Seraphic Secret watches movies in thematic clusters.
Last year I concentrated on the work of specific actors, among them: Clara Bow, John Gilbert, Mary Nolan, Lon Chaney, Esther Ralston and, adolescent sigh, Brigitte Bardot.
For the past few weeks I’ve been screening war movies, with an emphasis on films from Russia and Finland.
World War II brought Russian casualties in the millions. Soviet generals used mass instead of maneuver, throwing full regiments into suicidal headlong attacks designed to wear down the enemy through attrition. German soldiers were disciplined and equipped with the finest weapons, but eventually the Russian winter and the endless supply of Russian soldiers broke the German front.
Of course, Stalin’s political purges thinned the herd of capable Russian officers, but in truth, even Marshall Zhukov, Stalin’s most successful general, was not tactically subtle. He was a ruthless commander who did not hesitate to sacrifice the lives of millions of peasant soldiers who feared the political commissars of the Red Army as much as they feared the despised Nazis.
And so, just as American war movies give us a pretty good idea of the American mind and heart during times of war, Russian and Finnish films have a point of view that affords us profound insights into specific attitudes towards war, peace, duty, patriotism and of course love.
Brest Fortress, AKA Fortress of War, (2010). In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, making a mockery of the Nazi-Soviet Non Agression pact. Stalin was so stunned by the invasion that he retreated to his dacha where he fully expected to be arrested and shot. The Brest Fortress was one of the first fronts of the blitzkrieg. The Soviet garrison, filled with wives and children, was criminally unprepared for the German onslaught, a Rassenkampf, or race war of annihilation against Bolsheviks and Jews.
Told from the point of view of 15 year-old Sasha Akimov, the son of a brave officer, the film is unflinching in its depiction of the merciless initial attack and the excruciating final siege of the fortress. The plot follows true life events as closely as possible. The production cooperated with the Brest Fortress Museum.
At points, the film feels like classic Soviet propaganda, but in the end this viewer was deeply moved by the heroic resistance of the doomed defenders of the fortress. Battle scenes are brutal and expertly staged. But it’s the love stories—Avrech’s rule#1: all good movies are love stories—that are the emotional core of this stunning film.
Available on an all region DVD with English subtitles.
Cuckoo, (2002). In 1944, days before the Finns pull out of the Continuation War, a Finnish soldier, in punishment for being a pacifist, is chained to a rock and left with a sniper rifle and a few day’s provisions. Snipers were called Cuckoos. At the same time, a loyal Soviet soldier is arrested for anti-Soviet activity and is on his way to a court-martial that will land him a firing squad. Not far away in Lappland is the rough home of a young Sami woman, a reindeer farmer, whose husband was forcibly drafted by the Finnish government.
These three characters eventually meet and though they all speak different languages—Russian, Finnish, Sami—they come to understand each other’s basic humanity. Okay, this sounds like a dreary parable and to some extent it is. Basically this Russian production tells us that war happens because people don’t understand each other. In fact, the opposite is true. Wars are inevitable because people understand each other all too well.
In spite of the heavy literary symbolism Cuckoo shimmers limpidly with grand landscapes and three outstanding performances. The narrative conceit of three people who do not share a common language is simply delicious. Anni-Kristiina Juuso, a Sami actress, steals the show with her touching, off-beat performance as a practical yet mischievously sexy young woman whose loneliness is suddenly alleviated by the appearance of two men. There are no battle scenes, but “Cuckoo” explores a different side of war, a home front that is unique and compelling.
Available on an all region DVD with English subtitles.
The Winter War (1989) is a Finnish movie that tells the story of the 100 day Winter War fought by Finland against the Soviet Union from November 30, 1939 to March 13, 1940. It was the Winter War that convinced Hitler that invading Russia would be a cake walk.
This epic details how ill-equipped, inept, and poorly led Soviet troops repeatedly flung themselves against brave and determined Finnish soldiers posted in thin lines across a massive front. Fighting in bitter, subzero weather, the story is told through the multiple story lines of a single squad composed of farmers, school teachers and village merchants, intensely patriotic men whose lives in a harsh, isolated land breeds first-rate soldiers. The overwhelming strength of the Soviet Union in men and armaments seemed to doom the Finns to a fast and bloody defeat. But the Finns are a stubborn people whose resistance should rank with greatest last stands in military history.
Based on a classic, Hemingwayesque novel of the same name by Antti Tuuri, the central character, Martti Hakala, is a member of the 23rd Infantry regiment, an easy-going farmer who likes nothing better than plowing the fertile earth. The battle scenes are huge and impressively choreographed with waves of screaming Soviet soldiers charging frontally—flank attacks are way too subtle for the Soviet bear—into pitifully narrow Finnish lines. It takes a while for non-Finnish viewers to identify all the supporting characters, but soon enough the individual soldiers become distinct. Family life is lovingly rendered. The sturdy women who wait anxiously for their men to return are blessedly unglamorous. The film has a nicely understated heroic yet gritty quality that correctly views war as abrupt bursts of bood drenched chaos and soul-shattering fear. This is a classic war film that deserves a wide international audience.
Available on an all region DVD with English subtitles.
Due to the last days of Passover that run directly into Shabbat, Seraphic Secret will be off-line until Sunday.
Fascinating. I read one Russian account that claimed the Finns success was mostly due to their system of fixed artillery emplacements with overlapping fields of fire. The Soviets copied it when they deployed their own forces to defend the huge Chinese border.
Robert
I think you would enjoy the Polish movie “Katyn” made in 2009. It is about the mass execution of at least 12,000 Polish officers being held prisoner by the Soviets before the Nazis invaded. It is probably the best indictment of the Soviet Union I have ever seen as it effectively illustrates how their extreme brutality was backed up by massive, organised and endless lies. The film details the sinister Soviet plan to deny Poland of its most capable pro western and anti communist citizens. It also shows how the Nazis tried to take advantage of the incident. The final scene of the movie which details the atrocity is I think the most cold and chilling scene I have ever seen in any movie.
Ted
Ted:
Thanks so much for the recommendation. Now I have two films to screen that you’ve told me about.
“Wars are inevitable because people understand each other all too well”.
That is a brilliant observation, Robert. Did you write that line? Or is it from some ancient book of wisdom, or perhaps uttered by a famous person in history?
Franny:
Thanks so much. It is my observation which is just common sense.
The 2nd World War, or the “Great patriotic War” as the Russians call it, made a huge impression on their psyche.
To hear them you would think they won the war single handedly.
But if you go there, you see how it affected them.
Always remember a scene from a movie you would probably regard as mediocre – Enemy At The Gate” – where a Jude Law is just entering Stalingrad – the Commissar tells him that there aren’t enough rifles to go around -so when you are charging the German machine guns, just pick one up as your comrades are falling.
Oh, and if you try to retreat the special units of the Commissars will machine gun you.
BTW Robert Amazon should give you a commission with all the movies I have bought from them on your recommendation!
Bill:
The Soviets had more fatalities in Leningrad than the allies suffered in the entire war, thus it’s no surprise they feel they won the war by themselves. As awful as the Western fromt was, it was mild compared to the Eastern front. Of course, Stalin’s ongoing purges of millions of his own people increased the savagery.
Robert –
In his book
Lets try that again. The browser hiccuped and next thing I know it is posted!
In his book Armeggdon, the account of the European theater in the last year, Max Hastings brought out the fact that the Eastern front had 2/3rds of the Wehrmacht, while the west fought the other 3rd.
Of course we can say with Lend-Lease the Russians prevailed but still…
On Stalin if the Nazis hadn’t treated the Russians like untermenschen the world would have been a very different place but then if the Nazis hadn’t treated the Jews and Russians like sub humans …they wouldn’t have been Nazis.
I remember going to Leningrad – well, St Petersburg – the most beautiful city in Russia and seeing a park – a huge mound – where they buried countless 10s of 1000s of dead – that and these huge palaces outside the city the Nazis – out of spite – burned when they were retreating – The communists established these trade schools to teach workers “how they did things in the 16th century” and they are rebuilt – from burned out shells to their former glory …
Re President Obama’s father:
Did he, or did he not, serve in The Second World War. Or, did his step-father? This should, under the circumstances, be revealed.
The above is in reference to a 2008 comment made by the president about his father. Don’t know which father he intended but both were far too young for participation.
Barry:
Obama’s father never served. He was a communist, drunkard from Kenya. I think Barry was referring to some uncle he never met. Who knows, Barry lies the way normal people breathe.