Fortress of War (2010)

If you read my title, you might consider the comparison perhaps the most famous American world war epic odd, but I'll explain that shortly.

To get the necessities out of the way--the film describes the fall of the Brest Fotress in far western Belarus (or Byelorussian SSR, in this case). The film does not elaborate on the history, as already pointed out: it does not point out that Brest was captured from Poland just two years earlier, courtesy of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. Nor does it mention the Polish population of Brest, forced west or deported to the east by the government after that fact. And finally, it does not mention that Brest, like the rest of Western Belarus, was subject to a Polish colonization effort after Poland annexed it (during the first Polish-Soviet War, which they won) and under military rule due to conflicts between Poles and Belarusians. All of this is, as it happens, not relevant to the movie makers, and given how few people have heard of the first Polish-Soviet War, the Polonization of West Belarus, or the deportation of Brest's Polish residents, it's not surprising. Outside of the CIS countries and eastern Poland, you'll be surprised to find anyone know knows Belarus is its own country. Brest is a rough, rural, but otherwise idyllic countryside town--unbelievable from a western perspective, perhaps, but not in conflict with survivor narratives we have today, and intended to set up the disaster that follows.

The movie DOES offer some historic context, however--it begins with Major Gavrilov's warning of an impending disaster for Brest, and the Brest Fortress, in the event of a German invasion, though he is dismissed by skeptical comrades more trusting of their country's "ally". When the war begins in earnest, Gavrilov, Commissar Fomin, and Lieutenant Kizhevatov rally a bloody, nearly fanatical defense of their country and, for many, their home against the German invasion. This makes up the meat of the movie, with the narrative of a foster student Sashka, attached to a military band, caught in the middle. The war cinematography is thrilling and exciting, comparable to the aforementioned "Saving...", albeit with an emphasis on brutal close-quarters fighting--exaggerated, potentially, for the necessity of emphasizing the difference between mechanized warfare in the field and indoor fighting in somewhere like Brest or Stalingrad. Seeing the Soviet defenders--mostly Red Army men, joined by die-hard Frontier troops and a few NKVD Rifle Battalion NCOs, from what I see--counter-attack German positions with shovels and chairs as well as rifles and machineguns seems unbelievable at first, but it doesn't clash with the western narrative of a primitive Red Army, or accounts of hand-to-hand fighting from both world wars. The disastrous results that usually follow serve as a reminder that this isn't something fantastical like "Enemy at the Gates" or an optimistic adventure like "Inglorious Bastards". Thhe defenders themselves are portrayed as human and vulnerable, capable of tears, despair and emotion at inopportune times--though it suffers from a "blink and you'll miss it", situation the scant non-Slavs shown in the Red Army.

As a war movie, it's portrayal of the German enemy is naturally important. The Germans are portrayed, as usual, as organized, very competent, and extremely clever--an infiltration scene early on, wherein German commandos impersonate NKVD NCOs to enter the fortress highlights this. However

Fmovies: Sunday shop in Asda Superstore Brighton UK. Always look at new DVD display. Full this week of USA horror and comedy Z movies. This shop also puts new foreign films with subtitles on the display, prices reduced as the lazy Brits still can't be botherd to read a subtitled film. What a lazy bunch some of us are, all though the Norwegion sub titled fun fest that is The Troll Hunter is pulling them in here in Brighton. I digress.I like true history, this film of the heroic defence of the Brest Fortress in June 1941 was something even at my age, 70 I had never heard of.Half way through, it's 138 mins long,I halt it for a cup of tea and said out loud, Hey a real film, no bloody CIC,no American crap heroics,and boy I am looking forward to seeing the rest.In my tea break I find that this fantastic heartbreaking true war film did not even get a UK cinema release. Disgraceful.All the performances are stunning, the film looks great on the wide print. Rent this and learn what barstards the Nazis really were. Highly recommended.

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!

Fortress of War fmovies. This is definitely the best war movie shot in the ex-USSR in post-Soviet time. This is what that war was for our country and our people. The level of fiction and fantasy is minimal; the movie is shot as close to historical truth as possible. The Brest Fortress Museum supervised the plot thoroughly. The Brest Fortress became the place where the German invaders lost 5% of their East Front deadcount within the first week of war. Come have a look on how our granddads fought against the Nazis. There are no starship troopers in the movie; just real Red Army soldiers and a deadly mouse gray mass of German invaders that killed 20+ millions of our compatriots and brought to our country countless loss.

I don't like reading subtitles, but I will for a particularly good movie, and this certainly is one. I also don't normally gravitate toward war movies, but again, I'll make an exception for a good one, and I give this one a 9. It might be even better than that. There is so much for the eye here; I'm very impressed at the amount of work which must have gone into making every shot look so real. Also, the soundtrack was not overwhelming; for the most part, what we see is what carries the emotion, and that is a testament to the power of the events and the quality of the reconstruction of them for this movie.

There's a lot of violence, shooting, dying, etc. here, but not a lot of really nasty gore, which is something I appreciate. I'm sure the reality may have been even uglier than what is shown in this movie, but I don't need to see every last ounce of gore to know that war sucks and people get horribly maimed and killed. What is shown is enough to make the point well.

Very high quality movie; strongly recommended.

A convincing and brutal drama about the war's ugly and scary face, which is as much poignant as it is riveting and engrossing from start to finish.

The doomed fortress of the border town of Brest was built a hundred years before the first onset of German deceitful invasion into the Soviet land at early dawn of June 22, 1941. It had been changing hands several times before, notably in 1918 when it was surrendered to the Germans under notorious Brest Peace Treaty. It was released thereafter to the Poles, then liberated by the Red Army, then transferred to Poland again. Under the Polish administration the fortress was first affected by German air raid in 1939 and significantly damaged under the massive onslaught of the German troops.

Before the end of 1939 the city of Brest (and its fortress) was finally incorporated into the Soviet Union. By the commencement of war, the Brest fortress was a home to a number of Soviet military units - infantry battalions, reconnaissance and artillery regiments, miscellaneous attached units and troops, all-in-all up to 8000 servicemen and several hundreds of their families, wives and children were stationed therein.

The film starts unfolding peacefully on the eve of the war - a regular day in the lives of ordinary people in a military compound - orchestra rehearsals, dancing, shopping, kisses, Saturday evening film screening - the late peaceful everyday routine...

Persistent rumors that the Germans were cranking up preparations for a breakthrough on the border were considered as sabotage and eventually suppressed. But anticipation of imminent disaster was intensified by a particularly creepy late night scene of the special vanguard troops disguised in Soviet military uniform disembarking from a train following subdued German language orders.

Heavy artillery fire that all of a sudden pierced silence at the daybreak of June 22 instantly inflicted heavy human and material losses, disrupted communication, cut off power supply and destroyed military munitions. Followed by meticulously coordinated combat assault immediately afterward, it took the inhabitants by surprise and split the garrison into several relatively small and isolated pockets of nevertheless pretty fierce resistance.

Under massive German attacks the city was defeated fairly early, whereas the small number of the besieged Brest fortress survivors with scarce resources, deprived of food, water and medicine, and with narrowing hope for reinforcement or backing from the retreating regular forces, kept on defending the small plot of Soviet land against the invaders for many days.

Though the essence of the story is certainly a portrayal of the valor of Soviet soldiers that lost their lives defending the first citadel and symbol of Russian resistance, the film manages to avoid as much as possible worn-out heroic clichés and propagandistic pathos that were often compulsory elements even in the best examples of Soviet war movies of the past. Yet, unlike many politically engaged modern movies, it resists the temptation to deride the peculiarities of Soviet lifestyle of that time and to speculate on the popular issues of "Stalinist regime's atrocities".

Instead, the film focuses on accurate capturing of a full range of authentic human emotions from joy, love and devotion at the early beginning of the film through angst, fear and pain as it progresses to hopelessness and despair. It tells the frightening story of regular people, which lives were turned upside down ov