenes are really tragic and even terrifying, no one can escape the fact that life never needs to be too serious even if the environment is against you.

Doctor Snuggles (1979– )

Eye candy with a pretty cool story writing

[9/10 · 30 May 2010]

I watched this as a kid and I loved it. As an adult I re-watched this and still found Doctor Snuggles interesting. The show might seem old fashioned for now, but certainly it is not outdated. You can find a lot of Lewis Carroll in here, but also some Douglas Adams, who himself actually wrote a couple of the episodes. Doctor Snuggles is a synthesis of an old Victorian culture and the newer sixties psychedelic movement. The Doctor himself is a good natured philanthropist and inventing genius, who helps people, human-like animals, and monsters to overcome their unimaginable problems. The story runs in a colourful landscape where nothing seems to be what it first looks like. The solutions that Doctor Snuggles discovers are usually extraordinary, and that will keep even an adult viewer interested into the end of an episode.

Die Brücke (2008 TV Movie)

Surprisingly well detailed

[8/10 · 25 March 2010]

The original Die Brücke could be that much appreciated work of art that the fact alone presents too many demands for any conceivable remake. I however found this one surprisingly good, and it certainly was not as bad as some people have claimed it to have been. Why to make just similar movie again?

Seven poorly trained schoolboys are given a mission to hold out against a strategically important bridge. Germany has a lack of manpower by spring 1945, schoolboys fight alongside with old men: the last remaining reserves of the Reich . And the boys are too young to grasp the hopelessness of the situation, unlike their leader who runs away. Movie doesn't anywhere show that the boys were ever trained, but apparently they have some basic training because they can assemble and use several weapons and they can move under cover.

Seven schoolboys hold out against seasoned American troops? Given that they have a good position with effective weaponry (plus the suggested basic training), and the American commander does not want to fight against children, they possibly could even make it. Weapon freaks will notice hereby a plentiness of rarely seen ww2 equipment, save for the one tank whose type I didn't recognize. Some effects are rather lame too, but I have seen worse and have still forgiven them. I give a relatively high rating because I didn't suffer as much watching it than these boys depicted.

Käsky (2008)

The Evil Whites vs Innocent Reds again

[4/10 · 14 March 2010]

Well most of this movie is soft porn. In fact the name of the film should be Levottomat 7 or something similar, this is the same stuff again but now in some historically motivated context. Unfortunately the actors in main roles had read their history lessons much better than the script writer or anyone in the production team.

The movie represents a white side soldier who, despite being clearly a Nazi, suddenly starts to feel pity when the evil whites shoot at unarmed and barely dressed ladies. He decides to save the one good looking one. It is a factual mistake that the man is given a rank of Private, despite being a Jaeger trained in Germany. Absolutely none of the Jaegers in the Civil War served as mere Privates, even the ones with bad physical condition were promoted to at least to the rank of Corporal.

Another thing that I quite wondered was the Judge's Russian wife, who wasn't familiar with German language at all even if she could play Beethoven numbers by request. The academical Russians of the early 20th century knew German rather well. The same wife character could be a bark at the modern custom of having a Russian wife, whom the writer presents as a rather lustful Lady.

Nothing new really in this one, except that it's the least story conveying good vs bad juxtaposition for a while.

Meidän poikamme ilmassa - me maassa (1934)

Documentary value

[8/10 · 27 January 2010]

1930's was an anxious decade in Europe, and this restlessness was felt in rather peaceful countries too, like in Finland. The Finnish film industry created a trilogy of films for the army, and this movie was the one that depicted the small and struggling Air Force of the nation.

Unlike the more entertaining movie made fore the Navy, the film for the Air Force is actually rather violent and many scenes concern the civilian security in cities that are being bombed from air. It is rather interesting to see how a possible future war was going to be fought, and how the civilians should be protected. Many of these predictions and precautions also turned out to be correct.

Many people will watch this for the aircraft, unfortunately the Finnish Air Force of 1934 was almost a generation away from that of the 1939. The only actual combat plane that is presented the film is Bristol Bulldog, and that type is the "star" of the movie. Another well featured plane is Blackburn Ripon float plane.

I give this movie an extra star, or two, because it contains one of the ultra rare Finnish air combat scenes. For a modern viewer the movie itself could be rather tedious propaganda, or "supervision", but that tediousness is best explained in the context of its own time.

Zeitgeist (2007 Video)

Goes too far

[6/10 · 13 January 2010]

Why would some people even consider this as a documentary? People who believe in this had "known" all of it already; this fabrication only shows the shallow evidence what this kind of belief is constructed of. This does not however mean that everything in Zeitgeist is untrue, some notions are absolutely correct, but what is untrue is just about every conclusion that is made in Zeitgeist.

The movie consists of three separate parts, first is about the myths of Christianity shown in the light of other ancient religions. Unfortunately this account, although well conceived, is full of mistakes and deliberate falsifications too. Zodiac is for today sheer mumbojumbo, but for ancients it was science as much as the astronomy of that day. Even Roman "scientists" like Varro believed in it. Biggest mistake is however the denial of Jesus as a historical person. There was no chance that any Roman or Greek historian could mention about some son of a Palestine Carpenter until he became famous; furthermore most of the historians mentioned in the context have no extant works left. Also the few historians whose work is extant mention him as a Jewish sect leader whom their followers call "Chrestus", meaning "ointed to be the King of Israel".

The second part is about the usual conspiration theory about 911, trying to prove how the government attacked itself in order to gain people's sympathies for the war against Iraq and Afghanistan. The movie tries to prove how there were no terrorists on board of any planes, being able to use only one case where the suspect was mistakenly named. What's best is that the creator first says that Osama was not the author of the attacks, but still it is noteworthy to show Bush's relations with the guy from the time Osama was still enjoying the luxuries of the life in West.

The third part is created to show how the now nearly bankrupt corporations wanted WW1, WW2 and Vietnam only to make more money with Americans' and others blood. With almost no knowledge on the economics the movie tells that taxation is slavery, but fails to realize that the corps also have to pay various taxes in many forms, and are subject even to change into partial state ownership for example in times of crisis. The end of Zeitgeist tells people to make a revolution and namedrops the usual extra Jesuses like Lennon, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, who all opposed this kind of incitation to violent revolution. Because this item seems to be relatively popular among all uneasy people in the West, it well deserves to be called the modern version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Mein Leben - Marcel Reich-Ranicki (2009 TV Movie)

Jew who loved German Literature

[9/10 · 11 January 2010]

This program was presented as an "extraordinary real-life story that is more miraculous than any fiction" and I only happened to start to watch it on television. I still however expected the usual Nazi pogrom story, but this time the program offered something totally different. The main character of the film, Marcel, was a Polish Jew who grew in Germany during the inter-war era. Marcel loved German literature and culture but despite this he had to suffer from persecution. Still he believed that not every German is an evil Nazi and he never lost his faith in the more civilized Germany. The big problem in his life was that he never really seemed to find his place, for the Nazis he was a Jew, for the Poles he was an "admirer of Hitler's language" and for the Soviets he was an SS collaborator because he had worked as an interpreter. The movie ends when Marcel moves to the West Germany and eventually finds his place as a celebrated literature critic.

Rumble (2002)

South's gonna rise again! (But only in Finland)

[7/10 · 22 June 2009]

A bunch of over-aged Finnish teddy boys are doing what such people usually do: completely nothing except attempting to be cool. Of course everything will go wrong as the boys, or just childish grown-up men, want to make their own way. The film has no other point, or plot, unless you count that buying a pizza as such. Rock'n roll music, bad English (one should ask why?), no apparent good manners and some d-class Fonzie outfits will rumble on the scene for a brief time and a good thing is that the viewer is saved from the worst. What the viewer will get is a road movie that remotely resembles Kaurismäki's Leningrad Cowboys films. Here's one movie for you who don't look for too much sense in everything.

Manillaköysi (1976 TV Movie)

Waste of good rope

[9/10 · 16 February 2009]

There are generally two types of war films, the other is the patriotic type where the soldiers are glorified for their sacrifices and exploits, and the other type shows the war as a meaningless destruction and sheer madness. There are also combinations of these two types but Manillaköysi still does not anyhow belong to either type: one little acknowledged side of the war still remains that completely defies either category, and that is 'war as a wicked human experience'.

The frame of Manillaköysi is the Finland-Soviet war of 1941-44. The movie does not contain actual battle scenes, or actually it does depending on who you want to believe, but it contains some small events or little stories. The cast is however way too old to represent actual frontline men, but that does not matter for the events that take place are just exhilariating. You just don't often see realist dramas that are funnier than many comedies.

Manillaköysi is based on Veijo Meri's novel of the same name, and both the film and novel were once very popular in Finland. There are some truly memorable lines uttered, like "Man is never forgiven" and "there's nothing supernatural about war, it's just one work like anything else". The only star that is missing from the highest score is due to the fact that this is an adaptation and not an original movie story.

Run Lola Run (1998)

What?

[10/10 · 14 November 2008]

"Lola rennt" is genuinely a different experience, it is an artsy movie but not in the hippie sense: you will definitely understand every action that takes place. Still you will not know which way to sit around. When you see this for the first time your question will be 'why nobody else made it that way before'.

There are some similar movies, like "Sliding Doors" but that one barely reaches the same dynamics that will keep you nailed to your place. It is however best to compare "Lola rennt" with some computer game but, again, not in "Tomb Raider" sense, for this time you play that video game and not only watch somebody else playing.

Definitely one of the best German movies of the century, and also it does not contain that usual cliché that too many European movies mandatorily must have.

Bandidas (2006)

As an eulogy: a refreshing alternative

[3/10 · 2 October 2008]

Okay, this is movie is an excuse to have both Salma and Penélope on screen, and luckily there will be quite a lot of them present too. But as a warning you surely have to embarrass yourself with some scenes that lack humor but that still are better than the clichés this movie otherwise contains. Simply put there are no movie worth looking at. More exciting would be that you buy some Wild West toys for your kids and watch them play.

The only people in this film with any star quality, Salma and Penélope, have done some really outstanding work before doing this, and this product manages to undermine them both as actresses. At best this is a costume western with nothing original except the two bandidas. But because all losers occasionally blow it wrong way up too this movie happens to contain two moderately good scenes: the kissing scene and the train scene.

Ghost Whisperer (2005–2010)

Nothing that's particularly ghostly

[1/10 · 1 October 2008]

Ghost Whisperer was a huge disappointment for me. I never expected that something paranormal could be rendered into boringly normal until I had seen few episodes of this show. I tried to watch it but it never changed, and I asked myself "where is all the suspense?", "where is all the mystery?". Logically, one would not expect any horror either.

I believe that there are few people out there who will find this show interesting, but apparently I lack the mentality this product was created for. The gorgeous Jennifer Love Hewitt has at least created a unique series and unique viewpoint: the ghosts are like humans and they need somebody to talk for them and settle all their problems a regular earthling could not do.

I however find this point of view utterly uninteresting. For those who seek more mystery and freaking out moments I recommend a good old British show Sapphire & Steel. I know that Sapphire & Steel lacked expensive special effects but with Ghost Whisperer you get even less than that. Ghost Whisperer is a show about spirit's welfare, it's not a thriller or campy ghost comedy or anything that keeps you awake.

Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure (1981)

Cheers you up

[8/10 · 26 May 2008]

Out from the pile of countless Bud Spencer action movies this is one of the best ones, and it also features Bud's best counterpart Terence Hill. Directly from the theme tune onwards this movie guarantees that you won't be needing any brains to enjoy this one; I didn't even notice that there was any other piece of music playing on during the film. Some people may not like it when a movie is full of comic violence, and even more comic adversaries, but also there is delightfully lot of different sceneries to keep any monotonous feeling away. Funny representation of the Japanese soldier who thinks that the second world war still rages on is something this type of comedy may be best suited for and it therefore is really worth seeing.

Wings (1927)

Very early culmination of a Hollywood epic

[10/10 · 19 April 2008]

Before beginning to watch "Wings" one should have the right attitude to watch this archaic cinematic monument in order to enjoy it thoroughly. It is a silent film, and 'silent' does not mean 'of inferior quality', it means that the film was made to be viewed without sound. Because "Wings" is a masterful epic you should put yourself into a theater from 1927, otherwise you might miss quite a lot from what it offers.

Having seen many Hollywood films before Wings I couldn't but notice how "far" Hollywood has went from the beginnings. There may be Blu-Ray and like stuff now but the concept of a story has not developed into any new level. You have seen all of Hollywood when you have seen this. I can promise you that.

The story happens during the The Great War, as the First World War was called that time. We will see some authentic old warplanes in combat scenes that look so more real than any CGI gimmickry from today. The German Gotha bomber is also just so Beautifully frightening it's almost surrealistic. We shall also see some feature that became a rarity in later Hollywood movies: a chivalric German.

The movie is accompanied with a musical score that also bought my attention. The version I saw from TV featured a score that produced vicious machine gun sound every time a plane fired its guns. I wouldn't however call that a lack off sound effects track, I'd call it art for I haven't seen such an interesting effect since a long time.

Romanovin kivet (1993)

Truly an amazing movie!

[4/10 · 11 April 2008]

Despite being a really poor movie is this Finnish action orgasm a true must-see phenomenon. The catch of the whole movie is "name a cliché and we will put it into this movie". With some first line comedy actors participating in this product you may feel some strange surrealist vibe going on when you see people doing things you wouldn't normally see them doing. For me the whole movie was 'Vintiöt gone Rambo' - and that's priceless I can tell. For example you didn't know what the phrase 'amazing escape' meant until you've seen this film.

The American action movie genre fits really poorly into Finnish milieu. When in the classic war movies Finns target everything before they shoot this time they will waste all large calibre ammo without hitting a thing. But to avoid any logic of course we will see some sniper-pistoliering as well in the scene where Patrick (or Pasi) shoots the air off some tyres from about half kilometers distance. Also enjoyable is the hero duos pseudo-Miami Vice sociopathic conduct whenever they just be 'normally'.

I also found very amusing thing about the film credits, for the most beloved and admired comedy-guru Spede Pasanen produced this film as Pertti Pasanen only to indicate that this is not a comedy production. Hooray for Spede anyway, the film is really bad but it's artistic value is totally a close encounter with the third kind.

Love Me Tender (1956)

Hey, there is Elvis too

[8/10 · 25 March 2008]

If you want to avoid the low-quality movies that Elvis unfortunately made during the 1960's you can still watch this piece. That the "King" is not in the main role gives the film more credibility and you can really say that Love Me Tender is a good movie. With Elvis only as a troubadour works fine and the film remains a proper western too.

Perhaps there has been better westerns too but the storyline in this one is enough interesting: a man returns from the American Civil War and finds his wife at home married to another man. With this marital mess and some other problems being solved Elvis drops in and offers some fresh music, or the music that was still fresh when the movie was being made. It is anyway relaxing to see the "King" in a most unspoiled context.

Julmahuvi esittää: Mennen tullen (2000–2001)

Very cool little mystery show

[10/10 · 17 February 2008]

"Mennen Tullen" is a creation of a Finnish comedy group called Studio Julmahuvi and it may be the best miniseries ever made for Finnish television. Despite its authors being mainly comedians is "Mennen Tullen" more a crime mystery with several surprises, campy humour, and plot twists. The series has a very high production standards and it therefore has a very finished outlook.

Most characters of the show were originally seen in Studio Julmahuvi's previous television shows but one does not need to be familiar with the those, although it may be worth it to watch those too. The main character is a former television detective Mats, whose former buddy Rauski has been killed under little known circumstances. The story starts in a point when the aged Mats learns that he has to once more take a case and solve the mystery because his life may be in danger. Among the fun parts of the story there are little flashbacks where Rauski and Mats are having their adventures in the discos of 1970's.

I wish there was more shows like this. As "Mennen Tullen" resulted as a successful show that ended up as a cult series it shows that there should be some more encouragement given for similar future productions. The show also became the culmination of Studio Julmahuvi and remains as their best work (so far I hope).

Battle for Finland (2007)

A Monument, created to be as it should stand

[8/10 · 13 February 2008]

Best thing about watching Tali-Ihantala is that you get to watch a different type of war movie after a while. The old school movie mandatorily adds women and children to plotwise useless roles to create the so called drama, but in Tali-Ihantala you get no Rambos, no cheese, no political ubercorrectness and nothing else but just war as it realistically should be, within production limitations of course.

The barrenness of no prolonged drama sequences and no main characters may strike some people as cinematographically unwise, but Tali-Ihantala is not the first war movie to use such a feature. Similar approach was used in "Thin Red Line" where there was no main characters either, but Tali-Ihantala tries not to be artsy and go too far. It comes close to a documentary but, in fact, it still is far from being a documentary.

Another film Tali-Ihantala is very close to is the "Longest Day", although the Soviet Union side is only shown as the enemy and only Finns will have any dialogue. The strenghts of the movie include fact that every main character has a historical counterpart, and a lot of authentic equipment was used in the making. The weaknesses are the limited production resources but every actor seem to do his best regardless of how amateur he is.

It is a great film, more close to actual history than "Tuntematon Sotilas" if you just allow yourself to accept it.

The Unknown Soldier (1985)

The antithesis

[9/10 · 8 December 2007]

Rauni Mollberg's (from now on referred to as 'Molle') Tuntematon Sotilas has been left far behind in fame to its predecessor, that of Edwin Laine's Tuntematon Sotilas from 1955. This is not surprising as the newer movie lacks the sentiment that is almost omnipresent in the older version. Despite this, is Molle's version more faithful to the original novel by Väinö Linna who was himself involved in making of the new version. Both movies however deserve their place, in Edwin Laine's time there was a need for high national epic but as the times changed a new version was also welcome and maybe even in demand.

Molle's version deserves perhaps more praise and attention than it has been used to have, but also criticism. The newer version is no way meant to be 'a better' version but rather an alternative account of the psychological reality of a man. Therefore I call it an antithesis, it is impossible to see the newer version without comparing it to the all too familiar older version. You actually need to watch the film several times before it really opens to you in the way Molle had intended it. Tuntematon Sotilas is a war film, but the highlight is upon the people who fought in there, both Finns and Russians, who are brought to suffer the very same meat-grinder. Parts of it are funny, parts of it are disgusting.

What is left to a lesser notion is historicity, the weapons and uniforms are from the second world war but you should not expect them to appear in correct order. For the weapon freaks be it informed that the same KV-1's appear as both Finnish and Soviet tanks. For those who already know everything that has been written about the Continuation War this movie does not offer any historical references, this time it is all literature from the ground view. Nevertheless this is one of the best war films there is, perhaps there is a conscious focus and perhaps there is some message, but the weight of the overall work will just make you silent.

If you are going to see this film, make sure you are watching a quality copy. Many dark scenes have become incomprehensible in poor quality VHS transfers. The darkness is essential visual effect in Molle's version.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

Masterpiece of monumental vagueness

[3/10 · 19 November 2007]

I didn't find Tomb Rider necessarily a bad movie but each time I watched it I got a headache. The idea of making a movie out of a computer game sounds enough crazy to justify making a movie but looking at the outcome gives an impression that I was only watching someone else playing a computer game. And watching a computer game makes you feel really bored if you're never going to get a chance to play by yourself.

Perhaps I could have gotten a lot more out of this if I had played the computer game, but because I never had, I didn't know what this was supposed to be. Maybe it is too easy to make comparisons with this and something similar, like Indiana Jones, but the mysteries seemed to me utterly random and uninteresting. In Tomb Raider there are just not enough drama to support storyline and this is not really a movie at all. Probably Tomb Rider is more interesting as a production outcome than as a real movie, and that they got Jolie to play the lead was an achievement you have to give some credit for.

I have never been more unsure about the score in any other film except this, I only give this low rating as a warning for those who were looking for another action-adventure. If you just bother, play the computer game first and then watch this film, otherwise you may encounter a disappointment.

Home Alone (1990)

And this was for kids?

[2/10 · 17 November 2007]

I never saw this film as a child but now when I finally came to see this from television I couldn't have been more shocked of what I saw. It was only good that nobody got me to watch this for this is a sick movie! You would never guess how much violence this film contains in innocent frames.

Perhaps times have changed in the almost past twenty years but if burglars who shout out lines like "I gonna kill you" and "maybe he committed suicide" don't sound pretty disgusting for a children's movie then something has gone totally wrong. The burglars also threaten to burn the boys head and bite his fingers off one by one - Is it normal in some places of the Earth to threaten kids with bad things like that? I really hope that people aren't that mean.

Furthermore the injuries made to the burglars are quite lethal too. That they are evil doesn't justify to show stunts where man lands on his head with surely breaking his neck - not even Jackass the series or the movie featured anything that dumb. In one scene the other burglar makes such a scream that it makes many horror films pale.

And no, I am not some superior moral guardian who hates comical violence - I would just rather recommend Jackass the movie for children rather than this. The only audience I truly recommend this are college students who really need to turn their brains off after some really hard work.

Shtrafbat (2004)

Humans between the terror and a war

[9/10 · 26 August 2007]

Shtrafbat is the story only Russians could tell about the Second World War. The largest front of the whole conflict has been, ironically, the least appearing subject on the silver screen after the war. While the Western Allies war-effort has been pictured in almost every possible detail and manner, the East has been left out or the job has been left to only some old propaganda movies of little else than historical footage value.

There is no chance that Shtrafbat could compete with Band of Brothers in every detail but neither you want to look at the screen with examining petty visual effects in mind. That the soldiers are Russians is enough big reason to forgive the less eye-captivating battle scenes and you can concentrate on the story that is the most interesting. So much different was the war in the Eastern front, and the nature of the Russian army, that you might wish people to produce more dramatizations from the other fronts, and of armies.

Shtrafbat is no way perfect, but it has some rare specialties that augment the overall rating. It tends to crush myths people have about the Second World War, the true heroes were Russian people and not their leaders who sent them to missions where they could only perish. Another great myth bust is that it presents the enemy, who does not pick up his gun, as an equal human being - an advancement that has been difficult to try in many acclaimed films as well. Shtrafbat shows how the war in the eastern front was a war of survival and how the clash of the -isms grinds people into dust.