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Favorite Film Genres: Many, but primarily period and historical dramas, especially anything about the European Theater in World War II
Five Favorite Films at the Moment: Saving Private Ryan, Fury, Schindler's List, Amistad, Shawshank Redemption
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The Quick and the Dead (1963)
Pretty Much Average for the Time Period
There's really nothing remarkable about this one. It tries to be a little more realistic after the first scene than many films of the same time period, but it can't help being what it is or when it was produced. Of course, there's the ubiquitous removal of dog tags from dead comrades, making them into unknown soldiers, which is never done in real life, and other typical tropes. The hand grenade-sized explosions are probably a result of a fairly small budget, so that can be overlooked. I didn't understand in the second scene why one soldier was told to choose other soldiers to take to knock out the German observation post instead of the CO just choosing a specific squad like would have happened in real life. Taking the time period into account, I have to score it as about average.
The Last Escape (1970)
Typical for the Time Period It Was Produced
This looked the whole time like a made-for-TV movie, but apparently it's a big-screen production. It's really not a very good movie, and some elements were totally illogical, but it's completely typical for the time in which it was produced. One of the elements of which I speak is a formation of Soviet soldiers who were able to track the group of Americans and Brits whenever a regular radio receiver was turned on. This is completely impossible. It's possible to track a radio that is transmitting, and the Germans did that during the war to search for resistance cells sending signals to London, but a receiver doesn't send a signal, and how would they know that it's the receiver they were looking for?
Because of that and other things I have to give it only four stars, but because it's typical for what audiences would have been entertained by in 1970, I decided to generously add a star.
Bitka na Neretvi (1969)
I Just Couldn't Get into It
It was kind of difficult to follow what was going on in this one. Naturally there was the required Communist propaganda, but there were many scenes that were left with no resolution. We're not shown the outcome of some important scenes, and the whole thing jumped around quite a bit. The quality of the film was also poor, so it was difficult to see some things.
The producers were able to get a couple of Hollywood heavyweights (Yul Brynner, Orson Welles) and a few international stars (Franco Nero, Curd Jürgens, Hardy Krüger), all of whom held their own, but the rest of cast couldn't act hungry if they were starving to death. Even though the runtime is 2 hours and 40 minutes, none of the characters are developed to the point where I could care what happened to them. It didn't help that each time a principal character would get shot, they'd run around finishing what they were doing for 15 minutes before they died, but I know that's what happened in films from the era in which this one was made.
I realize that most people think this film is a masterful achievement in the motion picture field, but I just couldn't get into it.
La battaglia dell'ultimo panzer (1969)
Utterly Heinous Crap
This film reminded me of Italian-produced World War II films from the 1960s. Oh wait, it IS an Italian-produced World War II film from the 1960s! Naturally, as such, it has precisely NO redeeming qualities whatsoever. In fact, of the dozen plus Italian-produced World War II films from the 1960s that I've forced myself to sit through, this is, without a doubt, the very worst.
It surprises me that films this bad had even produced in the first place. I can only assume that this genre of movie was popular in Italy during this time period because people were starved for entertainment and weren't having better films from other countries available to their theaters. Why else would filmmakers produce utterly heinous crap like this? There's an old adage that one must experience the bad to appreciate the good, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't apply to motion pictures.
Condor's Nest (2023)
Starts Bad, but Ends Worse
First, a B-17 has to crash land because three of its engines are damaged, in spite of the fact that the B-17 can fly with only one engine operating. Next, one of the only nine crew members (a B-17 had a crew of ten in combat) takes a M1903 rifle with a scope equipped with Soviet crosshairs to a house to act as a lookout from the upper floor. There is no explanation as to why an M1903 with a scope is on a B-17.
Everything else in this film is even stupider than those three errors. I'm not going to waste more time than I already have by itemizing any additional errors. It's just a bad, bad, bad film.
1941. Krylya nad Berlinom (2022)
It Is What it Is
All Soviet... er, I mean Russian, films about the war are required to contain five elements: light to heavy propaganda, silly dialog, a romance or two, villagers who are smiling and happy to be peasants in the Soviet Union, and an accordion. This one is pretty typical and as another reviewer wrote, it checks off the boxes.
It had one possible factual mistake. The regiment makes a nighttime bombing raid on Berlin and the whole city is lit up completely. I know that the cities and towns in England that were within range of German bombers were required to use blackout curtains on the windows at night. I'm assuming, though I don't know, that Germany had the same requirement.
There's nothing about it that stands out.
Assault on Hill 400 (2023)
How Do They Make Money Performing These Abortions?
The very first scene was a dead giveaway that I was in for a crapfest. We have a lieutenant general from one division and a brigadier general from a different division, who's supposed to be the real-life Dutch Cota, but looks like he's going to keel over and die at any moment. These generals, a corps commander and an assistant division commander, without any staff anywhere to be seen, are giving a mission briefing to two lieutenants - platoon commanders. Admittedly, if these generals have nothing better to do while running a war, it's probably more efficient to cut out four levels of the chain of command and brief the lieutenants directly. These two platoon commanders are told that if they don't take Hill 400, the Allies will lose the war. General Cota mentions that he watched from Omaha Beach as the lieutenants, or one of them, scaled the cliff at Pointe-du-Hoc. This is pretty amazing, because I've been to both Omaha Beach and Pointe-du-Hoc twice, and not only are they blocked from view from each other by terrain, they are too far apart to see human beings even if they weren't blocked.
The lieutenants take their platoon out, which clearly hasn't been trained in small unit tactics, along with an embedded (a term that wasn't used in the 1940s) octogenarian photographer who is constantly taking photos of nothing, yet never uses up the film in his camera, because he never puts in a new roll.
Honestly, after the lame briefing by the generals I stopped paying much attention to the movie. I worked on my Duolingo lessons and occasionally looked up to see what implausibility was happening. I'm not even sure if I watched it until the end.
It just gets exhausting listing all the problems with these terrible independent films, one right after another. I don't know how these filmmakers make money performing these abortions.
The Filthy Thirteen (2019)
The Alternate Title Is Correct
The alternate title of this comedy is "D-Day Assassins", and that's totally accurate, because if you rely on this high school production to learn anything about D-Day, the true story will be murdered. I did, however, learn a few things from watching this film. First, the 21st century epidemic of terrible films portraying the war is not restricted to the United States. Second, I just finished watching and reviewing another film that I labeled the worst movie that I have ever seen [D-Day, (2019)], and then I saw this, making it obvious that I must be very careful about using superlatives when it comes to writing my reviews. After watching and reviewing hundreds of films about the ETO out of the 1400+ on my list, I'm highly likely to find ones that are going to be worse and worse.
I usually detail all or most of the things that make a bad film bad, but I'm just not going to dignify this one with that much of my time. Other reviewers have already discussed the ridiculousness of the costumes, weapons, script, acting, etc. I feel that I must, however, mention the long hair and facial hair on the actors in this one, which is terribly disrespectful to the real men of the Filthy Thirteen. The one portraying Jake McNiece is even sporting a mullet that went horribly wrong.
I knew there were going to be problems when Hawkeye, one of the Filthy Thirteen that survived the war, as an old man in later years, is being mugged in the backyard of his nice home and the kid that happens on the scene kicks a pistol out of the hands of one of the muggers, after which Hawkeye and the kid casually walk inside the house to sit down for tea and a chat and Hawkeye says he isn't going to call the police because he doesn't care what happens to the neighborhood. He then begins telling this kid, whom he has never even met before, his life story. He starts by saying that he was drafted on April 25, 1941, even though the U. S. didn't begin drafting until December 20, 1941.
These men risked their lives, with many losing them, voluntarily going into the hell of combat to free Europe from tyranny, and the producers of this film didn't hesitate to stomp all over their memory and their sacrifice. That's the worst part about this film.
D-Day (2019)
Thankfully, They Cannot Get Worse Than This One! ;-)
Full disclosure: I only made it to just over 15 minutes into this flick until I couldn't take it anymore. Of all of the hundreds of films I've seen about this or any other war, I can confidently say that this is absolutely the worst war film ever made. My first impulse is to always list all of the things that make a movie bad, and that always makes for a long review for bad movies. However, since I only wasted 15 minutes watching this one, the list will be small.
1. It begins with Omar Bradley as a lieutenant general instead of his actual rank of general, briefing a lieutenant colonel, a battalion commander, on the minutiae of the rangers' mission on the day before D-Day. This is something that would have occurred weeks before D-Day and would have explained to the colonel why the rangers were practicing climbing cliffs over and over again in the weeks before the invasion, since the rangers would, of course be on a ship in the English Channel for a few days before the invasion.
2. Next we see a major, the battalion executive officer, in a room onboard the transport ship with 3-prong electrical outlets that became standard in 1969. The major then goes to the room where the colonel is and starts aggressively complaining about how the mission is a suicide mission. This is of course something that a ranger officer would never have done, so he is promptly relieved of his position.
3. We cut to the deck of the ship where the men of the battalion are singing the sad strains of "Amazing Grace", which would never have happened in a U. S. Army unit that was about to go into battle, and applying black face paint to each others' faces, which only the Airborne used on D-Day (it wasn't useful for daytime fighting). They aren't applying it to reduce the reflection of light from their faces; it's being applied in streaks like it's meant to look stylish instead of being functional. Someone then calls out, "2nd Battalion, on your feet! Attention! Eyes forward (which is part of the position of attention)!" instead of just correctly saying, "Fall in!" The CO then goes to the front of the group and says, "Gentlemen, at ease. Smoke one if you've got one (which is illegal in formation)!" The CO then addresses his troops for the mission while wearing some kind of odd, wool-looking, unbuttoned green jacket that looks like something I had in the 80s with his rucksack straps going through the epaulettes and his rank insignia on both epaulettes instead of the right side of his shirt collar. During his speech, he says, "Let me get a hooah!" which wasn't a thing during World War II.
There's really no point in going about this crap pile and each error that occurred every two to three seconds.
Maybe I'm jealous that there are people that have enough money to throw away on making incredibly bad motion pictures and not caring about not getting it back, but I don't understand why films as bad as this keep getting produced these days.
Guilty admission:
I actually turned the movie back on to kind of watch while I did my Duolingo German lessons, and it didn't get even a little bit better. The last three stupidities that I'll mention are:
1. Usage of modern video game terminology, e.g. "Target down."
2. A medic carrying a sidearm in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
3. A group of Germans sitting in a large concrete position, playing cards, saying that the sounds of fighting had "died down". In reality, the sounds of fighting continued in Normandy 24/7 for weeks after D-Day.
In the epilogue, it was stated that Omar N. Bradley became one of the last men promoted to the "coveted" rank of general of the army (5 stars). In reality, he was THE last person promoted to 5-star rank, and no one coveted that rank in the Army or Navy as far as I know. That rank is held only in times of global warfare, and no sane person wants to see that again.
Recon (2019)
Just Not Worth Watching, That's All
This is another one that's straight from the dung heap. I'm sure that it was written by a high school student who had no idea of what combat, or even the military, was like during World War II. Honestly, at the 20-minute mark, it was obvious that there was no point in enduring this film any longer, because the story could not possibly become plausible.
First, there's the prevalent use of the F-word, which was literally nonexistent during WW2. It's put into WW2 movies by script writers who don't know much about WW2 and don't know any other words for characters to use to express themselves forcefully.
Second, there's the lone German officer with his girlfriend, who decides that it's a good idea to use his sidearm to launch an attack on a fully equipped American heavy infantry squad.
Third, let's talk about the American soldiers addressing a corporal as "sir." On second thought, let's not. Of course, a sergeant, if there isn't a staff sergeant, would be in command of an infantry squad anyway, so maybe the guys were already confused, like the script writer.
Fourth, the corporal makes two of the squabbling squad members drop and do push-ups on the side of a road to punish them for bickering, as if it's basic training all over again.
Fifth, speaking of that road, the squad had just walked down the middle of it in two columns, with everyone pretty close together, obviously feeling pretty safe in enemy territory amongst the hills and trees.
Just like with me watching the movie, there's really no point in continuing this review. The script is totally unrealistic, and it's just not worth seeing.
36 Hours (1964)
Creative, but Realistically Impossible
Well-written with good acting, and a completely implausible fictional plot.
James Garner is, as always, a level-headed, cool, American everyman, except he's also a major in army intelligence. The Germans also know who he is and what he's up to, thanks to their agents in London. The problem with that is, in real-life history, the Allies had found all of the German agents in Britain long before D-Day and turned them into double-agents to feed Germany mostly incorrect info.
Getting past this fact, the Germans then create an elaborate ruse with resources that they did not possess at the time in reality to convince Major Pike (Garner) that he is in an American hospital in 1950 after the war and is suffering from amnesia. It's a pretty suspenseful film until that point.
T-34 (2018)
Not a Typically Bad Russian Film
This is basically the Russian version of "Fury". In fact, the English-language title of the film is, in fact, "Iron Fury". I was surprised that it's not a bad film. In fact, I enjoyed it. There are some elements that are certainly far-fetched, because it is, after all, a movie, but most of it is fairly convincing, even with the romantic subplot that is required in all Russian/Soviet films about the war. It's not an obvious Russian propaganda film either, where everyone is happy and smiling to be at war fighting for the Motherland. The special effects are good, and the cinematography is very good. The acting is convincing, and the script isn't ridiculous.
Koridor bessmertiya (2019)
Not a Typically Bad Russian Film
This is a very long film. It really dragged in some places, but maybe that's because I'm not Russian, and so maybe I didn't get into the story as much as I would have. In my defense, I missed many of the subtitles because they went by very quickly, so I had to rewind many times and pause several times, but more often, I didn't even bother.
The effects were kind of lame. Whenever the Germans sent an artillery "barrage" it was only two shells at a time, and they weren't very explosive.
Having said that, the acting was good, and the script wasn't stupid. It seems that Russian filmmakers are now tryin to produce good motion pictures. It had the requisite romance subplot that at Soviet/Russian films about the war have, of course. It seems like an important story, too. I didn't know that a railroad bridge to Leningrad was built across the from lake that the city is in. I knew Leningrad was on an island and that the Germans blockaded it, but I only knew that the Russians trucked in supplies across the frozen water to get food and medicine to the starving and sick residents of the city.
All-in-all, I didn't regret watching it like I do most Soviet/Russian films.
The Red Beret (1953)
Cowboy American in the RAF
Alan Ladd stars as Steve "Canada" McKendrick, a cantankerous American who acts like he's better than the other trainees (apparently he already has some experience) and enlists in the Canadian Army to join the British paratroopers before the U. S. gets into the war. He already doesn't fit in because he's not a Brit, and to make things worse, he fights or threatens anyone that looks at him the wrong way. There's no reason given for his bad attitude, so maybe it simply stems from the filmmakers' opinion of Americans. Later in the film there is an American flight crew that is very casual in terms of their military courtesy and none of them salute the British colonel when he briefly speaks to them, so the filmmakers obviously regard Americans as a bunch of cowboys, or whatever.
After his unit's first op, Canada is offered a commission due to his leadership ability, which he must have demonstrated off-screen. Maybe the British filmmakers in 1962 didn't think that Brit corporals, sergeants, and other NCOs during the war had any leadership ability, so privates that showed such ability became officers.
The script is bad, and the effects are stupid. A shell from a Navy gun creates the same size blast as a hand grenade, and neither one causes any casualties. However, in one scene, a grenade explodes at the feet of the British commander, causing him to lose his balance and fall over. War is Hell, I guess.
The throwing knives are pretty lethal, though. At one point a Brit soldier throws a knife at a German sentry, which sinks about an inch deep (we see him pull it out right after) into the sentry's back below his shoulder blade and kills him instantly.
Early in the film he hits on an English lass who works as a parachute packer. She quickly warms up to him (it's anybody's guess as to why), and their relationship serves as a subplot. He keeps being a jerk to her and ticking her off, but after one argument, she storms off, he catches up to her, grabs her and says, "Here's one thing you will understand," and kisses her in a very manly 50s fashion. After that things are smooth between them until they have an argument at dinner one evening, and Canada walks off saying, "So long, Baby." That's the last we see of the gal in this fictitious story, which ends with a (probably wildly inaccurate) portrayal of the real-life Operation Biting.
It's a pretty typical film for its era, though certainly not one of the better ones in my opinion.
Zinvorn u pighe (1978)
Another Nonsensical Soviet Bloc Film
Like pretty much every film about the war that was produced in the Soviet bloc, there is just so much that goes on in this picture that is just nonsensical, goofy, and illogical. It didn't even matter that I couldn't understand the dialog and that there were no subtitles. I could just tell after watching so many of these that the dialog would not have made the action make sense. I guess that's the advantage of making films in a country where the audience isn't accustomed to seeing anything better.
One must also wonder why, as late as 1977, are films still being produced in grayscale (a.k.a. "black and white")? I know that major American studios produce films in grayscale occasionally because some filmmakers think it's more dramatic or more stark. In those cases, the picture quality is still high-quality. This one is not.
Masters of the Air (2024)
I've Been Waiting Nine and a Half Years for This.
The original release date for this series was 2014 and it was to be entitled "The Mighty 8th". I waited nine and a half years for this miniseries to be produced and released. I am very happy that it didn't turn out to be a disappointment!
Having said that, I was slightly disappointed that the producers chose to condense the story of the 100th Bomb Group into nine episodes instead of the ten episodes that each of its two companion miniseries have. However, I know that this miniseries was much more expensive to produce than the other two.
One thing that lost it one star from me was the factually incorrect use of all of the F-bombs, a word that was virtually non-existent in the 1940s. Nevertheless, one cannot have a Spielberg-produced film without its prolific use. Otherwise, it was quite realistic.
This miniseries was superbly done, just as Band of Brothers and The Pacific were. It was annoying to read articles by critics that kept unfairly comparing this miniseries to Band of Brothers because they are two entirely different shows about different people in different circumstances. If all miniseries after Band of Brothers are going to be compared to Band of Brothers, there's no point in producing miniseries anymore.
If you want to see Band of Brothers, then go watch Band of Brothers and grow up.
Another thing that annoys me is all of the people complaining about the British air crews being insulted by the Americans. That's what people in the military do, especially when we get liquored up. The Brits were doing it also. We give our allies a hard time, we give guys and gals in other branches of our own military a hard time. It's life in the military, get over it.
Texas 46 (2002)
Disappointingly Below Average
It may have been a good war, but this is a below-average picture, and the sing-song narration by the female lead is distracting. Four other minor details were completely illogical and kept this potentially good film under the 5-star level:
The first is that the major premise of the story was that the food quantity was being reduced and that the prisoners were being starved to death. They all looked pretty heavy and healthy to me the whole time.
Secondly, during a riot, the guards and prisoners are fighting. A few prisoners are shot, but as soon as one of the guards is accidentally shot, everyone simultaneously stops fighting and the riot is over.
Third is when Manin, the Italian escapee, tries to steal a car to escape, Gartner, standing behind the car, takes two shots at the car with his .45 and the second shot hits the oil pump under the car and the car immediately stops and steam starts spewing steam from the radiator.
The last is when the female lead gets shot accidentally in the back at very close range. According to her narration, she was in bad shape (which is believable), but 3 or 4 days later, she is out of the hospital completely healed and at full strength with no indication of ever having been wounded.
Paris brûle-t-il ? (1966)
Shooting at Panzers with Rifles?
The first thing that put me off about this one was that it was made in 1966 and in my opinion should not have been in black & white. However, later in the film, they blended in quite a bit of footage from the actual battle for Paris and clearly wanted it to look like part of the movie.
One thing that that did not make sense is that the actors playing German characters and French characters spoke English (which is typical of any film, otherwise the whole thing would have been in subtitles), but the character of Adolf Hitler spoke German, as did the actors speaking to him. There was no reason given for the inconsistency.
With the exception of Orson Welles and Gert Fröbe, the acting was pretty bad. Kirk Douglas was in a brief scene as Patton, and although Douglas is a fine actor, he was totally unconvincing in that role. Maybe they should have had George C. Scott do it.
The fighting scenes were incredibly unrealistic, except the aforementioned actual footage. Two examples of this are a Sherman tank being destroyed by a German hand grenade in one scene, and several scenes of Resistance fighters shooting at panzers with rifles.
Paisà (1946)
Difficult to Watch Until the End
The description says there are six stories, and at the beginning, the casts are given for six stories, but I think I only saw four.
Besides being a film of completely separate stories with separate casts and situations, another thing that makes this film unusual is that ordinary, non-professional actors are cast along with professional actors. I have never heard of the professional actors in the cast, some with American names, and their acting was as mediocre as the non-professionals, so the blend worked in that respect. The script was bad, as one would expect from an early post-war Italian film, and each story ended with no resolution or discernable plot. All of these elements, combined with plot devices that didn't make any sense, made it difficult to sit through.
There are some some "harsh realities of war" depicted, as the description says, which comes from the director living through the war in Italy, instead of seeing it on newsreels or reading about it like American directors, whose pre-1990 films almost always ended well for the good guys. In spite of that aspect, I don't recommend this one.
Overlord (1975)
Lame Duck
Beginning with a premonition of his death, the film follows a young soldier through his call up to the East Yorkshire Regiment, his training, his meeting a young girl, his journey to France, and his death on Sword Beach. Calling this picture "thought-provoking" is clearly an attempt to get people to watch a lame-duck film. Bad acting and poor production quality contribute to a film that I wish I had missed. It's difficult to believe it was produced in 1975 because of the poor quality. The filmmakers used archive film from the actual battle, especially from Germany, and combined it with their own new footage. It was a noble attempt, and for the most part, it worked on a strictly technical level. However, the film as a whole seemed more like a 1950s film from behind the Iron Curtain.
Operation Seawolf (2022)
Another Bad Film by Steven Luke
During the first scene, I was 75% sure that this film was going to be crap, then at the end of the opening credits I saw that it was directed by Steven Luke, and that made it 100%. The scene included the sinking of a U-Boat, but in a later scene, we see that one of the officers escaped the sunken submarine, but with no explanation.
The acting is bad, the haircuts and mousse are modern, the terminology is wrong, and the plot is implausible. In addition, a U. S. destroyer is portrayed with an African American captain and bridge crew, even though the racist policies of the U. S. Navy until after WW2 forbade African Americans from being anything other than cooks and stewards.
Of course there are numerous other problems with the film, but I'm not going to spend more time on it than I already have. I have to wonder if Luke's films actually make any money, or if he just has millions of dollars from some other source that he's able to throw away on this hobby.
Jungle Siren (1942)
So Stupid I Kept Falling Asleep
This is such a stupid film that I kept falling asleep during it and had to watch it in three parts. It had to be considered stupid even in the time period in which it was produced.
I had never heard of Ann Corio before watching this film. As it turns out, she was a famous stripper who also made a few films. Corio plays a woman whose parents died in Africa when she was young, leaving her to be raised by a guardian who was an associate of her parents. Although her parents and guardian spoke English, she apparently learned to only speak broken English. She of course also becomes a skilled she-warrior for whom the native Africans have great respect, because none of them can beat her. Didn't I say it's a stupid film?
Buster Crabbe enters the jungle siren's domain and easily convinces her to help him fight the German agents in the area and the natives that have allied with them. That's the plot.
By now you should be grasping the ridiculousness of this story, thus not really requiring me to go any further.
Oppenheimer (2023)
Oppenheimer
I didn't give it 10 stars because it jumps around a lot chronologically, which is a very annoying current trend in film making, and can be confusing even if one's a history buff. Also because in typical Hollywood bleeding-heart-liberal fashion, it talked more about the destruction wrought by the atomic bombs than it did about the hundreds of thousands of civilian Japanese lives that were saved because of the bombs.
Other than that, the acting was excellent, which is to be expected from a cast with four Academy Award winners, a two-time Academy Award nominee, and a few BAFTA winners and nominees. The fX were spectacular as well.
Soldatik (2019)
Not Bad, in Spite of Being Russian-made
It feels weird giving it seven stars, but in spite of it being a Russian-made film, it wasn't too bad. The little boy in the lead role did a good job. Of course it had all of the usual Russian movie tropes, like silly dialog, everyone being happy about being in the army, and the male commander falling in love with a female subordinate. The fX and photography were good, and even the acting was okay. It's supposedly a true story, but the filmmakers make that somewhat hard to believe, because some of the things that are portrayed have to be fictional. For one example, in the very beginning, the boy's aunt helps him escape from the Germans by putting him outside of the house through a window and she is immediately shot dead from outside, but the boy gets away without interference.
Overall, I wouldn't watch it again, in spite of my 7-star rating, but I'd recommend others to see it at least once.
Zvezda (2002)
Better than Other Goofy Russian Propaganda Flicks
It was difficult to know in the beginning if this was a comedy or a drama because of the goofy dialogue, then it looked like it was going to be a romance. Then I remembered that all Soviet and Russian war films have silly dialogue and a female love interest.
The military aspects of the film are pretty ridiculous too. The unit is not only harassing the enemy, but acting as a reconnaissance unit also and reporting on the enemy. At one point they radio in that "there's lots of 21 owl 2" ( using the predetermined code for infantry, which isn't even necessary), but don't estimate the amount of infantry or give its location. In another scene they report in with a radio that has no transmitter antenna.
One reviewer, who cried at the end of this movie, and who clearly cannot make the distinction between movies and reality, said it's better than the completely fictional "Saving Private Ryan" because in the completely fictional "Saving Private Ryan", some of the soldiers question their orders.
The photography was very good, but of course they use the Hollywood tropes like blood erupting from a person's mouth to signal their death.
I didn't care much for it generally, but it's better than many Russian and Soviet war films.