White Death movie in future maybe???

[timpe]

I have not yet seen the American sniper movie. Reportedly worth watching and definitely I will watch it.

But I wonder when someone makes a movie of Simo Häyhä (white death)
now there are good film makers in finland so why not?

Here is some info: (this is copy from other site, my english is not that good)

Simo Häyhä, arguably the greatest sniper to ever live, sniped over 542 invading Soviet soldiers in World War II using nothing but a bolt action rifle that had no scope. He also has the distinction of having recorded the highest known number of confirmed kills by any sniper in any major war; with the runner up being Soviet Ivan Sidorenko with 500 in WWII. In addition to his 542 confirmed sniper kills, he also managed another couple hundred kills with a Suomi 9mm machine gun bringing his total for the “Winter War” to just under 800 kills. Even more amazing is that he did all of this in under 100 days with his personal best sniping 25 Soviet soldiers in one day.

The “Winter War” was a conflict between Russia and Finland beginning on November 30, 1939, three months after the start of WWII, with the Russians invading Finland. The Winter War officially ended on March 13, 1940 with the Soviets having captured most of Finland.

Simo Häyhä was a member of a group very similar to the old American “Minute Men”. He served his required one year with the military in Finland and went home, back to farming and hunting. When the Soviets invaded he grabbed his standard issue M/28 rifle and gear and reported for duty. He preferred his rifle, which only had an iron site rather than a scope, over Swedish sniper rifles as it allowed him to keep a slightly lower profile over a scoped rifle; the scopes made you raise your head an extra inch or two making a nice target for other snipers. In addition to this, scopes on sniper rifles tended to reflect the sunlight which is how he says he was able to kill so many of the Soviet snipers who were sent to specifically take him out. The really amazing thing about just using the iron sites was that many of his kills were shot at people over 400 yards away.

Simo was assigned to the Kollaa battlefield where an estimated 32 Fins held off over 4000 Soviet Troops at one point and indeed even by the end of the war which the Soviets won, never conceded that particular ground. Temperatures there typically ranged from around -40 F to -4 F. As such, Simo would go out by himself to snipe dressed in white camouflage with nothing but a few clips of ammo and food provisions for a day.

Tired of getting their heads blown off all the time by Simo, the Soviets eventually dispatched a group of snipers and a series of artillery strikes to try to get rid of “Belaya Smert” (“White Death”) as they nicknamed him. He managed to get the best of the snipers sent against him and apparently wasn’t where they thought during the artillery strikes.

Simo SniperHe was however finally shot in the jaw with an exploding bullet in a pitched battle against a large group of Russian soldiers. Some of his fellow Finish soldiers pulled him from the battle and he survived even though, as they said, “half his head was missing”. He was then in a coma for nine days, during which Finland lost the war. He didn’t regain consciousness until March 13th, the day the war ended. It took Simo a few years to fully recuperate from his wounds, but he went on to live to the ripe old age of 96, dying April 1st, 2002.

During the war, the Soviet army lost close to one million soldiers, close to forty times the number of Finnish casualties.

Simo credited his incredible sniping ability to knowledge of the forests, patience, and practice. He typically liked to snipe from a sitting position, normally not used by snipers due to giving a larger profile to be seen from. However, he was very short (5 foot 3 inches), so he was able to sit and still make a very small profile and he felt it gave him a better platform to shoot from. He would also pack the snow in front of him so that when he shot, none of the snow would waft up giving his position away. In addition to this, to get around the problem of his breath potentially giving away his position in that frigid place, he would breath through his mouth but keep snow in there to keep his breath from showing up in the air.

I REALLY hope someone makes that movie.

[Iron Hussar]

I'm with you there. I'm a big fan of war movies in general, but movies telling true stories of individuals are much more interesting.

[Aleksander P]

With the way that modern films usually are, I honestly don't want a film about Simo Häyhä and seeing his story morphed and twisted into some kind of a Rambo-esque action movie.

A lot of people here like the movie American Sniper but to me it's kind of wrong to twist the truth in the story the way they did, just so that it could become a blockbuster hit. Doesn't changing the story discredit the person they are portraying?

[Iron Hussar]

That really depends. If the maker's modify the story too much, turning it into a 'fable', then of course, it no longer portrays the actual person. However, if that movie encourages even a small portion of the viewers to perhaps read up on the person and find the true story, then that opens up the truth to people who may have otherwise never heard of the subject before.

Obviously members of this forum already have an active interest in this subject - but whenever I watch a "true story" of any kind, I always look up the facts afterwards, out of personal interest.

[sandgroper]

What a fantastic story! I'd love to see a movie on this bloke, it's an incredible story and I had never heard of him, I'm sure many others haven't either.

[timpe]

With the way that modern films usually are, I honestly don't want a film about Simo Häyhä and seeing his story morphed and twisted into some kind of a Rambo-esque action movie.

A lot of people here like the movie American Sniper but to me it's kind of wrong to twist the truth in the story the way they did, just so that it could become a blockbuster hit. Doesn't changing the story discredit the person they are portraying?

That is good point... thats why i'm learning more about that man before seeing that American sniper movie. Maybe that movie about Simo would do same for others. Or maybe it will be like Mannerheim movie... now that S****!!! But good documentary at least at Simo would be nice.