Soviet/Russian military movies

Andrey

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Trigger Happy said:
Andrey,

Have you heard of those quite recent russian war movies?
What's your opinion on these if you did see them?

SHTRAFBAT
http://www.alldvd.ca/productDisplay.do?fc=Y&language=2&itemId=1096

KRASNAIA KAPELLA
http://www.alldvd.ca/productDisplay.do?fc=Y&fc=Y&language=2&itemId=2049

regards
Yes, it is modern Russian mini-TV series movies.

Situation in Russia is following. Population began to see patriotic movies again, state is ready to give money for making new military movies, there will be 60-th anniversary of Victory in May of 2005. So large amount of Russian movie directors began to make military movies now.

But... Some directors do it because state gives money, their target to get money and to make "something" as result of spending of money, some ones can not to make good movies or have bad scenario writers.

In result many modern Russian military movies about WWII have bad quaity. Some movies are extremrly bad. They are good technically but it looks like their scenario were written by idiots.

If to speak about good ones I can to mention "Zvezda" ("Star") which was made in 2002, this movie is in my first list.

About your two movies.

KRASNAYA KAPELLA - it is about Soviet spy net in Germany, Russian TV showed it pair weeks ago but I didn't see it.

"Shtrafbat" means "penalty battalion".

Russian TV will begin to show it TODAY.
 

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Oleg Grigoryev said:
Really?
I was disappointed by it - I found movie being to jerky and dialogs somewhat wooden.
I guess I’ll have to wait until the “Convoy PQ-17” comes out.
:)
I like "Zvezda".

Also there is good modern "In August of 1944" movie about actions of military counterintelligence in rears of Soviet troops against German spy groups in 1944.

I have "PQ-17" at home!!!

There are too many historical mistakes, it is made on base of book of Pikul "Requiem to convoy "PQ-17". Movie has some Cold War stamps.

But music is great and sometimes tears become in eyes...
 

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I want to say for Westerners that there are hundreds of Soviet and Russian military movies.

I tried to write only about best of best.

It is your choice what to buy.
 

Oleg Grigoryev

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Andrey said:
I like "Zvezda".

Also there is good modern "In August of 1944" movie about actions of military counterintelligence in rears of Soviet troops against German spy groups in 1944.

I have "PQ-17" at home!!!

There are too many historical mistakes, it is made on base of book of Pikul "Requiem to convoy "PQ-17". Movie has some Cold War stamps.

But music is great and sometimes tears become in eyes...
Yea... but the book was fun to read. And at least, according to preview I saw, computer graphics was finally good enough. As for “August” I did not think that the movie did justice to the book ,I know it is the way with most book-based films, but in this case I got an impression that without a benefit of reading the book previously, it is requires an effort to follow the story line.

P.S What I would really like to see is a quality remake of “Na voyne kak na Voyne” based on book by Kurochkin. Or we can petition Hollywood to make a movie about Soviet women - fighter pilots -Litviak was quite handsome –the movie would sell (now I am being cynical)
 

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Oleg Grigoryev said:
Yea... but the book was fun to read. And at least, according to preview I saw, computer graphics was finally good enough.
There are only few episodes with computer graphics in "PQ17".

And during watching of "PQ17" I constantly though that I could make it better...

Also it is made in old Soviet style - Western Allies are shown badly, Soviet civil sailors of transport ship of "PQ17" made all feats which in reality were made by Western Allied sailors, Germans are real "baby-eaters" here, crew of one U-boat three times shot surviving crews of sunk ships for time of movie ...

Also there are many strange mistakes which are seen for anyone who knows military history in enough scale.

For example, in first dates of June of 1942 US sailor speak about combats in Stalingrad direction but in that time Stalingrad was deep rear of USSR and nobody knew that this place will be so famous after August of 1942...

Other example, in the end voice of announcer spoke that movie is devoted to Soviet, US, British and Polish sailors of transport ships which took pat in northern convoys. But announcer forgot to say about Canadian, New-Zealand, Australian, Belgian, Norwegian and other nations sailors... It is strange...
 
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Andrey

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Today Russian TV begins to show TV version of "72 meters" - 2004-year movie about modern Russian submariners.

It is real masterpiece.

And music for this movie was made by famous Ennio Mirricone.

I recommend to buy it if you will see it.
 

Oleg Grigoryev

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Andrey said:
Today Russian TV begins to show TV version of "72 meters" - 2004-year movie about modern Russian submariners.

It is real masterpiece.

And music for this movie was made by famous Ennio Mirricone.

I recommend to buy it if you will see it.
I actually caught this movie during its debut in Los Angles –as part of the days of Russian Culture (or whatever the actual name was). While the movie itself is good, the problem is it looses a whole lot in translation- firstly subtitles often actually are cutting corners only conveying the meaning of what this or that character says rather than go for the closest possible translation, and, secondly then they attempt to go to the closest translation they often do very poor job. Maybe they fixed some of these on DVD. In addition there is a lot of staff which could only be understood sufficiently if you had lived in Russia for the last 15 years –this no translation could cure. But all in all it is decent movie.
 

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Oleg Grigoryev said:
I actually caught this movie during its debut in Los Angles –as part of the days of Russian Culture (or whatever the actual name was). While the movie itself is good, the problem is it looses a whole lot in translation- firstly subtitles often actually are cutting corners only conveying the meaning of what this or that character says rather than go for the closest possible translation, and, secondly then they attempt to go to the closest translation they often do very poor job. Maybe they fixed some of these on DVD. In addition there is a lot of staff which could only be understood sufficiently if you had lived in Russia for the last 15 years –this no translation could cure. But all in all it is decent movie.
I do not understand your personal policy.

You have to understand that all problems with translations could be because of it was made too quickly in that case for making to the beginning of presentation. Final version can have excellent translation.

Do you want Americans didn't see this movie? This movie is excellent, it even can not be compared to second chop movies like "Shtrafbat" or "PQ17". I suppose that "72 meters" can be awarded by "Oscar" but... There is also "Nochnoy dozor" ("Night watch"), everyone in Russia agrees that this movie is best of all...
 
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Andrey

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"72 meters" shows truth, I served in Russian army in 1996-97 and I confirm that "72 meters" shows truely life and service of Russian officers.

When I saw this movie I never thought that it is false, I recalled time of my military service and spoke to my brother that it is like in real life, all jokes and funny customs, all images of movie and concrete details are true.

I want to add that there are 2 versions of "72 meters" - movie for cinema and TV-version (small mini TV-series) which is larger.

And it looks like TV version is better...
 
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Oleg Grigoryev

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Andrey said:
I do not understand your personal policy.

You have to understand that all problems with translations could be because of it was made too quickly in that case for making to the beginning of presentation. Final version can have excellent translation.

Do you want Americans didn't see this movie? This movie is excellent, it even can not be compared to second chop movies like "Shtrafbat" or "PQ17". I suppose that "72 meters" can be awarded by "Oscar" but... There is also "Nochnoy dozor" ("Night watch"), everyone in Russia agrees that this movie is best of all...
Andrey, I might be wrong but I sense unwarranted hostility in your post. I really have no idea what personal policy of mine you are alluding to. I said it was a good movie ( I am not sure if it’s Oscar- worthy but then again IMO neither was “Crouching tiger”) and my only problem was not with movie itself but with subtitles ( when shown in US theaters, foreign films usually not dubbed) which ,for all intents and purposes, were botched. I spent good part of a movie explaining two local boys why I found these or that moment funny, ironic or whatever have you. (This is a common problem the last time I ran into it was when I watched “No man’s land”. Anyway since you speak English try to imagine Russian person watching “Pulp Fiction” in English with Russian subtitles. How much do you the movie will lose? ) I also expressed hope that DVD would correct the shortcomings to certain degree. I am puzzled from what exactly you derived a notion that I somehow want to prevent anybody from watching this movie. As for the Shtrafbat – I clearly expressed what I think of it on this very thread and as for PQ-17 I never saw it so I would not know one way or the other.
P.S I have trouble taking notion of “everybody in Russia agrees” variety. We are talking about 180 million people –generalization do not work on this scale.
 

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Any movies from the finnish front? The Unknown Soldier(1955) was banned in Russia until couple of years ago.
 

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Oleg Grigoryev said:
Andrey, I might be wrong but I sense unwarranted hostility in your post. I really have no idea what personal policy of mine you are alluding to. I said it was a good movie ( I am not sure if it’s Oscar- worthy but then again IMO neither was “Crouching tiger”) and my only problem was not with movie itself but with subtitles ( when shown in US theaters, foreign films usually not dubbed) which ,for all intents and purposes, were botched. I spent good part of a movie explaining two local boys why I found these or that moment funny, ironic or whatever have you. (This is a common problem the last time I ran into it was when I watched “No man’s land”. Anyway since you speak English try to imagine Russian person watching “Pulp Fiction” in English with Russian subtitles. How much do you the movie will lose? ) I also expressed hope that DVD would correct the shortcomings to certain degree. I am puzzled from what exactly you derived a notion that I somehow want to prevent anybody from watching this movie. As for the Shtrafbat – I clearly expressed what I think of it on this very thread and as for PQ-17 I never saw it so I would not know one way or the other.
You speak for Western public that subtitles are bad, you are scaring them.

You have to understand consequances of your words.

And I do not understand why don't Western movie producers replave foreign voice by English voice.

P.S I have trouble taking notion of “everybody in Russia agrees” variety. We are talking about 180 million people –generalization do not work on this scale.
When did you leave Russia? Russia of 1997 is different country thn Russia of 2004.

"Night watch" is national hit in Russia, cinemas got millions of dollars for it. It is common opinion in Russia that it is best movie of last time with technical quality not less than "Master of Ring".

My brother's friend came to us together with his wife for watching this movie in my PC. His wife (25 years) was in small town for some last months and she said that ALL girls of that town dreamed of to look this movie because that town has no modern cinema and this movie was not played in that town.
 
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Andrey

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Käki said:
Any movies from the finnish front? The Unknown Soldier(1955) was banned in Russia until couple of years ago.
"Coo-Coo" movie of 2003 but it is more comedy that military movie.


In 1941-44 Finnish front was quiet part of front and I do not remember any movie about actions here.
 

Oleg Grigoryev

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Andrey said:
You speak for Western public that subtitles are bad, you are scaring them.

You have to understand consequances of your words.

And I do not understand why don't Western movie producers replave foreign voice by English voice.



When did you leave Russia? Russia of 1997 is different country thn Russia of 2004.

"Night watch" is national hit in Russia, cinemas got millions of dollars for it. It is common opinion in Russia that it is best movie of last time with technical quality not less than "Master of Ring".

My brother's friend came to us together with his wife for watching this movie in my PC. His wife (25 years) was in small town for some last months and she said that ALL girls of that town dreamed of to look this movie because that town has no modern cinema and this movie was not played in that town.
Give some credit to western public will you. It is not that easily scared. Even more so people who watch foreign movies are well aware of the problem and there are some purists who even prefer to be this way. Das Boot for instance was selling in two versions – German with subtitles and English-dubbed. German version as far as I recall was selling better, and considerably so. I believe it was the same story with “No man’s land”. As for me I has not left Russia and have no plans to do so. My job requires me to stay abroad –often for several months at the time. Nothing is wrong with that. I saw “Night watch” - the book is better or and btw it is “Lord of the rings”. I am sure that many people like it, but still I would be hesitant to speak on behalf of 180 million people.
 

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Oleg Grigoryev said:
I believe it was the same story with “No man’s land”.
“No man’s land” - I do not understand what you mean here, I do not know this movie.

I am sure that many people like it, but still I would be hesitant to speak on behalf of 180 million people.
OK, let it will be not 180 millions but "only" 179 millions.

Is it OK for you? I personally do not see large difference.

And it was not question to compare movie and original book, it was question only about movie. But you again could say ("umudrit'sya" in Russian, fershtein?) bad words about movie ("book was better") when you didn't want to do it.

I also can say that in case of "Lord of the ring" book was much better but movie got many "Oscars".

And I again repeat that it looks like that version of "72 meters"
which you saw could be made in conditions of haste. May be, movie director knew that his movie will be shown in US only for one week before this event and all his team didn't sleep one week for making of any English text.

I do not believe that director could persuade Ennio Morricone to make music for his movie bu he couldn't organize quality translation of his movie in English.
 

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First thing first – “No man’s land” - http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?id=1807485009&d=hv&cf=info –watched it in Serbian with English subtitles. Did not really need the later since it was for me understand 80% of the dialog as it was.

OK, let it will be not 180 millions but "only" 179 millions.

Is it OK for you? I personally do not see large difference.
I see because it was not 179 million it probably was not even 150 or 100 million. It’ might have been 50 million majority of whom might have liked it. That said what is with that defensive posture of yours?

And it was not question to compare movie and original book, it was question only about movie. But you again could say ("umudrit'sya" in Russian, fershtein?) bad words about movie ("book was better") when you didn't want to do it.

I also can say that in case of "Lord of the ring" book was much better but movie got many "Oscars".
Why is what I said was bad? I said the book was better – meaning the movie was good but book was better. I am entitled to my opinion aren’t I? The book was very philosophical, the move turned out to be Sci-Fi horror-action – a good one nonetheless. And yes I now many , shall we say purists, who were not too fond of “Lord of the Rings” because it did not show many crucial elements of the (as far as they are concerned anyway – I never read the trilogy) story, thus transforming into separate entity. My personal observation is that 99% of the movies that based on the books are not as good as the books themselves –the only one I can think of that was practically as good was “Sobachie serdce”. That does not mean that they are bad movies.

May be, movie director knew that his movie will be shown in US only for one week before this event and all his team didn't sleep one week for making of any English text.
I have serious doubts that his team was responsible for subtitles –usually this is done by the 3rd party. That said why do I get a feeling that you believe that I blame film crew for anything? I said it twice already - in itself it is a good movie.

I do not believe that director could persuade Ennio Morricone to make music for his movie bu he couldn't organize quality translation of his movie in English.
You should be really more trustful towards fellow board members - as a bilingual person I solemnly swear that subtitles I saw were sub par. For instance the cow story over which Russian part of the audience was practically crying from laughter, left English-speaking audience flabbergasted. I had to explain after the movie all the intricacies –then they found it hysterical too. So to sum it up, the movie in itself is good, the subtitles I saw were so-so, I hope that DVD has better version, I recommend this movie.
 
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