This is the name of Akunin’s novel from the series ' On the Brudershaft with Death' I remember reading it, I was shocked by the story of the girls who went to the front of the First World War. And here's the movie. That's right, capitalized. . .
The First World War was ridiculed and slandered in Soviet times, crossed out and half-forgotten. After a century, we know almost nothing about it. And I'm just glad that finally appear, even if the few tapes telling about it. Because even then (let’s discard the jealous Bolshevik cliché of worthlessness and incompetence) Russian people fought for their Fatherland, for their home, fought heroically, without sparing themselves in the name of Russia. After all, hell, from there, yes - it was from there that the immortal came to us - ' The Russians do not give up!' - the cry of the defenders of the Osovets fortress, who took a deadly fight, whom the Germans tried to strangle with gas.
And there were women among those people. They took up arms when everything was falling into the abyss, when the country was falling into the suicidal heat of revolution. They took the fight. . .
Those who in their reviews snobbishly water this film with dirt, probably did not smell gunpowder. How good it is for you to reason, sitting on a soft chair - then it is not so, it is not so. What do you know about the emotions of war, about what it can move people? ': Unbelievable queue at the recruiting station. Pregnant women in the ranks carry a heavy machine gun & #39; I’m sure you wouldn’t have been there!
I really liked the director's reception - showing touches, episodes from the lives of the heroines and heroes of the film. They are brought to the screen at a fateful moment - both for the country and in their lives. It's an episode of their being. Only an episode, but for many it is the last, for some it is perhaps the most significant. And we see them during this 'lightning shine'.
Beautifully shot battle scenes! It’s great to see how our film industry is growing!
And finally, there was no nudity on the screen (although a film about women). I bow to the tact of the creators 'Battalion'.
Maria Aronova, who would have thought, I am amazed by the power and truthfulness of the image she created. Just as strong, convincing and truthful are the other girls - every one of them. But it is impossible not to say about the game of men - what powerful, stunning images! An officer uttering a revolutionary agitator in front of the formation; ' You are a creature!', a colonel of the General Staff, tearing off his epaulettes in order to gain the right to go to death - they are magnificent!
Low bow to the creators ' Battalion' for one of the most heartbreaking, terrible and majestic films about the war, for the fact that they caused the memory of the women and men of Russia who fought and died for it out of the darkness of undeserved forgetting!
10 out of 10
How could you possibly like this movie? Either Maria Kozhevnikova spoiled the film with her small presence (the agitation for United Russia affects, and there is not enough time for rehearsal, respectively), or a small resemblance to the historical truth.
You just watch the movie and think it's everyone's fault. Everyone but ourselves. Here are the insidious Communists who sabotaged the readiness of the army. Evil German occupiers who drank our soldiers under the pretext of fraternization. Our Russian men who beat women for nothing. Weak officers unable to find the right words for a soldier. People who are angry with women.
Of course, Maria Bochkareva's battalion is pathetic. But the film doesn’t capture the tragedy. Okay, a set of some negative stamps. They show some stupid people, not heroic women. Here, for example, they crawl on the German. Crawling quietly to take them by surprise. And about 200 meters away, everyone jumps up and starts shouting 'URA!' of course, the German hears everything and just shoots with a machine gun. Why did you cry? Apparently a director's find. There's a lot of that in the movie. It's even unpleasant to watch in places.
It seems that they wanted to make a beautiful historical film, but it turned out to be some nonsense.
First of all, I am proud to say that I did not have any preconceptions about the film in advance (agree that such optimism about the multimillion-dollar blockbuster under the production leadership of Bondarchuk is extraordinary). More to say – the hopes were: Meskhiev is still not Bondarchuk, and Ugolnikov the same with the “Brest fortress”...
Alas and ah, by the end of the viewing nothing but Bondarchuk, no longer saw or heard. I write with a lowercase, because for the current domestic cinema, Bondarchuk is no longer a real figure, an evil genius of a kind (much honor!), but a complex diagnosis. (Here is his father, he was an artist among other masters.) The current Bondarchuk is when the goal is set to do everything according to the average Western patterns, to plot from the original history, national legend, biography of the national hero - an international high-budget hamburger ... but at the same time to give the result as a product as if national. Beef à la rus.
“Battalion” is good actors, luxurious texture – scenery, costumes – and an absolutely primitive script that creeps into rags due to the overwhelming helpless pathos and sentimentality. The director “does beautifully”, and all sorts of trifles, such as a sense of proportion and taste, logical coherence of what is happening and at least some depth of characters with a calm soul sends overboard.
Characters for the writer and the director who followed him are soulless cardboard figures that must perform a set of ritual actions that look spectacularly on the screen (and this despite the fact that among them are not only unknown girls from the battle of death, but historical figures – the same Kerensky). A terrible turning point, a colossal historical drama, from which their origins and today’s days derive, is replaced by a sour (girls)-battle (boys) burda. Your will, but remembering the rich literary and cinematic traditions of the story of those terrible years, it is impossible not to return to the comparison of the conditional Bondarchuk and Bondarchuk.
The first scene that comes to mind - a meeting of an aristocratic soldier on the platform with a wounded groom, whom she had long buried, leads to memories of the "Forty-First" Chukhray. How miserly, how powerful the theme of the conflict of love and duty sounds there – and for this the viewer will easily forgive the director and screenwriter awkward literature like this meeting at the station. And “Battalion” is a liquid pink water to “sensitive” music: “Open your eyes, I love you so much, I love you so much!” And then the wounded Petya will raise the degree of absurdity even more, appearing to Kerensky at the moment when he will watch a front-line movie about his, Petya, the bride (surprise!), and effectively splitting a full tray of glasses.
Coupled with husbands and other sudden relatives suddenly climbing out of the bushes, we get – right! – Indian cinema (the same concept has long been a household name).
The general idiocy of what is happening is supplemented by the view of the screenwriters about the war: the Germans undertake to capture completely empty Russian trenches only after the appearance of women soldiers who treacherously refused schnapps and sausage there, and they, in turn, illuminate their secret night attack with a wall of fire along the line of their own trenches. “There is nowhere to retreat!” the heroine proclaims with a breath. “So that it would be more convenient for the Germans to aim at silhouettes?” even such a profane in military affairs as I ask. “Shoots what!” – beats in delight the Director (and rather the producer).
In short, a costume attraction, another “great movie about the great war”. An example of the patriotism so perniciously spread now of the bottling, about which Rozanov once wrote: “10 officials in the uniform of the Ministry of Education, each of whom was a spy and a winch, taught him [the boy] ... “to be a patriot.” And he hated his country.” I will not let my children near the Battalion. Let the wars of German and civil watch the real great cinema of this great country – Gerasimov’s “Quiet Don”, for example.
Everyone who saw it from my acquaintances was scolded in the film, but I had to figure it out personally. I saw it. In a nutshell, it’s a p...c. I can't find any other words. Now the details.
Spectacular. The only thing that's more or less decent about this scooter. Not everywhere, but the scenes of battles, at least in places, you can even watch. Although there are many questions (for example, on the bayonet (!) attack in gas masks). However, here at least 4 points on a five-point scale pull.
Directing. The director here announced Meskhiev, but along the way I constantly had the feeling that I was watching another netlenka from Fedechka, it was painfully frankly sticking out the ears of the Ninth Company in half with Stalingrad. Scenes in the training, for example, ripped almost one at a time, and much more similarly. Did Bezdarchuk shoot half of the film? He was only a producer, but was he? But if “The Ninth Company” was a good enough film, if “Stalingrad” was an average, but sometimes a spectacular melodrama, then there is a frank secondary stamping. Not a single (!) original move, all without exception tricks played to the holes, and even in Hollywood. And the performance leaves, to put it mildly, much to be desired.
Screenplay. To be honest, I don’t want to comment at all. The characters are not completely disclosed, the “battalion” behave almost all the time as complete idiots, men are no better (the only exception is a soldier named Zubov, agitating for the end of the war, and generally behaves as it should have been in those days), plus an incredible pathos combined with a huge pile of stamps and Hollywoodism. For the first time in my life in a military movie, I supported the Germans against the so-called “ours”, to such an extent they annoyed me with their idiocy. The only advantage of the scenario can only be called that in Shydevr, oddly enough, there is no anti-Soviet, that for a modern Russian kin is an achievement.
Acting. Terrible, to put it mildly. The characters are either cardboard to the point of impossibility, or frankly caricatured, the girls from the Battalion are absolutely indistinguishable from each other, play at the level of the color of their form and do not cause absolutely any sympathy, let alone sympathy. Compared to them, for example, the girls from the new Zor are simply brilliant actresses, even Asmus and Malakhova. Some single out Aronov in this nightmare, others scold Kozhevnikova. Comrades! Kozhevnikova is absolutely no worse than the others, they are all equally terrible, and her partner (who from the title poster) personally annoyed me much more. As for Aronova, then, firstly, to play exactly 2 emotions (a sergeant-mortar fighter from the training camp and a woman-suffererer with snot), this does not mean to play, and, secondly, a person in military uniform with such a figure, and even forcing his wards to overcome the obstacle course for a while (!) causes frank bewilderment and only one question: will he overcome this lane at least half without falling down with a bag?
Credibility. I would like to divide this item into 2 parts: historical and authenticity of what is happening on the screen. On the second point, I traditionally quote Stanislavsky: “I do not believe!” I don't believe anything I've been shown. I don’t believe in the patriotic pathos of the “battalion”, I don’t believe in officers, “kissey ladies”, I don’t believe in American cliches, hysterical emotions and so on and so forth. As for the actual historical authenticity, everything is traditionally very “good”. Starting with Kerensky, who headed the Provisional Government immediately (!) after the February Revolution and ending with the “battalion women” sleeping in the barracks in nightclubs (!!!) and overcoming the obstacle course aki modern special forces, instead of relying on those days to practice marching and executing commands. Separately, I want to say about the revolt against the removal of Bochkareva. Here, the writers have turned everything inside out. In reality, 80% of the young ladies who enlisted in the Battalion soon turned against their commander, and precisely because of her assault. The comments are superfluous.
A general impression. I quote one commenter, with whom I fully agree: “I expected it to be bad, but I didn’t expect it to be so bad.” I haven’t seen such a bad war movie since Die Hard (US-2 doesn’t count, it’s not a war movie at all). The script, full of Hollywood stamps and incredible pathos, cardboard characters, fully corresponding to them acting, frankly secondary production and traditional historical lies - this is a complete bouquet from the creators of this syllabus.
3 out of 10
Calca from our time, a kind of mirror of a generation transferred to a hundred years ago. An unambiguous picture, which is formed after watching the movie “Battalion”.
God did not want to write any reviews for this film, it is a very painful and multifaceted topic. In general, I did not want to evaluate it, because it is very difficult for me, a person who loves and knows history, to give an objective assessment of the “cinema” components of the film: the script, acting, directing, the relevance of special effects, naturalism. And it is difficult precisely because in historical films, pretending to be an open history lesson, the key point for me was precisely the correspondence of historical reality. But I promised myself and the whole film I pulled myself at any thought to kick the authors for the playfulness, not plausibility, for girls carrying unbearable machine guns, for a pregnancy not detected at a medical examination, for too exaggerated queue in the unthinkable, at that time, female military formation. And you know, I was tempted to scold myself about any shortcomings, because first I went to the cinema about my favorite era, and then I found another reason: the cinema that appeared in a timely manner and not in vain so caressed by the Ministry of Culture. And I understand that all these minor shortcomings can be closed eyes, because they are leveled by the idea, the essence of the film.
Here I watch a movie, I begin to get a little tired of the still protracted and already too pathetic plot and what I see: men do not want to fight, men calmly react to foreign intervention, men organize all sorts of societies for the protection of human rights, men strive to share the good and women begin to engage in men’s work, perform men’s duties. The moans begin about the masculinization, about the fact that peasants score on the laws of justice and honor, and the moans grow into screams, and the screams are exclusively female. Here's a man beating a woman, everyone calmly watches and even supports it. And then I realize that I watch the news of the first channel or read today’s newspaper, got to “Let them talk” or “House 2”, or maybe just skip a glass of latte with my friends who do not understand why we need to protect Donbass. Shake my head off. No, no, I'm sitting in a movie theater watching a movie set in 1917.
One question that tormented me until the last moment was “Why?” Towards the end, I grew tired of moral emptiness. The authors throw the entire battalion and spectators with him on bayonets of indifference and too painfully whip this “Why?” Why are women here? Why do they need this war? Why were those unable to fight sent to the front? Why do these incapacitated begin to attack, if the war is already, consider it not. The arguments of pacifists, peasants with red bows, are too convincing: in their native villages, the land will now be divided without us, and we are fighting here with ordinary Germans, with soldiers as miserable as we were, who found themselves in a war unnecessary to anyone. And this heavy cart with the question "Why?" the director pushes uphill. The climax at the peak of this mountain: the front is not saved by women thrown to the forefront. I missed them. The last argument for climbing to the fight for men with red bows was the valor of the hated officers who tear off the epaulettes and go to save both women and the Motherland.
This may be the answer to the question, what will save Russia? Are they women? Yeah, no. After all, honor, honor of a real Russian man, a true patriot. Honor and valor of people who have not yet sold their conscience.
The Battalion film is extremely atypical for modern Russian cinema. The main difference, of course, is honesty and openness. Few films are able to show truly difficult events for the country and people without sliding into a blatant black hole. Although without this, the film came out very heavy.
Yes, and the time of action chosen is very unusual. The First World War, in our country, and not only in it, it is customary to keep silent. It was both tragic and ridiculous at the same time. In addition, the film tries to show us not the heroism of our army, but the moment of its greatest collapse.
This is the key flaw of the film, it is too simple and one-sided interpretation of events. Here are our enemies the Germans - they are bad, here are the soldiers' committees mainly composed of red - they are bad, here is the command consisting of whites - they are bad, but the heroic women's battalion - and they are the only good.
I do not at all belittle the feat of these women, and I want to ask: did no one else fight for their country besides them? How strange looks in the modern picture the complete absence of halftones.
The film leaves behind a heavy aftertaste, you seem to understand that then there were truly fatal events for the country, but you can not believe that they happened this way.
6 out of 10
Let me start with the fact that before watching this film, I looked at the opinion of people from a dozen forums, and at each of them, at least 50% of the masses, said one thing: “The film is empty, as stupid patriotism usually showed.”
What do you want to say about a war movie? This is not a Hollywood action movie where Stallone, Statham and Schwarzenegger can destroy the army of a small state without even sweating.
This is fucking war! There is no other way.
War, a people's war, which shows both love and friendship, and cunning and betrayal.
We are used to the fact that in each film, the hero, after the death of a loved one, grabs a machine gun and begins to crush enemies left and right. So, dear ones, this will never happen in life! In life there will be only blood, sweat and tears.
Yes, I, like everyone else, the whole film was waiting for some miracle that usually happens in any movie, but only at the end I realized that the true miracle is when officers are ready to give up their rank, their title, literally everything, just to get into battle and help their own, when women, receiving funerals about their loved ones, from pain and despair flee to the front, this is the real miracle, and not Hollywood muddle.
Do not think that the state is trying to force a ton of patriotism into you so that you hate Obama and the whole of America ... no one needs this, you will understand everything yourself, sooner or later you will go to the front, if God forbid war begins.
10 out of 10
There are women in Russian villages, but there are no men. Bogatyrs were quickly replaced by fools-Ivan and lazy-Emeli, and by 1917, according to Meskhiev, the Russian land had raised only cowards and parasites. And while some ate German sausage in the trenches and danced a lone lender, others, snacking on red caviar, signed documents on the creation of female death battalions. "To raise morale," you say? Well, well. And since when does the throat of a seventeen-year-old girl, crushed by a cherry boot, awaken patriotic feelings?
Yes, there were women in the war, and that is a fact. But the fact is shameful, regrettable, does no honor to anyone. War doesn't have a woman's face. And if Stanislav Rostotsky (“And the dawns are quiet here”) or Sergey Mokritsky (“Battle for Sevastopol”), putting on their heroines a soldier’s uniform, admired their courage with bitter regret, with fatherly care, then Meskhiev makes dirty domestic violence with his film. In the scene of the beating of Bochkareva, where no man or woman stood up for her, you can see the whole attitude of the director.
What is immediately alarming, the creators, having shaved the performers of the main roles, immediately forget that they are the representatives of the weaker sex. None of the scenes would have lost anything if—instead of fragile girls—young men had barely fledgled. In most cases, it would even seem more logical. One is told, “You are too fat!” and he grabs a poker and bends it into a ram’s horn. Hey, big guy! The other begins to rot and establish his own order, barely getting into the barracks. Bully and scoundrel! The third stands up for the weak - a noble soul, a future commander! Meskhiev forgets that it is not normal for women to bully each other and say “Are you OK?” Meskhiev seems to have no idea that falling on the stomach and chest for a woman is much more terrible than getting between the legs for a man. Finally, Meskhiev even tries to convince us that a woman can go along with her sexual instincts and ask the commander for a date. Honestly, after that, only the scene where a battalion of Russian women rapes boys from the Hitler Youth is missing.
The inability to comprehend the “mysterious female soul” fails the director when trying to develop his characters. If the play of Maria Aronova speaks for itself and does not require other artistic tricks, then the other girls remain eggheads with extremely simple motivation. The plot lines are cut short before they have time to start properly: the axelbant passes from one to another, without shedding light on their inner experiences. Dusya loses his place in the frame in three minutes, freezing in the image of a “healthy woman without brains”. Tatishcheva is given about half an hour, and when it seems that she has all the salt of the story, she is rudely removed from the story. Faith, so confident looking into the lens of the first half of the film, waiting for his turn, barely utters half a word. Tragic events that begin to slowly replace household military training in the second hour of the film do not cause any emotions. Meskhiev, obviously, thought that the killing of innocent girls will work on a subconscious level, but the viewer is not so easy to forget that the fairy tale is a lie, and that all these shaved-headed ladies adorn the covers of glossy magazines. In the end, everyone was waiting for an artistic picture, not just a video where kittens / children / women are tortured.
The "inspiring" end of the film is absolutely inappropriate: it's not seventeen years old, and female suicide battalions will not save anyone's war. Yes, it is true that women in Russia could always enter a burning hut and stop a horse at a jump. But to sing an ode to female courage have the right only real men, who neither on the screen nor, apparently, on the set was not seen.
A review of such films should not be written earlier than in a day, because the opened emotions entail a sense of patriotism and compassion for the history of the people, which does not allow making criticism objective, which is expected by those for whom it is described.
'No praise, no scolding'
Let me start with the main thing that this Russian film from the series ' do not praise, do not scold' - I just did not find anything to justify expectations, or exceed them. I got an indirect idea in the form of a film adaptation of fragments of small information that is currently available in the world about those events a hundred years ago, which I was convinced of by getting acquainted with the history of these individuals in historical sources after watching in a fit of interest. Needless to say, relying on only a few facts, by the way, not protected from censorship of the USSR - the state that lay between ' Forgotten' the war and our century, which guided the director - the picture was doomed to an unsaid plot against the background of made ' hastily' locations and special effects.
Ambience.
Alas, I didn't feel it. The whole film did not leave me the feeling of watching a theater production. With each change of episodes, it was as if I heard a voiceover ' Camera-motor-go' and so on the whole session. Perhaps this is due to a certain feature of the mentality of Russian filmmakers to make films for screening on TV when they are waiting in theaters, however, I do not undertake to assert his weakness or dignity in this, remaining on a neutral opinion.
I did not allow to plunge into the atmosphere and what is a consequence of my above remarks, the images of the heroes are too fresh, the streets are too clean, and the war is too peaceful, when the elementary realities, built on the logic of those times, present the opposite.
In memory of Maria Bochkareva is dedicated.
Of course, I was somewhat shocked by the unjust, seemingly historical ending of the life of the aforementioned woman, and this after watching her and others like her for two hours, gritting their teeth, lifting the Russian spirit on their own shoulders. However, even the available sources of information do not confirm the execution of the sentence by the Bolshevik system and there are facts of her long life, largely due to which she was rehabilitated in 1992, however, the pages of the history of the whole world are not enough to list all the unnamed victims of the unjust years of the twentieth century.
It is worth paying tribute to the ideologists of the tape ' Battalion' for perpetuating the name of the hero of the country, which they are so needed - to remember.
Conclusion about the film.
For me it is strange, but really my respect from watching this tape deserves the female cast and it is for the courage to star in such, because many scenes are not typical of the track record of actresses, and the scenes in which they happened to watch – do not go out of memory until now.
6 out of 10
We demand, excuse me, release the commander and send him to the army.
Honestly, I don’t want to talk about a specific plot, cast, or the prosperity/decline of Russian cinema. I want to draw the full palms of only the fundamental, something more, that this film carries. To understand, to understand, to feel.
The first thing I want to mention is the theme of the First World War. Russian history is rich in bloodshed, innumerable courage of its heroes, pain and suffering of loved ones, sincere love for their homeland. So the material for the scripts of war films is unlikely to ever dry up and will not touch the souls of the audience. But still, the First World War does not appear so often, and its history is no less interesting and important for us, descendants.
The creation of women's units in the army is not such a common practice, although we have heard about the exploits and achievements of individual girls / women. This and bribes the film, first of all, the fact that it is not just a beautiful fiction for extracurricular work of the lacrimal glands. This is a story based on real events, on the fates of real people who spare nothing for their country.
And the most important thing that this picture shows and proves is that no matter how much a woman does not want to take revenge, fight, protect her loved ones, no matter how she trains, learns to handle weapons and overcome obstacles - this is not why she was created.
It is not inherent in its nature to kill/rape, it is called to give birth, to continue the family, to be the cause of liberation movements and to preserve the peaceful sky above its head. She's the future. As symbolized by his heroine Maria Kozhevnikova.
Their name is Battalion or "Oba-na Corner Show Continues."
Honestly, nothing good from the next creation of the production group Bondarchuk, I did not expect. Weak script, weak directing, bet was made on spectacular battle scenes and such fashionable slow effects. The characters are so faceless that if you start to remember the names of the characters, then only Bochkareva and this one come to mind, played by Allochka from 'Univera'. This is not surprising, casting specialists decided not to scratch their heads with the selection of actors, but took a gamuse and recruited all of the TNT and CTS sitcoms. Heroes of TV series 'Univer'. 'Eighties' et al. looked very comical in new roles, although they tried to show themselves in all other ways. A lot of random characters, which are focused on, for example, the thin Kerensky performed by the fattened Basharov, resembles a KVN parody rather than a historical character. The cameraman of a women’s battalion with endless film reminded me of the current inhabitants of our planet, everything and everything filming on mobile phones. If I saw this cameraman trying to do ' selfie' in the background of a fight, I wouldn't be surprised.
Maria Aronova is the only bright character in this film. Dramatic character. Strong character. She made this movie really tragic. A female officer who loves her country, hates her enemies, but like most Russian women, she is obedient to her husband. The scene with her beating husband, in bloodlust, can rival Tarantino and Gibson. But even here, personally to me, Aronova everywhere seemed to be the mother of Vanya from 'Eighties'.
Maria Kozhevnikova is a separate topic. There are actors of one role, or rather one role, and in another role they look even more comical and ridiculous. The heroine of Kozhevnikova, outwardly, is still the same fool from 'Univera', but only struggling to look smart. The staged, or rather replayed role of the noblewoman, poorly spelled out in the script, was turned by Kozhevnikova into a comic character, with a clearly done tear, trying to look serious sometimes it seemed that she was about to scream so thinly: ' Yes, I order you, as a deputy of the State Duma!'. It was obvious that she was trying to get out of 'Univer', but it turned out the opposite. Probably, the writers also noticed this, and in the end ' pregnant' They were removed from the plot.
More of the characters to single out no one, they are all kind of flat and faceless, it is clear that the filmmakers wanted to cram into an hour and a half film everything that they had in mind, and looking at the number of screenwriters, and there are as many as four, it seems that each of them wrote his part of the film, which then just glued. Special attention will be paid to the work of makeup artists and costumers. As always, everything is licked and clean. Always a new form that does not get dirty from sea sand or mud. Always clean hair and faces, clean cars. You know, but I happened to star in a cameo role in one of Tregubovich’s films, the extras played the role of prisoners who are driven to Siberia, so fabricating faces, giving them the appearance of emaciated and unwashed, no one paid attention to the hands of the prisoners, who remained white and clean. Noticing the episode was reshooted, forcing everyone to stain their hands, clothes and shoes profusely. In ' Battalion' no makeup. Otherwise, how to explain these failures with eternal purity (pure 'Tide').
The film was promising, expected, it could make a beautiful, albeit disposable, movie, but did not work out.
The conclusion is as follows - that no charge Tsekalo - all ' Stilags' it will turn out that neither give Bondarchuk - all '9 company'...
The money of the Ministry of Culture was wasted, but the audience wasted time.
Traditional
I think not many before the release of the military drama 'Battalion' knew about the female officer Maria Leontievna Bochkareva, including myself. A completely unfamiliar page from the story and mostly positive reviews from viewers and critics, an interesting trailer and Maria Aronova in the title role - this is what prompted me to watch this tape last night.
War films, especially this year, Russian producers shot not a little, but ' Battalion' favorably different from them. First of all, the era . In the courtyard is not the Second World War, about which a great many films were shot, but the era of the revolution of 1917. Tsarist Russia, the First World War and its key moments - this is the main landscape & #39; Battaliona' on which the main events of the military tape unfold.
Of course, many in this film will see similar moments with the imperishable work ' And the dawns here are quiet' Boris Vasiliev. At the head of the story are women, the main deaths are women, the battalion is women. However, the story of the women’s battalion of death personally did not bother me as much as the story of the girls from '. If in Vasilyev’s book and the Soviet (not new) film adaptation we are worried about girls, turning our whole soul inside out, then in ' Batalionje' the death of girls, almost children, does not cause the proper response.
Maybe it's the "b" part of the cast. The blasphemous "Kozhevnikova" : whether the actress, or the deputy, or something in between, could not convey to the viewer the whole essence of her character. For me, her appearance in the picture did not remember one iota, except in the scene of saying goodbye to her hair. I don’t understand the purpose of the character. Masha appears in the picture literally for an hour, and then disappears as indistinctly as she appeared. Most likely, the girl finished shooting in the film because of her pregnancy, which was woven into the storyline, and she crossed out.
But special 'fi' - the appearance in the picture Alexander Oleshko. Let it be for a few seconds, albeit in a fragment of a black and white film at the beginning of the epic. The eye cut mercilessly. Immediately before my eyes stood all sorts of entertainment shows, and to take seriously shown on the screen action I failed. Gentlemen-creators, stop taking KVN-makers, TV presenters and actors from cheap sitcoms into serious cinema, you spoil the image of yourself and the picture!
Almost 70% of the success of the film belongs to only one person – Maria Aronova. This brilliant theater actress has always evoked the most positive emotions in me with her charm and play. But in 'Batallionnee' she hit hard. Similar in appearance to the real Maria Bochkareva, she also conveyed the whole palette of her character. Tough, combative, disciplined, daring, persistent ... but still vulnerable woman. Throughout the film, we reveal Bochkarev as a strong player in combat, and immediately we see the tears of a compassionate woman. After a disgusting scene with her beating, Bochkareva, despite the pain, gets up from her knees and moves on. Here is a model of a real Russian woman! Aronova herself is an example of a magnificent theater school.
Historical and military films, such as 'Battalion' are undoubtedly needed by the modern audience in order to introduce the new generation to people of such magnitude as Bochkareva. However, creators need to understand WHAT and WHY you are doing this. If the picture becomes an additional PR for pseudo-actors, then it is better not to stick to the milestones of history at all. If you want to convey something new, hitherto little-known, then you need to dig deeper into the history and attract new, unblown faces to projects. Judging by 'Battalionw', dismissing Kozhevnikova and Oleshko, Russian film production is moving in the right direction.
It is worth adding that the debutants of the big screen, shot before that mainly in small quality miniseries or playing in the theater, made a proper impression. Especially Yanina Malinchik, who played a manish Dusya, and divinely beautiful Lera Shkirando, who played Vera.
The rating is positive, but with a bias towards neutrality. Still, the minuses ' Bataliona', even if you do not take possible historical inaccuracies, obvious.
7 out of 10
The look of Maria Aronova burned tears on my cheeks. It's not just a movie, it's an epochal story, real, real, alive, that takes you by the breasts and shakes you with all your might! It is so emotional, gutting in a good sense the soul of the movie, so incredible and hurtful that in you, if you are the most blinkered, faint-hearted and small person, a feeling of genuine admiration, admiration for these fragile women buried under the war will wake up.
I just want to get up and scream what a movie it is! Separately, I would like to highlight just the GREAT acting of Maria Aronova, her INCREDIBLE and UNIQUE character has forever entered my heart, I bow to her genius, and I love her character incredibly!
Some magazine reviews write some frank murmur about the fact that the purpose of the story is lost, that there are no clear characters, that everything turned out bad ... Let all these paisalkas go in chorus to wipe their asses, because for such nonsense they should be fired and forbidden to write at all, because even under the microscope in these opuses you can not find a shadow of objectivity or brains of the writers, let alone talent or professional dignity.
Watch this movie, it will bring out the best in you as a person.
Thank you to everyone who worked on it. Thank you very much.
What do you want to say about this creation? Exceptionally positive words. By nature, a rather strong and tragic film that reveals the very Russian masculine mentality, but from the beautiful female side. Who better than a woman can motivate a lazy Russian man to exploits? Which was shown in a fascinating story. I am very pleased to write a review of such a picture.
The first thing that I want to note is the absence of vulgarity and other nudity in the picture. Throughout the film, I had hoped not to see or hear it, and to my pleasant surprise I never saw or heard it. It’s a huge plus to creativity!
The second is violence. Of course, the average viewer does not feel what brave people (in this case courageous women) felt when they were in a terrible bloody war. It is worth noting that the performance of the actors was at a high level, and throughout the entire viewing of the film, the viewer can completely wrap himself and his mind around what is happening on the battlefield, and feel what was there. On the battlefield. This is reflected in the picture as well as possible.
Third, there is no Western pathos. It's like you can single-handedly kill an entire company with direct combat skills for just a couple of months. Here, the viewer will see the real truth, the reality that awaits when watching this kind of movie. Eh-mo-chi-i! I saw the real emotions of the actors.
For a long time I wanted to write this review of the wonderful picture of Dmitry Meskhiev, but still could not find the right words for my positive impressions. Separately, I want to note the main character of the movie, Maria Aronova, the game was flawless.
Without further ado, this film should be viewed by every Russian male, because this picture will cause the viewer unprecedented pride and patriotism.
Massive advertising and laudatory odes are not a guarantee that viewers will fall into cinemas. Producer Ugolnikov decided to repeat the success 'Brest Fortress', but did not take into account that the Great Patriotic War is closer to the viewer than the First World War. So the collections of the picture are much lower than expected. And the script, despite the fact that it was done by as many as four people, had to be rewrote over and over again, brought to mind, because it is the weakest point of this picture.
Director Dmitry Meskhiev shot two wonderful films with which he will go down in the history of Russian cinema - ' Own' and 'Mechanical Suite'. ' Battalion' - his loud, sensational before the premiere, failure. Someone will say, what are the claims against the director? That's good. That's good. It even feels like the director is savoring the murders of women. They are shown beautifully and carefully. Close-up. Only Meskhiev personally had a hand in the script. And choosing good scripts is not only the task of the producer, but also the director.
I think with horror that, after all, most likely, to win back the money, they will do as with many films recently – they will complement and make it out of ' Batalliona' series. The problem is that the picture is so boring and drawn-out (more than two hours of screen time) that if you make a series out of it, it will be unseeable.
Claims to the script - constant pianos in the bushes and lack of logic. I am afraid of spoilers, but the behavior of the characters defies any explanation. The Baba soldier suddenly weeps like a child, tearfully - although she had to get used to corpses - she has been fighting for years. Then, characteristically, she leads the Death Battalion 39 (as it is called in historical documents) into an attack, forgetting about the hysterics. The Soldiers’ Committee does not want to support the belligerent mood of the Provisional Government, but suddenly changes its opinion. In general, there are inconsistencies.
Maria Aronova is playing well. But she has to paint a character too contradictory to believe. Falshak and again false.
Of course, the writers tried to create the so-called great Hollywood style. Even in some places in the beginning, gags were scattered, which, however, do not save the helplessness of the production.
In addition, the authors of the film firmly stand on the position: the nobility is the color of society. And the people are all cattle, 'creatures and scumbags' as one non-commissioned officer calls them. Meanwhile, as you know, many creatures and scum heroically fought for their homeland in the First World War. Just as many nobles refused to fight. But in the picture, the people are shown as a bunch of vile villains. As a result, in my opinion, Kirill Polukhin, the chairman of the Soldiers Committee, who does not want to die for an officer and noblemen, and Arthur Vaha, a representative of the working people, played the best.
It's not just a bad movie. This is a movie with a claim to great style. This is a double bad thing.
The Battalion of Death: The Suffering of Thousands of Women
It will be terrible, I know,
My husband's life.
Let it be my
Not more joyful than him!
N. Nekrasov "Russian Women"
Russian representatives of the fair sex have always differed from the more pampered Western women endurance, strength of spirit and courage, because, as Nekrasov said, a Russian woman “will stop a horse at a jump, enter a burning hut.” The Russian film “Battalion” (also called “The Battalion of Death”) by Dmitry Meskhiev is a vivid example confirming Nekrasov’s words, since it is based on real events.
The action takes place in 1917. While men defend their country in the First World War, and women try not to go crazy with worries for loved ones, a young non-commissioned officer, 28-year-old Maria Bochkareva, who left for service due to two unsuccessful marriages, is ordered to form the first “Women’s Death Battalion”, designed to lift the spirits of tired soldiers. Contrary to expectations, there were many women who voluntarily decided to go to war. They were not afraid of losing all their hair, or a strict regime or huge physical exertion. Natalia Tatishcheva was very impressed, who came to the battalion pregnant and suffered incredible suffering, but did not want to leave to the last. Each of them had their own motive to go to the front, but the goal was one.
To liberate the Motherland from the invaders: “Is it OK that a German walks on the Russian land?”
The film really turned out very bright and impressive. The audience could feel a special sympathy for Maria Bochkareva, whose role was magnificently played by Maria Aronova. Although there were historical inconsistencies in the film, Dmitry Meskhiev managed to convey the atmosphere of war. I would like to note the feature of the Battalion, which is that the film does not press the viewer with a specific story. Yes, he makes you think and draw conclusions, but the person who watched the film will not worry about a specific character, since the director did not focus on someone’s specific story. Meskhiev took a large number of these stories and put into one – this is the film “Battalion”.
Why is the title of the review “the suffering of a thousand women”? Is it because of the horrors of war? Nope. These women experienced real suffering, waiting for their men from the front, sitting at home every day and listening to whether they brought her news from their beloved. Imagine what mothers felt when they found out their sons had died? Or how the heartache of the fair sex for their country, how they dreamed of living in peace and love. Everyone went to the women’s battalion, both rich and poor: each of them wanted to avenge the dead soldiers. That is why they, being not in the best physical shape, tried their best to fulfill the commands of Mary, who was not stingy on blows and insults. By the end of the film, it seems that this is not a military battalion, but a large family headed by Bochkareva. Spectators are involuntarily outraged by the ugly behavior of the harassed men, experience the loss of each member of the battalion and rejoice in their victories.
I want to thank the creators of this film for instilling patriotism and pride in Russian women in the hearts of those who watched the Battalion. Thanks.
And the German will be stopped with a bayonet and enter the burning trench.
Well, here we go! Russian cinema has produced a great film about the war! Apart from television series, we have 20 good war movies on our fingers over the last few years. It was ' Star' Brest Fortress' and what else? And here's a great, high-quality war movie with good actors. And what war - about the first world war, about which we have almost no films.
Maria Kozhevnikova was pleased with her role, it is a pity that not for the whole film. Beautiful, tall, talented - it always seemed to me that she is capable of more than supporting roles of beautiful stupid girls.
No, of course, there are claims to the film, but they are not so large that to spoil the impression of the film.
First of all, there is an understatement about some characters. Just begin to imbue with feelings for some character and think that she is one of the main characters when suddenly her story ends (for example, the heroine of Masha Kozhevnikova). Another girl stands in her place (by the way, she is on the poster) and you think her story will begin now, but this character is not revealed to us.
The scale of the shooting was not enough yet - they show no more than a hundred people and the battalion is about a thousand.
Still, I loved the movie. The battle scenes are well shown, and hand-to-hand and gunfights and a gas attack (about which we know little at all).
And the fact that in front of us young girls live, fight, die so twists the drama of what is happening that the film is difficult to watch without tears.
9 out of 10
Film ' Battalion' certainly interesting as an example of modern Russian cinema and an example is quite rare. Among the extremely mediocre films - the reworking of famous Soviet paintings, the story of women's squads favorably stands out for the originality of the plot and script.
I will watch the film in chronology and try without spoilers.
First of all, the film has a very indirect relation to historical events. Rather, it is about heroism, 'female share', Orthodoxy, etc. In my opinion, like the film 'Admiral' it was created to idealize the Russian Empire and everything connected with it.
From the first frames of the film we see a lot of mistakes. First of all, the image of Kerensky. He was, of course, a temperamental man, but not a fool to believe that small battalions of women could turn the tide of the war and, in general, save us.39 You can immediately call a number of such errors as the constant presence and in a large number of newsreels from the battlefield, from the front line, which was impossible with the then technical capabilities, or cars that shaved recruits (there are different versions about when they were invented, but exactly after 1917 and not in Russia). And, of course, a whole training camp, created during the war and revolution to train one female battalion (which was actually created by Kerensky only for propaganda purposes to shame men who did not want to go to the front; however, history played a cruel joke with him - the myth that Kerensky fled from Petrograd in a woman's dress is still alive). Otherwise, everything is reproduced quite reliably, and these errors can be forgiven the authors of the film.
Separately, it is worth talking about religious propaganda, which is not too intrusive, but passes through the entire plot of the picture. Without rewriting the plot of the film, it can be noted that divine intervention in events is decisive.
In the film, the role of the battalion in the war is represented by the decisive, fundamental, even determining the course of the war, the battalion Bochkareva is the only combat-ready unit. But in the historical context, women's death battalions are a minor plot. The total number of female volunteers was no more than 1,500 at the best of times, with a total army of 9 million. Of all the battalions, only Bochkareva’s battalion participated in the battles, and then only in July 1917. They fought bravely, but suffered serious losses than showed their ineffectiveness and no longer participated in the battles. And in society, in the soldier’s environment, they were perceived not as heroines, but as prostitutes.
Another significant problem of the film is a biased view of the History of the First World War and the Russian Empire. All tsarist officials, officers, high command are represented by heroes, noble knights defending their land, etc., while the people, ordinary soldiers, are immoral, stupid, mercantile and generally collaborators. The image of the Germans is similar to the image of the Nazis of the Great Patriotic War. In general, the view of historical events on the one hand - the view of the monarchist, and on the other - the view of the participant of the Second World War. While those events looked completely different. The First World War was a war for allies, a war without purpose, without need, which promised Russia no special benefits, only ruin and calamity, unnecessary and incomprehensible to a person from the people (unlike the Second World War - a war for existence, a war of liberation). World War I is a bourgeois war, bringing nothing to the belligerent peoples, and therefore conciliatory sentiments on the fronts are a natural matter. And truces (the truce on the Eastern front or such as the Christmas truce) should be admired and proud, and not presented in such a negative light as espionage and coupling of the Russian people.
As a result, I would like to note the good performance of the actors, which is not often seen in Russian cinema and a well-built storyline. Especially good is the play of Maria Aronova (certainly the real Bochkareva was a much more formidable and cruel woman, but in the concept of the film the actress coped with her role wonderfully).
If you are not too eager for an objective story or for a true description of the events of the past, then you should definitely watch this film and have fun.
To say that the movie shocked me is to say absolutely nothing! All these two hours of the movie, I couldn’t take my eyes off it! Friends! Is that really possible? A simple, Russian woman, whose task is to wait for her husband, brother, father from the war, herself takes up arms and fights on the battlefield along with men, while these same "defenders" & #39; get drunk, morally corrupt, lead an idle lifestyle! Moreover, it would seem that the Germans (enemies!) also supply them with schnapps and sausage! I couldn't even imagine that! People! Where has the world gone?!
' Battalion' very vividly demonstrates the essence of the generation of the First World War. The approaching civil war, famine, devastation, poverty, the collapse of the empire - all this contributed to the fact that the soldiers decided to let everything take its course, they say, as it will be! There is nothing to fight for, and why not!
The film once again emphasizes how strong, brave and, paradoxically, courageous a woman can be. Tired of the inaction of the current armed forces, the Provisional Government decides to create a women's battalion. Cute, charming women to dress in a soldier's uniform, hand a machine gun and put under the bullets! And no matter who she was by birth, by nationality, by occupation - in the war it did not matter! Each of the heroines of this picture showed courage, strength of spirit, cohesion, desire to defend the Russian Land, even though this is not its purpose.
The male part showed all its worthlessness, promiscuity, weakness, moral desolation. Where are those glorious defenders of the Fatherland? Where is the power of a man when he really needs it? Where's morale? Where is the desire to defend the native land at all costs? Once again, I have seen that women are morally and spiritually much stronger than men, and in moments of despair this is most evident. If necessary, they can fight no worse than the strong half of humanity!
Despite all my admiration and admiration for these heroines, the country must be defended by the peasants. Therefore
9 out of 10
To the directors, the directors, the actors, the cameramen, everyone who worked on this delightful and soulful picture, BRAVO!!!
For his sake, I register and write at three o'clock in the morning.
I hope the headline caught my attention. This film is necessary for us. Those who need to know their history. With such examples, you should know her. Such stories should not be repeated.
With all the disadvantages in the composition of the storyline, the unjustified protractedness of some episodes (this is without a claim to action, but some contemplative moments were simply not burdened with meaning that would reach the viewer, and so it should not be). The Asian film standard of this case. You could have learned. Yes, in the same Soviet cinema there are beautiful sustained scenes without a touch of boredom ... well, come on) and not to the place inserted on this occasion musical accompaniment, I gave this film 10 points.
1. The actors, especially Maria Aronova, did a great job. The truth of the heroine Bochkareva is indisputable. Our young actresses did not disappoint me either (Rakhmanova, Kuchkova, Kozhevnikova, Malinchik).
2. The historical moment taken even in pronunciation aloud brings an icy convulsion. So there is no need to complain about the story. That kind of life happens. Shameful and terrible to numb.
3. Special thanks for the educational moment. It's finally done. For any film, it's a virtue. And it's great that ours did. I honestly had no idea there was such a thing in our history. It’s like snow on your head, like a hair dryer in the bathroom, like an adrenaline shot in your heart.
Thank you very much!
Even when watching the trailer was in my head the question '. How is that?'
And here we go. But you have to believe. Got it. We are born alone and die alone, without everything. At this moment, there is nothing left in you except the soul (this is to the question of the topic of honor and dignity, which is so rarely raised, but it is necessary). They should be raised. Do not confuse cowardice with sanity. There is no sanity in betrayal. Newton’s Third Law has never been repealed. Reasonable people should be aware.
Russian films about the Great Patriotic War, as a rule, are always successful. Good ratings and box office receipts accompany domestic premieres about the most terrible and bloody war in the history of mankind. Perhaps, military-historical cinema, the most difficult genre, because to convey the situation and spirit of that time, is very difficult.
Seeing the commercial of another film about the war of Russian production, I wanted to look at this creation. I remembered my feelings and emotions after watching the “Brest Fortress” and decided that this picture cannot be ignored. As it turns out, I was right. Another great film, only about another war and a slightly different period of Russia.
The film takes place during the First World War. In a difficult period for our country, a revolutionary one, there is a war against the external enemy, Germany. Only the war proceeds in a very unusual and savage way, our soldiers sit in the trenches side by side with the Germans, drink schnapps with them and do not think about driving the enemy from their native land. In the country, in the army, in the government, a complete collapse. The Tsar has already abdicated, the Bolsheviks are trying to reconcile the enemy with our military, the officers are helpless because of the newly minted Soldiers' Committee. The country is on the verge of decay and collapse. The Provisional Government, in their opinion, finds the only sure way to motivate soldiers and raise the morale of the army, creates a women's battalion. It is he, according to officials, should make a lasting impression on the soldiers who were inactive at the front. The battalion was headed by a woman hero, St. George's cavalier, non-commissioned officer Maria Bochkareva.
Maria Aronova, who played Maria Bochkareva, perfectly conveyed the tough character of a soldier, but at the same time the understanding and compassion of an ordinary Russian woman. She did everything perfectly so that we, the audience, felt the atmosphere of “teaching” and shouting in the trenches. Marat Basharov got used to the role of Kerensky well, showed us his cowardice and unconsciousness. Evgeny Dyatlov had a great role. To be honest, I am glad that he played a hero officer and a patriot, this role suited him one hundred percent.
The only drawback of for me was some understatement of some characters. They didn’t seem to open up to the end. But anyway, the whole movie keeps you on edge. You empathize and constantly think about the heroines, about young and very young girls who were sent to kill and die.
The picture should be seen by everyone, especially the younger generation, to remember the history and know the names of the heroes who created this very story.
More anticipated and advertised film of Russian cinema than the Battalion, this year simply was not. Here you and the shaved head of the actress, which was shown a year before the release of the film in all the news, here and the people’s favorite Deputy Kozhevnikova, constantly PR the film at every step, and the trailer, which is endlessly played in all cinemas of the country – in General, the full set. And this set had the desired effect, because the film, indeed, was waiting for him, however, went. But in my opinion, the result was absolutely the opposite: for me personally, for example, as for all my friends, the notorious effect of deceived expectations worked. What's going to happen now?
1) I am rather wary of war films, because war, especially world war, is the greatest tragedy of our history, that is, when we talk about it, we have a strong plot that many novice directors can simply manipulate, playing on the feelings of any normal person. It would seem that what else is needed for a strong plot? not only that the war, but also women at the front - a full set, for greater effect remained except that to remove fighting children - this is quite the top will be. And no – it didn’t work: the plot is weak, not catchy, not touching the living, I don’t know where the stories come from in reviews of crowds of sobbing spectators in the cinema, I haven’t seen any. Moreover, a lot of people in front of me just left in the middle of the film, so the stories about sobbing audiences, I think, slightly pulled by the ears for red words and impressions. What's the plot, friends? During the first hour of the film - absolutely tedious and boring - we are shown daily repetitive teachings - and nothing more. Then pregnant Kozhevnikova, standing for 2 days in the rain, together with the battalion rescues the commander Bochkareva. The scene with a fight between Kozhevnikova and another girl becomes the height of idiocy when the viewer is informed that she is pregnant. Even if she had been pregnant before, she probably wouldn't have stayed pregnant after that fight. The war itself is shown for 10 minutes and that’s all. Another 15 was spent to see how it is unclear where the husband of the commander Bochkareva for absolutely incomprehensible reasons beats her, in general, this story also does not get any development. The pathos of warlords tearing off their epaulettes at the end of the film - a complete epic file is simple. It's ridiculous, honestly.
2) You probably noticed that I did not mention any of the heroines in my review: I remember only 2: Kozhevnikova because of the absurdity of the situation with pregnancy, well, because only a person who does not have a TV at home does not know this lady, and the commander performed by Aronova. It's really good, it's probably the only plus of the movie. No character in the film has a story, no character, no personality, just a crowd. None of the characters, except Bochkareva, is remembered. Why women went to war (there is only one reason) is unclear. What happened in the life of the heroine Kozhevnikova that the girl, being pregnant, went to war? Where did this husband Bochkareva come from and why did he beat her? no character has a story of its own, there is no personal tragedy of a woman who survived the war. There is no man, there is a battalion: he is whole, like a machine, which is shown only from the outside, only from one side.
In my opinion, if we discard the sobs, the film is frankly weak. No story, no man. If the purpose of the film was to show that the battalion was - well, was, read-know. And then there's the void. Behind this story are the lives of hundreds of women who committed an unprecedented act - went to war. What made them so conscious that they were there? What can make a future mother go to war, forgetting about the future child? What can make a woman kill? How to survive this tragedy of choice: how to understand whether you are a hero defending your homeland or a murderer? There is none of this in the film, there is simply no soul in it, it is not alive and therefore does not touch the living. How could you not reveal such a topic? You have to be grossly untalented to ruin such an idea.
3 out of 10
In my opinion, this film is much deeper than it might seem. This is a film about two types of people. The first type is a real Russian person who, after reading this review, will understand me and agree with what was written. The second is a person who will not try to understand and will rather smile, thinking me strange.
So let's talk about these two types. The first type lives in debt. In the film, this type embodies the female battalion. It would seem that it makes sense for a weak girl to go to war against a strong man. Why go to death when it is almost obvious that the war is lost, when there is a mess in the country of trouble, why go knowingly to lose, and especially to go to a woman? The mind does not understand this, so will the first type of people, ready for any sacrifice for the sake of the Motherland, for the sake of justice.
Every country has heroes they are proud of, even if they don’t know their names. Everyone knows about the three hundred Spartans, about Jeanne D' Arc and many others. Why don’t we remember our heroes? Why do we not even know about our heroes, about weak women, strong spirits?
The second type of people are supposedly intelligent and rational people who will admire the film "Save Private Ryan" & #39; look for historical inconsistencies in the Russian film. But no matter how hard you try to find them, Maria Bochkareva existed, fought. It's real, it's part of the story, and the historical mistakes that reviewers find in our film that I refer to are of little importance, insignificant, and it makes no sense to mention those mistakes. Not that Private Ryan ever existed, and was it really that hard to get him out? Is this film so historically correct? No.
My review is a contrast between two types of people living today, people who lived before and were told about in the film, and the two films mentioned above.
The second type of people are those who will not fight in a disparate army, because it is illogical, because it is irrational, ineffective. It is better to have fun with German spies and believe in friendship with the belligerents.
Better let ' Save Private Ryan' on the Russian website gets 8.3, while ' Battalion' has only 7.3? It is better not to find a single film critic who assessed our film positively, because this film emotionally captivates the viewer and does not let go until the last minute (I repeated one of the reviews of the film critic)?
I am writing a review because I am offended that I read negative reviews about the film on the website. Why not love this movie? The reasons I saw didn’t convince me, quite the opposite.
This is a desperate review, very hyperbolic. There is no such rigid division between people. Just love our country.
My personal assessment of the film is extremely positive.
“The Battalion” is a film by Dmitry Meskhiev about a women’s battalion that participated in the First World War and was later called the “battalion of death”.
The film takes place at a time when Russia is experiencing a turning point. The autocracy is overthrown, the army is shattered, and the words of one of the characters that the country is falling apart are very fair and even convincing, so for whom to save it?
I wouldn’t say this movie is obsessed with patriotism. In contrast to films that preach the indomitable spirit of true patriotism, there are both patriots and those for whom war does not exist, who are “home hunting”. Of course, this contrast of good and bad in the spirit of pure classicism at first raises some doubts. It cannot be that the whole “soldier” is incapable of fighting. But doubts dissipate, because in the course of the action you begin to understand that the director has no goal at all to compare the bad and the good, and especially women and men.
Not all male soldiers are represented by scoundrels, although of course there are. Especially remember the scene of Bochkareva beating her own husband. There was so much cruelty and malice in this beating, as if in the image of Bochkareva the hero trampled not her into the dirt, but what happened in the war, all her horror and suffering. Bochkareva, in this case, also acted as an enemy who wanted to take away their freedom, and maybe their lives, because she wanted to force them to fight.
It is doubtful that in the final scene the whole army ran to defend a battalion of girls, following the example of two or three senior officers who tore off their epaulettes (by law of the military committees officers were not allowed to participate in hostilities), although before none of the soldiers was going to go into battle and none rushed to defend a woman. What is an inspiration, a reaction to a living example? It is very difficult to imagine.
The most vivid scene, in my opinion, is the “cushion” scene: while Bochkareva is beaten with horrific brutality by her husband, an army officer lies in a room on a bed, covering his head with a pillow. Watching the officer, you feel his powerlessness, cowardice. And it does not cause judgment, but pity.
This scene reflects all the weakness, all the inability of the officers to resist the real leaders of the army - the leaders of the soldiers' detachments. The lack of goals, motivations, the instinct of self-preservation, and in addition the German schnapps – all this corrupted the soldiers, made them “soldier”, not capable of anything.
The image of this officer personifies the qualities of the entire top: weakness, cowardice, lack of understanding of what to fight for, refusal to fight - after all, nothing can be corrected.
However, there are other views on the Russian army. The image of Kerensky is imbued with only one idea – a belief in victory, despite all the decay of the Russian army. His fierce resistance to reality, his unwillingness to listen to the truth, even at some point becomes ridiculous. But maybe this hope for the Russian army is something deeper, true?
He hopes that the presence of women in the army will strengthen the spirit of soldiers, no more. It seems clear that he does not believe in the ability of women to truly fight, much less win.
About the impending death of the women's battalion and the presence of women in the war is said a lot. One of the soldiers said, “Where are you taking the girls?” To perdition, to death? becomes almost key. And from the very beginning of the film, it is clear that there is no other way out and there can be no other way out.
There was a lot of blood in the Battalion. Now many war films, both domestic and foreign, have resorted to the reception of bloodshed. And I can't even decide for myself whether it's good or not. This is good because it evokes emotions in the audience – horror, fear or disgust – but in any case, the myth that war is something great is dispelled. War appears in the film cruel, merciless, not pitying anyone, even young, even girls.
War is terrible and unnatural, it is a depreciation of human life, and anyone who sees bayonets-to-bayonets scenes will understand this. I also noticed that Russian films about the war are often imbued with some special, national suffering, tearing the soul, because suffering and pity are one of the main features of the Russian mentality.
The love line seemed to me unopened and even boring somewhere. For example, the scene by the train, when the girl leans over the wounded groom and almost misses the train. Other human relationships are conveyed more emotionally. In the film there is meanness, and denunciations, and universal devotion, which causes genuine respect for Bochkareva.
A meeting with a German spy reveals the credulity, insecurity of the girls from the real war. At the moment when the heroine is left alone with the German, she feels fear and understands that one must be careful with him, but in her soul she does not see or feel an enemy in him.
Maria Bochkareva, the main character of the Battalion was played by Maria Aronova. A fight-baba, a fair but harsh boss, a defenseless woman in the face of war - all this was played incomparably, we must give her credit. The scene of Bochkareva holding a murdered German girl in her arms made me cry. Her sobs, so similar to laughter, are imbued with such terrible, inhuman suffering and pain.
The other actors seemed to me inexpressive. Maria Kozhevnikova appeared before me in a new light, but her performance did not cause any special emotions. Just like in the case of Marat Basharov.
Overall, the film is impressive. And despite some shortcomings, the film is worth it.
The real benefit of actress Maria Aronova is a new film about the women’s battalion. And in the real, theatrical sense of the word. Even the announcement of recruitment to the women's battalion is pasted in the form of a theatrical poster on the theatrical table.
Various women, from “decent” and simple families, failed singers and artists, seamstresses and cooks, failed wives and mothers – are recorded out of patriotic feelings for the war. They cut their wonderful hair, shave their heads with electric (!) cars, change into coarse soldier’s underwear. True, they sleep in lace and linen sleeping shirts (depending on origin).
Fair male members of the draft commission wrap “children”, patients and their own. Commander-in-Chief Kerensky from the chronicle "film" knows about the situation at the front. He blames the officers for allowing fraternity with the Germans who drink Russian schnapps!
And those Russian soldiers, indeed, are freaks without honor and conscience, puffy, unscrupulous, corrupt, cynical. And officers are pure, honest patriots.
I do not know whether there is evidence of hazing in 1914, the names of the barracks, but that is not even the point. There is no need to look for historicality in the film. It was easier to shoot another Million years BC.
And that’s a shame – really shaved actresses. Actors are forced to make reproductions of revolutionary posters and political cartoons. It is terrible to remember the “face” of a German man in a helmet, who attacks the watch and horribly cuts a girl.
A group of girls, as the commander calls them, who are “duped” in every sense of the word, get lost with weapons in their hands in the trench, pray and wait for death. It's not funny, but it's not scary. "Night witches"-pilots from 1942, gentle snipers with heavy rifles, fragile frontline ambulances - "heavy trucks". These are Russian women, too. But they are living images, real. And the beginning of the twentieth century is not so far away.
But most importantly, this is a film about the talent of the actress. Aronova with her magnificent plastic face, multi-talking eyes, instrumental voice is not only the main character of the film, but also its main character.
The Battalion, which was created with the assistance of the creators of Stalingrad, seemed to me, at first, another high-profile project, stuffed with special effects and improbable stories, as it happened in Stalingrad.
However, when I got to the cinema on February 23, I was pleasantly surprised. Just like everyone who was in the room at the time. There were a lot of people. “Battalion”, for me personally, became a kind of continuation of “Penalty” and “Death of the Empire”. He is just as cruel, sincere, terrible, warping soul and real.
The history of the women’s battalion, created in order to raise the morale of the army during the difficult period of the First World War, is one of the landmark moments in the history of Russia of the XX century.
Reading some reviews, I was unpleasantly surprised at how much bile is ready to pour on the tape a person far from the film industry and, most likely, from the history of the country.
Small nitpicks concerning Bochkareva’s belt or night girls from the battalion, I personally consider inappropriate in relation to this film.
After watching, there was an unpleasant residue. No, not because “Battalion” is another talentless “movie”, the film, on the contrary, is very good, it is worth watching. Cats scratch when you realize that this is the story of your country. When the state, torn by internal problems, squats before the enemy, with whom yesterday he came face to face on the battlefield, it becomes so disgusting that one wants to forget the dirty soldier's cattle, which does not recognize either authorities or anything holy, like a terrible dream.
Something similar can be seen in the “Death of the Empire”: soldiers and sailors who rose up in revolt, unshaven and prefer to pour their throats rather than perform their duty. The wild geek at the fact that a white officer himself or by force tears off his epaulettes, and they, being “tired of tsarism and war”, trample these same epaulettes, is disgusting. Bad behavior, slackness, lack of grooming, but at the same time, the realization that “I am such a hero” (as it was in the scene with her husband Bochkareva), even more disgusting.
Personally, I would like to say thank you to the filmmakers. For a story that demonstrates not only all the dirt of that time, but also for showing honor, nobility, courage, although this word does not reflect the essence of the husbands of the Red Army, but in relation to girls and ladies, courage and love for the homeland.
Thank you.
On March 1, 1917, the Provisional Government, seeking to put an end to the blatant practices of the tsarist army, issued Order No. 1 on the creation of soldiers’ committees, which, according to General Denikin, “was the first, main impetus to the collapse of the Russian army.” The monstrous order of the stupid, bombastic landlords and bankers, who received enormous power on a platter and sought to flirt with the people in liberalism and democracy. No, it was not the Bolsheviks, with their propagandistic slogans, who led to the demoralization of the hitherto almost invincible Russian army; they merely sat down in a place preheated for them. All the blame for the collapse of the front and the subsequent shameful “Brest peace” lies with the government of Prince Lvov, and then the socialist Kerensky. By their inept, illogical, sometimes simply criminal decisions, they led Russia to collapse – defeat in the war, the triumph of Bolshevism, and their own demise.
Could the women's death battalions and the return of the 17th death penalty for desertion in the summer inspire the morally decayed Russian army, and simply - the war-weary illiterate village peasant, eager to return home faster to grab a piece of former landlord land? Of course not. The battalions of death went to their deaths, and while the women were dying in the trenches of chlorine, went on a brutal bayonet attack, the men, who had lost all human form due to permissiveness, fled and fled back, away from the positions that a year ago fiercely defended against the German invader. Entire regiments fled from two or three German companies. What about the famous “attack of the dead”, what about the “Brusilov breakthrough”? Forgotten. The last offensive of the Russian army in the summer of the 17th, with brilliant tactical training and overwhelming superiority in men and equipment over the Austrians and Germans, failed miserably. Soldiers’ committees stopped entire divisions with explanatory conversations and threats more than any enemy artillery training. After an unsuccessful offensive, because of the finally collapsed front, Maria Bochkareva's women's battalion, or what remained of it, was disbanded, for there was no one else to inspire with his death, and why.
St. George’s cavalier Maria Bochkareva, a peasant woman who talked with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and the English King George V, who suffered from the beatings of her husband’s drunkard and led battalions into attack, like the Motherland itself. She is one of those women who followed her Decembrist husbands to Siberia, of those women about whom Nekrasov wrote, of those women who dug trenches and stood at the machines in the Great Patriotic War and raised the country from post-war ruins. How wonderful that from the light hand of Igor Ugolnikov from a thousand pages of Russian history to descendants through cinema came it. In our time, when history is distorted everywhere for the sake of dirty politics, such films and heroes are needed more than ever.
Some staging in the first half of the film is more than compensated for by the magnificent views of St. Petersburg, and strong acting work against the backdrop of stunning bayonet attacks and trench battles in an atmosphere of complete despair created for me the effect of presence without any 3D. Heroines die not graphically, not pretentiously, but as always happens in war – unexpectedly, quickly, scary and this is the advantageous difference between the Battalion and the Western film product. The tears really come when Russian women, surrounded by slowly creeping German troops, put up bayonets to pray.
Eternal glory to the Russian woman and a low bow!
10 out of 10
Throughout the history of Russian and Soviet cinema, a huge number of various military dramas were filmed, which again and again immersed viewers in perhaps the most important and significant pages of the history of a great country. Moreover, reflecting not only on the example of the Second World War and the triumphal victory of Soviet troops over Nazi Germany, but also on the example of everything else, but before that, perhaps, no one paid due attention to the history of the women's battalion of Maria Bochkareva and this is what fully bribes this film director Dmitry Meskiev.
One can argue for a long time about whether the soldiers from the Bochkareva Battalion were really worthy soldiers, could they hold a huge number of victories and perhaps even contribute to a speedy victory in the war with German soldiers. The director of the film Dmitry Meskiev made the right decision and did not show the women’s battalion Bochkareva real supermen in skirts, but rather a feminine symbol of real courage, courage, courage and love for their homeland, which pushed even weak and cute women to take up arms and defend their country. The symbol that gave strength to the Soviet troops in this brutal war. A symbol, which in a certain sense became the most important brick in the foundation of the birth of the victorious spirit of the Soviet soldiers who at that time were only cowardly bandits.
Many viewers willingly argue about the fact that the film may be “made to order from above” or so embellishes the story for the sake of colorfulness and does not correspond to what actually happened. But the movie doesn't suffer from that. Because even at the same time it preserves its main idea and certainly contributes to the fact that it would revive in each of us not only pride for our country, for our people and its rich history, but also to have a desire to get acquainted with it. Which is very valuable. Since very few representatives of the modern generation are interested in the history of the country, and examples such as the women’s battalion of Maria Bochkareva show that it is criminal not to know the history of courage and heroism of all those who gave their lives for the sake of all that we have now.
Visually, the film is simply magnificent. Perhaps it does not have so many spectacular scenes of battles as in many other military films and he bribes the quality of the performance of “Staliningrad”, but still the film “Dmitry Meskiev” bribes with emotions that literally imbue the film. Throughout the film, she does not hide her subjectivity and certainly tries to put pressure on pity, but this does not unnerve, but rather allows more deeply to penetrate the courage and courage of all these charming girls.
Of course, the main driving force of the picture is the actress Maria Aronova, who simply stunningly performed the role of Maria Bochkareva. Perhaps it was Aronova who breathed life into such a complex image and reflected it on the screen exactly as historians describe it. Not only a strong woman and a model soldier, but also a loving mother who loved her soldiers as her daughters and watched her play, it is really impossible to imagine who would have done better than her. A real discovery for me was Maria Kozhevnikova, who has grown significantly as a dramatic actress and certainly performed the best role in her career. This is not a stupid Allochka from “Univer” and not a brainless celebrity from a cameo from numerous films, but a very integral and strong image that makes an impression.
7 out of 10
The battalion is a cinematic gaze into one of the most important pages in the history of Russia. The film may not be perfect, but certainly captivating with all the power of history, the depth of directing and the amazing performance of Maria Aronova, which together awakened my belief that it is too early to bury Russian cinema. As I was waiting for another pointless attraction like “Staliningrad”, I saw one of the best Russian films of the past year.
Recently, this film allowed us to experience unrealistic sensations. About half an hour after watching, we couldn't say a word. Yes! Women live with emotions, so it is important that this film gives them.
And it gives each of us the opportunity to stop in the cycle of everyday affairs that absorbed us and remember values, loved ones, faith. After all, ' Battalion' is not a film about war, but a film about love - for a man, children, homeland.
Almost a century has passed since 1917, and the problems of society remain the same. Let us remember: women who love, sacrifice themselves and go to certain death. Everyone knows that war is not a toy. Only a woman can go to the end! She has already stepped over herself - cut off the braid, gave the money she collected for the cow, lost her aristocratic benefits - she can not go back, even having the opportunity to stay with her man.
Yeah, all women are a little chicken! And that's perfectly accentuated by humor. The scene when Bochkareva screams at the twisted leg of a fighter, and after scolding with care asks if she hurt herself. And that's where we're all women. And we live by emotions. We hate to the point that we begin to love. We weep with happiness and smile when the stone on the heart.
But the most striking moment that disarms is the scene of Bochkareva beating her husband. That's the contrast! The crowd of men who were born to protect the weaker sex, who boast of the title of Man, who consider us women helpless, stupid, illogical, hysterical, strange ... the list goes on forever. There! These same men stand, hiding their eyes and not ringing with their steel male sexual attributes, but watch a woman beating to death. She came to save their skins. And she is also with emotion, with tenderness, with grace, despite her frighteningly independent appearance. What? What's going on? Why??!! And it's apogee! The apogee of the film, the apogee of our meager modernity. Thanks to Dmitry Meskhiev for giving due attention to this scene. After all, if at least one man out of ten after watching remembers that he is a man not by sex, but by his honor, then the task is accomplished!
I went to the Battalion movie yesterday. I couldn’t help it, even with bad reviews. I love the theme of the First World War. In Russian cinema, the shortage is critical. The acting in general is not confused, in this respect everything looks convincing. The script pleased less, there are many unjustified holes in the plot, but judging by the rumors it was supposed to be originally a series and many connecting scenes from the feature film were cut. It made my skepticism a little easier. Although a couple of significant moments in the film still annoying. But overall, the number of strong scenes is higher. The war is shown convincingly. Knee mud, bloodshed, cruelty, everything I expect from World War I. The only thing missing is the scale, although what is shown is well shown. You can see that the creators tried. The scene with the fight in gas masks in general is very decent, I do not remember anything like this in other films. Not bad shows the division in the army and the decline of morale of the armed forces at that time. But again, due to the lack of scale, the impression was slightly blurred. Female soldiers are well shown, the characters are not cardboard. It was possible to show that due to the lack of proper long-term training, women did not have time to coarse and remained the weaker sex, despite all the disguise as men.
Overall, the film is good, you can watch it. And even reconsider. I would put a four, but it also affects the fact that there is not much to compare with. I don’t remember any similar movies in Russia, so we watch everything. If they shoot anything else on this topic, then the beginning is not bad.