Russian movies

Fuinseog

I was in HMV the other day and they seem to have a lot of Russian movies of a historical nature.

I picked up 'Fortress of War' which deals with the defence of the Brest Fortress in 1941.

I also bought 'Admiral' which deals with the leader of the White army in the Civil War.

Going back further in history you have 'Alexander the warrior saint'.

Artur.PL

You have to be careful with Russian movies about WW2. You can see black and white picture, good and brave Russian soldiers and bad Germans. There will not be situations where Russians kill civilians or rape women but Germans will do it very often.
BTW. the movie about Brest is not so bad but remember what I said. Enjoy.

Manach

Offhand, "Alexander Nevsky" - which was shot in the 1930s and the plot was a German invasion of Russia in the medieval era. Supposed to be a classic of the genre.

Fuinseog

Artur.PL wrote: »

You have to be careful with Russian movies about WW2. You can see black and white picture, good and brave Russian soldiers and bad Germans. There will not be situations where Russians kill civilians or rape women but Germans will do it very often.
BTW. the movie about Brest is not so bad but remember what I said. Enjoy.

I was referring to movies made this century. true, you only see one side, just like Saving Private Ryan does not show American soldiers raping and pillaging.

dmcronin

All movies are for entertainment, are not documentaries and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Are they dubbed or subtitled?

Fuinseog

dmcronin wrote: »

All movies are for entertainment, are not documentaries and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Are they dubbed or subtitled?

they can be educational as well. it good to get different perspectives. the movies are subtitled. i cannot stand dubbed.

donaghs

Fuinseog wrote: »

I was referring to movies made this century. true, you only see one side, just like Saving Private Ryan does not show American soldiers raping and pillaging.

You need to some perspective on this. Soldiers everywhere are capable of commiting rape, however it was taken very similar in the US Army. Rapists were prosecuted, some of them even executed.

While also a crime in the Soviet Army, the evidence is definitely there of a more "laissez-faire" attitude to it. The mass-rapes after the capture of Berlin are well documented.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Germany

The attitude was visible even at the top, the Yugoslav communist Milovan Djilas records Stalin's attitude in his book "Conversations with Stalin":

"Does Djilas, who is himself a writer, not know what human suffering and the human heart are? Can't he understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometers through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle?"

But going back to the main question, I liked the Soviet movie, "Come and See" ("Idi i smotri"), a bit grim though, not a light comedy!
Art in the Soviet Union though had to serve the Communist cause and ideology, so I think what Artur.PL was saying is that you won't see as much subtlty or critical treatment of the Soviet side. Things have changed a lot now since 1989, but now in Putin's Russia there a big emphasis on Russian pride.