A well done war movie

edmundlyy

Greetings to all Russian friends, I'm thrilled to see you produced another great war film "Podolskiye kursanty"!

Russian war films has a good reputation among Chinese military fans circle, due to its high production quality, accurate depiction of detail such as weapons\tactics\historical events, and most importantly, the shining light of collectivism spirit which big budget Hollywood films often lack of."Podolskiye kursanty" is definitely the latest example which checks all the great Russian war film boxes.

First of all, the fighting scenes are so satisfying! Great special effects and stunts, also the detail of props. Not only I'm entertained by this film, but I also learned real historical military knowledge: AT gun tactic, fortification building, combined assault etc. So few war films can deliver double satisfaction like this one.

Secondly, I have a feeling this film doesn't insult viewer's intelligence (a Chinese saying means the film doesn't have ridiculous\unbelievable parts for the sake of advancing plot or promoting certain value). At that time, the Germans were still a fierce fighting force, they're well-trained, highly-disciplined and better armed than the red army, not to mention they had air superiority at battlefield. On the other side, USSR had been pushed against the wall, enemies were at the gate of Moscow. In this desperate situation, the young cadets of Podolsk were sent to the front line. So naturally not a fair fight, and the film has accurately shown this. You can often see the Germans reacted swiftly to cadets' ambush, they adjusted theirs positions then launched counter-attack, like what a veteran troop would do in this situation. Each small victory over the Germans requires huge sacrifice from the cadets, and for this reason their bravery and sacrifice can become believable.

This film has been released for sometimes now, it's quite a pity that so few reviews and low score of this film. So that's why I gave this film 8/10 and a long review. If you're a military fans, do not miss this great film!

A Chinese Comrade
2021-03-06

score 8/10

edmundlyy 6 March 2021

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6665556/