"The time is fast approaching when to call a man a patriot will be the deepest insult you can offer him. Patriotism now means advocating plunder in the interest of the privileged classes of the particular State system into which we have happened to be born." - Leo Tolstoy
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!" - Albert Einstein
"Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy." - George Bernard Shaw
The legendary Sergei Bondarchuk directs "They Fought For the Motherland", a war film set in Russia during the second half of 1942. The film opens with a magnificent shot, a prowling camera gliding through swaying fields of wheat before finding the exhausted Soviet army trudging through a canyon far below. They're in full retreat, having been recently crushed by the invading might of a German Panzer division.
We then spend some time with the men, watching as they rest and recuperate. They chat and trade stories, before their commander selects a few for a special mission. Turns out our heroes have been ordered to hold a ridge, their small infantry regiment tasked with holding back the German forces so that their exhausted comrades may withdraw back to Stalingrad, where the Russians are preparing to make an epic final stand.
Sam Fuller did this sort of "rag-tag rear guard group of soldiers vs an approaching enemy horde" thing better and with more nuance and complexity, but Bondarchuk is the better visualist. His camera conveys the sheer boredom and exhaustion of these men, and his battle scenes are at times impressive, the expansiveness of the Russian countryside lending his battles a scale which most British and American war productions lack.
The film eventually settles down into a predictable rhythm, alternating between giant battles and intimate moments of downtime, Bondarcuk allowing his cast's sentiments, fears and attitudes to gently unfold whenever the bullets aren't flying.
The film reduces war to the usual traits - everyman soldiers, fatigue, fear, fun, friendship, boredom, heroism, horror, death, homesickness, cowardice, orders etc – and like most of these films, its attempts at portraying war with "balance" and "truth" can't mask how myopic it ultimately all is. A more poetic version of "Saving Private Ryan", the film was financed by the state and the Russian ministry of defence and serves only to glorify war, heroism, compliance, servitude, and act as a low-key form of propaganda.
Like "Saving Private Ryan", the film also ends with sad shots of the Russian flag, close ups of the battered faces of warriors, old men dropping to their knees, utilises various subtle tactics toward propagandistic ends and sports a narrative in which we're manipulated into morning the loss of our everyman heroes, who bravely stood up against foes superior in number. By the time the film ends, a throwaway line urging us to hate our enemies, akin to "Ryan's" nationalistic/militaristic "earn this", goes by almost unnoticed.
7/10 – Worth one viewing.
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!" - Albert Einstein
"Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy." - George Bernard Shaw
The legendary Sergei Bondarchuk directs "They Fought For the Motherland", a war film set in Russia during the second half of 1942. The film opens with a magnificent shot, a prowling camera gliding through swaying fields of wheat before finding the exhausted Soviet army trudging through a canyon far below. They're in full retreat, having been recently crushed by the invading might of a German Panzer division.
We then spend some time with the men, watching as they rest and recuperate. They chat and trade stories, before their commander selects a few for a special mission. Turns out our heroes have been ordered to hold a ridge, their small infantry regiment tasked with holding back the German forces so that their exhausted comrades may withdraw back to Stalingrad, where the Russians are preparing to make an epic final stand.
Sam Fuller did this sort of "rag-tag rear guard group of soldiers vs an approaching enemy horde" thing better and with more nuance and complexity, but Bondarchuk is the better visualist. His camera conveys the sheer boredom and exhaustion of these men, and his battle scenes are at times impressive, the expansiveness of the Russian countryside lending his battles a scale which most British and American war productions lack.
The film eventually settles down into a predictable rhythm, alternating between giant battles and intimate moments of downtime, Bondarcuk allowing his cast's sentiments, fears and attitudes to gently unfold whenever the bullets aren't flying.
The film reduces war to the usual traits - everyman soldiers, fatigue, fear, fun, friendship, boredom, heroism, horror, death, homesickness, cowardice, orders etc – and like most of these films, its attempts at portraying war with "balance" and "truth" can't mask how myopic it ultimately all is. A more poetic version of "Saving Private Ryan", the film was financed by the state and the Russian ministry of defence and serves only to glorify war, heroism, compliance, servitude, and act as a low-key form of propaganda.
Like "Saving Private Ryan", the film also ends with sad shots of the Russian flag, close ups of the battered faces of warriors, old men dropping to their knees, utilises various subtle tactics toward propagandistic ends and sports a narrative in which we're manipulated into morning the loss of our everyman heroes, who bravely stood up against foes superior in number. By the time the film ends, a throwaway line urging us to hate our enemies, akin to "Ryan's" nationalistic/militaristic "earn this", goes by almost unnoticed.
7/10 – Worth one viewing.