Fortress of War (2010)

People are voting emotionally.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This movie is just... wow! Mind blowing... I was thinking at 'Letters from Iwo Jima' by Clint Eastwood - this is the only war movie that can compete with it in terms of intensity, the profile of drama, tragedy, poetry, heroism and historical realism. It's not the usual WW2 movie that can be seen at Hollywood, with big 'good' allied soldiers killing like a machine gun a lot of 'bad' enemies. It's a movie about a defeat, about a tragedy. Hope and death. Suffering. Love. And a lot of sacrifice. However, beside its strong moral and ethical weight, the movie really looks good: image, special effects (I suspect some CGG was involved), sound, music (which is simply wonderful) everything looks like in a Hollywood made movie. And, as far as I know, the historical truth was almost 100% respected. In short, this is a movie which is both educational and fun. For me it's a 10/10... I didn't knew that the new Russian wave can make such brilliant masterpieces!

Produced in honour of the Red Army soldiers defending the USSR Western borders, Fortress of War recounts historical events combined with fictitious chronicles surrounding the June 1941 siege of the Brest Fortress in Sothern Belorussia against the invading Wehrmacht Army Group Centre forces in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa.This historical event is creatively accompanied by reminiscing narration from an orphaned 15-year old boy named Sasha Akimov. His narration ties together three main defensive stages led by real life Soviet war heroes centered on the resistance zones holding out against the protracted German siege. One location is headed by regiment commander Pyotr Gavrilov (Aleksandr Koshunov) another by the political commissar Yefim Fomin (Pavel Derevyanko) and lastly the head of the 9th frontier outpost, Andrey Mitrofanovich Kizhevatov (Andrey Merzlikin). All three have a different story to tell. The film begins in an archetypal peaceful, though nervous per-war Belorussia in the summer of 1941. The heavy military presence contained in Brest, notably its historic 19th century fortress, explains the current political situation in the country following the Nazi conquest of Western Europe and the Politburo's rightful suspicions of Hitler next intended target. The focal characters are simultaneously introduced intermediately around Sasha's observational narration. The ensuing bombardment by Wehrmacht artillery and brutal assault comes with-out warning and is unleashed with fuming panic. The film thus continues along a direction of separate combat charges and defensive manoeuvres. These numerous skirmishes and scuffles between the two opposing armies are effective, edgy and well-staged. All the combat scenes are extremely effective and mastered by the production team using special effects and pyrotechnics to their full advantage. Because the film was produced by the Belarusfilm Company and in truth many of the cast and crew either lived or parents lived through the nightmare of the Wehrmacht invasion and resultant onslaught of the population, the accuracy to detail is visually authentic and at no point attempts to introvert away from the brutality faced by their ancestral soldiers or civilians during these troubled times. Yet, it does not go unnoticeable that this film contains blotches of patriotism and benevolence. The narration shifts between characters and their dilemmas in the three separate defensive locations at the beginning may appear to be unclear and confusing. Nevertheless, through skillful editing and directing as the film moves along at a steady peace the separate stories begin to coalesce into one and by no means are a distraction.In summary, Fortress of War is a first-rate factual dramatised war movie which subjects its audience to the brave climatic struggle for survival and once again is another example of the evolving historical films from the Counties brutalised by ideology fuelled hatred and genocide that was the Second World War.

The events that took place on the Eastern front were wide and complex but when one steps back from the neatness of usual Soviet or Russian documentaries about the great patriotic war and zooms in on a smaller yet infamous event such as the defence of Brest fortress one is up for a real ride in blood.The film portrays only a small area that suffered as a result of Hitlers aggressive push eastward that shook the world with his sheer comitment of military might.I own about 15 Soviet movies all dealing with ww2 and this has got to be my first choice when voting for the "best".The fighting and battles look realistic almost as if modern movie cameras were transported back in time to capture the situation!!!! The war gear used and computerised all look identical to their historic counterparts(mention should be made of the mocked Panzer 111 and screaming Stukas that appear here and there).Though the excellent hardware will lock ww2 buffs enough to create a trafic jam,the gory atmosphere will test the faint of heart.Using the Russian kid(Alexander Akimov)for telling the story does however bring another dimension for those who need a soft character to identify with.The musical score also contributes greatly to the overall feelings that the film represent,the bit of it in the last minutes of the movie clearly voicing the hopelessness of the resistance made by the brave defenders. The small amount of propaganda blown into some gunfight scenes are minimal but never the less distracting at times because of its "godlike" fighting capabilities given to the Red army who seem to be invincible in hand to hand combat with the Nazis!!! In anycase the Motherland deserves the right to glorify the war it had with the Fascists,she withstood all the evil that the Fuhrer was capable of unleashing and eventually saved the planet from his reign more than any other country can credit itself with.In todays world we must take on an sober view when we recreate events of the past and this epic film delivers that message in my opinion.

Positiv: The sound engineer and the explosives guys did a great job indeed. Great camera: Little of this horrible close-up-shakycamera-war-movie camera in fast and nervous montage, which is refreshing. The actors deliver a great performance.Negative: -Tactically, its like the A-Team with lots of casualties added. -The main plot is untouched: The fortress is pointless. The attackers just moved around and left pockets of resistance to the second line mop-up troops. The German advance was not hold up by this fighting, no important road or railway was blocked by the fortress. It would have been a nice angle to the story to portrait the relentless defense put up despite knowing the pointlessness all of that. That leads to me being unable to connect ("feel along") to the characters. Not the soldiers put up the fight but the officers and commissars lead the headless pack. The soldiers do what they are told and die attacking over open ground without anyone questioning this.A fair share propaganda can be overlooked, because in sowjet times you obviously had to build it in. The breathtaking "come and see" has its propaganda captives scenes at the end, but its a side note to the amazing movie. Here, its too much. The propaganda spin of the story is told, not the story behind the propaganda story. So just six stars to the hero fortress.