La fortaleza de Brest

It didn’t happen for a long time that I would be as excited about a war movie as I was about Battle for Honor. I admit I had no idea about this German pogrom around the city of Brest, even though it is one of the most significant events from Belarusian history of World War II. Alexander Kott, however, made such excellent set designs that it could perhaps only be comparable to Saving Private Ryan. Of course, even here the Russians couldn’t spare us few pathetic moments, for example they were very obvious about how big of a problem the lack of weapons was. People then heroically marched to their death and didn’t even think about changing anything about being in the front line and without any guns. Sometimes it was lacking in logic, but it can be forgiven. Especially in such a big movie. In any case, not only special effects but also the child’s point of view make this film a haunting example of one war moment, which is described here in quite a detailed way. I have nothing else to add. This war movie is something halfway between a psychological war film and pure war film full of explosions. However, both parts are so great that you can’t take your eyes away for the entire 138 minutes of the film. Seen based on Challenge Tour 2015 (03.05.2015)

The intro is like something by Jan Svěrák (but I don’t mean that pejoratively), the idyll is suddenly shattered by a bombing scene which would immediately find a place in the hall of fame for the best and most powerful war scenes ever... And then we get the “classic" Russian approach to Second World War topics; in other words, incredibly evil and underhand Germans in the role of namely cannon fodder (no, I didn’t expect anything else from the Russians) and typically a considerable amount of heroism and pathos on the Russian side. However, the movie can handle both and successfully balances on the edge of what is still bearable and unfunny; and dozens of scenes where a barefoot and unarmed Red army soldier runs in slow motion toward the Wehrmacht are difficult to direct without losing face. The problem is that after about an hour of this you get fed up with it and it is more just mesmerizing as it continues in the same vein and more for the remaining hour. If it had been shortened by the younger Akim’s storyline which tries unsuccessfully to be something like Come and See down to the essential minimum, it would have been a level better. Even so, it’s a good movie, but if it had been made less for Russians and more for the rest of the world, I would have liked it more. (05.06.2011)

At first, I thought I would give the film a high rating. I was already intrigued by the opening part and was looking forward to getting excited about the war part. The Russians have shown me before how good they are at making war films, but they failed this time. First of all, I was struck by the way Commissar Fomin was portrayed here. As far as I know, commissars aren’t generally known for their empathy and fatherly attitude towards soldiers. Plus, Fomin was denounced by a Soviet soldier in a prisoner of war camp, where the Commissar got by wearing a uniform of another fallen Red Army man. Another unpleasant surprise for me was a German infantry attack supported by tanks, in which the Germans reacted only after the third shot of the anti-tank gun, even though the first one caused them casualties. The filmmakers wouldn't have gotten away with it even if they'd told me it was a special German deaf commando. The final bomb nonsense finished me off just like the defender. Why? (12.11.2017)