Foreign WW2/War Movies Worth A Damn #1

OK, so I started thinking about a list of some Foreign War Movies worth a look.

Most people would not believe that some of the best and most realistic World War Two (and War Movies in general) are foreign made. (Yes they have English subtitles, so you lazy couch potatoes will have to read some! God Forbid.)

 

Fortress of War (aka The Brest Fortress)

 2010 Russian-Belarusian war film recounting the June 1941 defense of Brest Fortress against invading Wehrmacht forces in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany‘s invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II.^[1][2] Events are narrated from the perspective of 15-year-old Sasha Akimov, centering on three resistance zones holding out against the protracted German siege. The defending forces are led by regiment commander Major Pyotr Gavrilov (44th Rifle Regiment of the Red Army), with Regimental Commissar Yefim Fomin (84th Rifle Regiment of the Red Army), and the head of the 9th Frontier Outpost, Lieutenant Andrey Mitrofanovich Kizhevatov.

Can be viewed on YouTube with English subs.

 

The Dawn’s Here Are Quiet

This 2015 remake of the 1972 Soviet WW2 film is a real gem. Based on the 1969 novel by Boris Vasilyev, the movie tells the story of an unfulfilled Soviet Army Sergeant stationed in an out of the way outpost near the Finnish border during 1942. The outpost is home to two AA Flak guns and a detachment of six female crew members. When a German Paratroop Squad is spotted in the woods, the Sergeant has no choice but to engage the Germans with the Five female soldiers (leaving one behind.)

What follows is an amazing story of bravery, courage and sacrifice.

Can be Viewed on Amazon Prime.

 

City of Life and Death

OK, so this is really Pre-WW2 (1937) but historically it goes hand in hand with Japan’s aggressive stance toward the conquest of China and Asia. Strap in with this one because it is a tough watch at times. The Rape of Nanking is one of the most horrific chapters in modern warfare history to be sure and yeah it was perpetrated by the Japanese Imperial Army, not the Germans.

Can be Viewed on Amazon Prime

Back to 1942

This is one of those movies that has a great cast but did not get great reviews overall. Honestly, I enjoyed it as a War film because it shows the hardship of war on the civilian population. China had it really terrible in WW2, putting up with not only the Japs, but also a Civil War where Communist were taking everything not nailed down for the “State.” (And we all know how that turned out.)

Can be Viewed on Amazon Video

 

Assembly

This is set in 1947 during the Chinese Civil War between Chiang Kai-Shek’s KMT Nationalist Army and the Red Communist led by Mao Zedong.

A really gritty war picture set during a really nasty period in Chinese history.

Can be Viewed on DVD or Streamed Online.

 

My Way

Fascinating true story about a Korean solider who was conscripted by the Japanese Imperial Army, The Soviet Red Army and the Wermacht during WW2. He was captured by American forces on D-Day while fighting with a group of German conscripts.

Read more about this amazing story HERE.

Can be Viewed on Amazon Prime

 

Stay Alert, Stay Armed and Stay Dangerous!

 

World War II Movies Worth A Damn: Fortress of War

 This movie is also called “The Brest Fortress”. -SF

The film is a flawed depiction of the Brest Fortress siege, but rightly celebrates the defenders’ enormous courage.

 

The 2010 Russian-Belarusian film Fortress of War tells the tale of the Soviet men and women defending an exposed, antiquated fortress. As the first to be hit by the titanic German invasion of Russia in June 1941, they held out for an entire month while the Nazis devoured their country.

Featuring beautiful cinematography shot on the site of the actual Brest Fortress, Fortress of War doesn’t shy from portraying the grim toll that act of defiance exacted on the soldiers and civilians who simply refused to give up.

But despite the film’s qualities, the screenwriters commit a major sin of omission, remaining silent on a historical detail that would change our perspective on the film.

Brest Fortress was first built in the 1830s in what is today the country of Belarus, and rests on an island separate from the city of Brest itself. The fort’s old-fashioned battlements seem charming rather than formidable.

The film’s firm sense of time and place is one of its strengths. We are quickly acquainted with various buildings and inhabitants inside the fortress in its pristine pre-siege condition. Every image oozes period detail from the wire-frame glasses to portraits of Joseph Stalin and the hobnails in officers’ boots.

The opening scenes exude nostalgia — the film’s narrator is a young boy, Alexander Akimov, who plays the tuba for “the musical platoon of the 333rd Regiment,” while soldiers and young women dance in the fortress’s sunny courtyard.

There are 300 civilians among the 8,000 soldiers garrisoned in the fort. Young lovers tryst in secret while a portly commissar berates his men on how to better perform a Cossack dance.

This rosy portrait of life in the Stalinist-era Soviet Union may seem strange to Western audiences, and indeed could be called into question given that the Soviet army at the time had recently undergone purges resulting in the execution of 15,000 to 30,000 of its officers. But it’s also a reminder that there were still many in the USSR who led dignified lives before the German invasion.

Read the Remainder at War is Boring