Russian made movies about the war

[Woolgar]

Thanks all for your contributions!!

I heard about "Life and Fate" series about Vasily Grossman. Was already interested so thanks for the heads up!
The "Nightswallows" series I have on DVD box but it was rather disappointing. Storyline is ok but both acting and also the uniforms, gear, medals etc all are typical late Soviet era. That left kind of a bad impression.

Will check all others mentioned

The female pilots are gorgeous though

[Marcel Banziger]

The female pilots are gorgeous though

Very true haha

[Woolgar]

Currently working through the Russian series "Life and Fate" based on Vasily Grossman's novel. Finished up episode 4 of 12 episodes and based on that I could say it's worth watching.

I bought this book last year, I haven’t read it yet but I’m going to fast track it through my other books ‘in waiting’

Nick

[TWS]

Thanks all for your contributions!!

I heard about "Life and Fate" series about Vasily Grossman. Was already interested so thanks for the heads up!

You are very welcome. My wife actually likes watching the Russian movies with me and we've also watched "T-34", "White Tiger" and "Battle for Sevastopol".

I've added "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" to my Amazon Prime watchlist.

[McSeam]

As for me I can’t see modern Russian movies about WWII. A lot of mistakes everywhere: uniform, awards, equipment, weapons. But such mistakes are not the worst thing – fake feelings are much worse than fake details of uniform. These movies are made by modern young people who knows nothing about that time and they don’t want to go inside deeper than an ordinary history schoolbook. Modern moviemakers try to make a product for sale, nothing more: quickly made, quickly sold, quickly forgotten. I can remember only one modern movie which I can recommend – it’s “The Brest Fortress” 2010.
I do prefer old Soviet movies about the war. There you can find some wrong details as well but these movies were made by the people who knew what the war was and many of them participated in the war, like many of their spectators. Their feelings were natural. I believe them.
My list would be the following. Please note, it’s not a hit parade so I don’t mean that #1 is better than #10.

The Cranes Are Flying (Летят журавли, 1957)
Ballad of a Soldier (Баллада о солдате, 1959)
At War as at War (На войне как на войне, 1969)
Officers (Офицеры, 1971)
Trial on the Road (Проверка на дорогах, 1971)
The Dawns Here Are Quiet (А зори здесь тихие, 1972)
Only "Old Men" Are Going Into Battle (В бой идут одни «старики»,1973)
Torpedo Bombers (Торпедоносцы, 1983)
Squad (Отряд, 1984)
Come and See (Иди и смотри, 1985)

[Narcis]

YouTube

Russian action movie (with English subtitles) on YouTube about the Battle of Kursk (a bit confused).

YouTube

Another one!

[PapaStalin1943]

Thanks for the links Narcis! I really enjoyed both films that you linked, and I especially liked the second part, as it talks about the taking of Oryol, which one of my relatives was apart of. I don't know, I find that to be kind of cool to see what your relatives had to go through, even in movie form.

I highly recommend to anyone who is stuck at home with nothing to do to go and watch the "Liberation" films

[PapaStalin1943]

Heres the other 3 films from the series (in order):

YouTube

YouTube

YouTube

[McSeam]

I highly recommend to anyone who is stuck at home with nothing to do to go and watch the "Liberation" films

Concerning the “Liberation” movies. That’s what I’ve talked about earlier – look who made it.
Screenplay: Yuri Bondarev (died last week, he was 96: 2 medals for Bravery, Stalingrad medal) and Oscar Kurganov (Red Star, order of the Patriotic War)
Director: Yuri Ozerov (Order of the Red Banner, 2 orders of the Patriotic War, Medal "For Battle Merit", Medal "For the Defence of Moscow", Koenigsberg medal)
2nd director: Yuliy Kun (Red Star, order of the Patriotic War, Budapest medal)
Camera: Igor Slabnevich (order of the Patriotic War, Stalingrad medal)
These people knew the war not by books.

[PapaStalin1943]

Today I watched "Come And See" by Elem Klimov, and I highly recommend it (I believe someone already recommended it on this forum, so I am just adding to the chain ).
I would go as far as to say that "Come And See" is much more, for lack of a better term, sad/shocking than Schindler's List. I spent over half an hour trying to find this move for rent but to no result. Then, I found a thread about this movie on a different website, and there was a link to the original 1985 movie that had English Subtitles. So, for those of you that would like to watch this film (be advised, it is very gruesome and realistic), I will put a link below where you can watch the full original movie.

Enjoy.

YouTube