Panfilov's 28 Men

The film is the opposite of what you got used to in the genre of the post-Soviet era cinema. Instead of trying to prove the point or to show some less-known facts, it simply shows the heroic deed of our ancestors. It shows that with vivid details but without gore, with passion but without hysteria. The film raised the first funds used crowdfunding - in the final titles you can see the names of all 30 000 people who managed to help. Tired of the post-Soviet propaganda that was trying to diminish the importance of this period of our history, the society said its word. It was our grandparents who became heroes, it was them who managed to fought back the most powerful army in the world and liberated the oppressed Europe, so we want a proper memorial to their deed. I watched the film 4 times and every time people applauded in the end. The film cuts off mercilessly all the unnecessary flirtation with the viewer. It doesn't have the love story, it doesn't show the stories of the characters, there's no female character. The enemy is shown as a faceless and dangerous swarm that wants to squash the resistance and destroy the land we know and love. The downside of the film is that you better have really good sound system to feel the atmosphere of it. Cannons and tanks, machine guns and Mosin's rifles sound exactly like in the battlefield. When the artillery bombs the trench lines you just wait with the guardsmen for this madness to stop, you want to start fighting back. Similarly to the movie Gravity, I'm afraid that the large part of this effect of the presence will be lost if you just watch the film from your table.

For me who is highly interested in WW2, and especially the Russian front, the ONLY truly amazing Russian film, the most accurate and realistic ever made about this awful period for Stalin's country, is COME AND SEE. Period. In this latest film, Nazis were shown as they really were, I mean the SS Einsatzgruppern units, who were in charge of the civilians slaughters. How can we show them other than evil? But for this kind of topic, which this movie, 28 HEROES, is about, WHY THE HELL SHOW Germans as evil? WHY ??? Germans divisions were made with soldiers who fought for their lives and believed that it was for a just, fair cause. They were soldiers, as the Russians were. There was no good nor evil here. Just losers and winners. That's all. I hate those patriotic movies, German, Russian, British and of course US. Germans, who fought so far from their own Motherland, were authentic fighters too, maybe more than Russians, who fought to defend their land. NOT THE GERMANS. Russians who also needed to be drunken with Vodka to be courageous, Russians who always have Soviet Political commisars on the rear to execute those who were not brave enough to fight the Nazis... You don't see such things here. But that doesn't remove anything to the gigantic grief, suffering of the Russian people who lost more than twenty millions of theirs in this awful war. I only don't this kind of movie, that's all.

Excellent movie, looks at one go until the very end, including titres. Anyone who comes to this movie with popcorn, very quickly ceases to chew. I'm not a military, but the battle scenes in the film look very realistic, but at the same time - without unnecessary cruelty. Also, oddly enough, the film is virtually minimize the use of 3D graphics, instead, uses the classical solution - layouts. Thank you very much the filmmakers who worked on the wear, overcoming difficulties, as our glorious ancestors, on which this film. Special thanks to the sponsors of the shooting, which believe the filmmakers. Let me remind you that the bulk of the money - this is money that people en masse carried, honoring the memory of their ancestors, who won in that war.

You wouldn't believe that the budget of 28 Panfilovtsev is so laughable (1.7 millon $) compared to best Hollywood war movies, because it beats them all hands down. Combat scenes are so beautiful and realistic and gritty, the pace is just amazing and sound is insane. All of it together makes a masterpiece of battle cinematography. Absolutely must see, even if you don't know the language - the combat would move you all the same. But there's another thing you must do in order to understand what these heroes where fighting for. You must read a book from year 1944 called "Volokolamsk highway" by A.Bek which describes the war path of a single battalion in Red Army general Panfilov's (hence the name of the movie) division. The reason you need this book is not because you'll have a great time reading it (especially if you liked this movie), but because the director decided to remove almost every single thing that makes you understand that these are soviet people protecting their soviet motherland (except for insignia and uniform). A good example would be that there is a pronounced depiction of a religious soldier saying a prayer, but there is no communist soldier talking about what a soviet man is with his comrades, or proudly accepting an order with "I Serve Soviet Union!" (analog of "Sir, yes Sir"), or shouting a battle cry "For Stalin! For Motherland!" before leading an attack against nazists - which is actually what people were usually saying in communist Red Army back then. But I think director figured it would be bad for his film to go against the flow of current rampant anti-soviet propaganda in Russia, so this side of the movie turned out to be hypocritically castrated. And to compensate for this I recommend to read "Volokolamsk highway" either before or after watching this nevertheless great movie.

This is an excellent war film about a very straightforward story. Hold your position. That's it. The protagonists are a group of Soviet soldiers from the Russian and -stan republics (Kazakhstan and co.) Not much importance is given to the characters (there's 28 of them, after all) but they have some very interesting discussions about nationhood, war, life and death, quite philosophical for a trench, without being unrealistic or preachy. The bad guys don't need a lot of presentation. We've seen them before in other films, they're Nazis. We are not given more, neither reasons to hate the Nazis (no preaching to a choir) or chest-thumping nationalism or an unsubtle "hidden" anti-Soviet message. The Nazis are advancing to Moscow. These guys want to stop them. It's black and white. Many Russian movies take an opportunity to take a dig at Communism/Stalin at the same time, showing indifference from the state towards its soldiers or pure incompetence. There's none of that here. Politics are not present in this film and other than the usage of tovarishch (comrade) when addressing officers, one would not know that it was the Soviet Union, a communist state, in this battle. There are no Soviet flags, no red anything really. It doesn't change the story either way. It was 28 men against a large group of tanks and infantry. It wasn't empire vs empire. The action is beautifully done and very realistic. There is no unnecessary gore, blood, scalping, decapitation, etc. I don't know how realistic or unrealistic that is. I've seen movies that overdo it (a bullet to the chest causing a waterfall of blood), and although the depiction of gore doesn't bother me, overdoing anything gets boring quickly. In all cases, when people wearing layer upon layer of heavy winter coats get shot, you won't see a lot of blood. The added bonus of not seeing blood is not knowing who is dead and who isn't, who is covered in earth and who is buried alive, who is mortally injured and who is just knocked out. The Russians can feign death and the Germans would not know it, but the Russians could also really be dead and their own men won't know it. It adds a bit of mystery, unpredictability and suspense to the story. The soundtrack is amazing, but let me qualify that. Most of this film is action, so it has action scene music with loud and low (bass) instruments, trumpets and so on. But they still found a way to add three unbelievably beautiful pieces: Rodina (Motherland), Vechnyy Ogon' (The Eternal Flame) and Zimnyy Vals' (Winter Waltz). They're worth buying the soundtrack for. They made me almost cry (at home. The film is not sad at all, at least not for me.) Overall, a very entertaining, even if straightforward film. Best to watch it in the cinema as the experience there is better for such big films. This may not be a film one would want to watch multiple times, but it's really worth seeing, don't miss it.

First of all - a little story about the creation of that picture and it's difference from most of another recent Russian war movies. Since Perestroika in Russian military cinema has began the era of "unmasking". All the directors and screenwriters were tried to make a WWII movie, where Soviet soldiers are portrayed as criminals and idiots and all the Soviet officials are pictured as drunks and butchers. Such a movies were "Shtrafbat", "Burnt by the Sun - 2" and many other. At the same time the creators of such movies has blamed all the Soviet WWII movie classics for it's "propaganda". But most of the citizens of former USSR haven't pay respect for that modern pictures. Soviet classic movies about WWII like "Only "old men" are going into battle", "They have fought for the Motherlad" or "The burning snow" are still considering by millions of Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Kazakh and other people of former USSR as irresistible classics which cannot be replaced by the modern "truth". In addition that old movies are also appreciated for it's soul, great actors performances and respect for the veterans. Finally even the people who creates movies in Russia are got tired of such a disgusting performances as "Shtrafbat". That has happened around 2009 when Andrey Shaliopa has came up with the idea of "The Panfilov's 28 men" - a movie based on a well-known Soviet era legend. Around 2011 (when the crowd-funding campaign of that movie has just begun) the screenwriter and director of "The Panfilov's 28 men" - Andrey Shaliopa - has promised all the people who has funded his picture, that it will be a new attempt to create a Soviet military movie classics. Five years later I can say that he completely fulfill his promise. "The Panfilov's 28 men" is a well-done modern Russian film that is not blaming Soviet WWII movies but revise them in a contemporary technical way with necessary piece of respect. The historical part of the movie is outstanding - all the weapons, guns, tanks are pictured correct. That is a great step forward for a Russian cinema. The actors performances are great, considering there are not many familiar actors in that movie. But all the characters of the soldiers are portrayed trustfully. You can almost believe that one of that soldier is your own grandfather. As resume I highly recommend "The Panfilov's 28 men" for all who likes war movies with fine technical part and plain but realistic plot.

I usually prefer to talk about the a film, what's on the screen and not about what's going and what's being said around it, but I'll make a slight exception. Russia churns out a lot of war films and a lot of films with patriotism as the key (sometimes only) ingredient. There is an understandable fatigue of these films (just like some are tired of comic book or superhero films) so people are now giving low scores to any war film, regardless of its merits. Russia also has a lot of people that love to see Russian films fail. Russia produces a lot of trash and cash-grab (popsa) films so you have people that call everything that comes from Russia as popsa and want to see it fail. No, this film is not a box office failure nor a financial failure. Yes, the budget is underreported, (which is strange considering people want to see bigger budget films) but it seems to have made its money back already. One cannot compare it to American films with bigger budgets, star power, the advantage of English, etc. Without going into spoilers, this film is about a battle, or series of battles, between a Nazi Germany Panzer division and Soviet (Russian and Kazakh) defensive positions. If you want a love story, you've come to the wrong place. If you want a superhero, you've come to the wrong place. Rambo doing it all by himself, taking down the Wehrmacht and killing Hitler himself? Wrong place. This film has been de-Sovietized, reducing references to Stalin, red flags, Marxism, Communism, etc. People seem to take issue with that and feel that this point makes this film a 1/10 film. The fact is defending a trench is defending a trench. It makes no difference if one does it for the union of republics (USSR) or for a particular republic (RSFSR). In this case, the soldiers were defending (the road to) Moscow and it was not inaccurate that they were defending Russia. Yugoslav WW2 films also have people talking about taking/defending particular regions (Slavonia, Vojvodina, Kosovo, Serbia, etc.) and that does not necessarily mean they denied the existence of Yugoslavia. Not that this film has not been de-Sovietized. It has, but it's not such a big deal. People still referred to each other as comrade, and yes, there were not a lot of flags and hammer-and- sickle stuff, but this was an undersupplied unit, lacking both men, guns, ammo and supplies. The production values are quite high and this film lacks the TV-cheesiness of many Russian films and shows. The Russians are not presented as good people, nor are the Nazis presented as evil. There is no need for that. We know who's who. This was like two boxers in the ring - "this is where we are now. Let's settle this." It's dark, without being gloomy and depressing. It's violent without being disgusting. It has professional acting, professional camera work, professional lighting, sound and CGI. The script is not very deep because this is a film about men defending a trench. It sets out to do one thing and does it very, very well. 8/10.

As the first ever crowd-funded movie it came out amazing. The story about men who stood up for their country is not new in cinematography. But the way it was presented in this movie is very special. It's at the same time very simple and keeps you emotionally tense till the very end. The story about men who had to put on the table even more than they had. Who knew that they will die and most likely still won't stop the enemy but still did their best. Main characters are played by the actors of different nationalities that corresponds to the reality of the WWII, when the whole world stepped into a fight. Filming crew did an amazing work on battle action and special effects. This movie really touches the soul.

Devided feelings amongst people of the nations. Who were the murderers to be put to shame, who were the patriots defeating their countries and their freedoms. Do we really know our history ? Do we really know Stalin, Churchill, Hitler and Roosevelt ? I don't think so ! Their motives to accept or reject, to fight or retreat looks to me is like the world stage was occupied by enraged wolfs ready to bite on each other for world hegemony. What did what and who did what is a matter of history which only facts or hidden facts mark the truth. Where the Russians more patriots end others ? in any case they occupied Eastern Europe afterwords so no sympathy for them either. I lost family in the war with relatives send to Siberia as war prisoners. Should I have feelings for the Russian patriotism ? Wasn't Stalin the darkest killer to kill so many Russians ? Was Churchill without blame when Hitler asked many times to end the war and Churchill didn't want to hear ? Was the treaty of Versailles in 1919 fair for Germany ? or rather a bunch of wolfs ready to carve into one nation put to shame and pay tribute for age to come ? Many questions without answer. Thats why the old romans had a word for this : Vae Victis !