Text author: Yoko
To talk about an old movie, "enemy at the gates" from 2001, Chinese translated as "Soldiers In the City".
The male protagonist is "Johua" Jude Lowe, and the face of this dude is very recognizable for me, who is blind with a face. In 2001, his face, especially the front, was as standard as an oil painting model.
The film was directed by French director Jean-Jacques Arnoux, who also directed "Wolf Totem", as well as "Lover" starring Leung Ka Fai, and the animal film "Tiger Brother Tiger Brother".
The cast includes some famous British and American actors such as Jude Lowe, Rachel Vichy, Joseph Fiennes and the United States and Ed Harris, and a former Soviet Patriotic War film with anti-communist ideology as the main line!
The plot is actually very simple, that is, in the Second World War, the Soviet-German sniper duel! There are archetypes of historical figures, there is the famous battle of the turning point of history , the Battle of Stalingrad, which is easy to think of as a documentary.
The film is also quite realistic, in terms of actors, the protagonist Jude Lowe, Joseph Fiennes, Ed Harris and other star celebrities are British and American actors, but other supporting roles, passers-by and other small roles basically invited Russians to play, and the appearance and dress of the characters are basically historical.
Regarding weapons and props of war, from the turret to the wearing of medals for Soviet military political workers, professional World War II uniform weapons experts were invited.
Including the background music, I didn't hear it at all, it was imitation Soviet music, and the Soviet music I listened to when I was a child was a taste, that heavy and majestic feeling!
So if you, like me, are completely ignorant of the real historical situation, it is easy to get the impression that Soviet leaders, including Soviet generals, are too brutal, barbaric, and will only quickly push their soldiers into battle and die.
For example, untrained recruits are captured and sent to the front line to die.
The film begins with a train of panicked recruits locked in stuffy can cars, pulled to the battlefield, and after getting off the train, they are rushed like cattle to an open-top civilian ship strafed by the enemy. Then there was the suffocating strafing, the death, and half of the people were sacrificed before they could see what the battlefield was like.
Another example is the lack of weapons in the Soviet army, so that soldiers charge as cannon fodder.
The film then begins to paint a rich picture of the absurdity of the Soviet army's lack of weapons and ammunition, with two soldiers sharing a rifle and several rounds of ammunition. Then also tell them that if your partner falls, you pick up his gun and keep fighting! At this point, although I don't know what history is, I think that the people who came up with such an idea are not bad brains. One has a gun and no bullets, one person has bullets and no guns, so once these two people go to war, isn't that a target? No one can shoot a gun, can't they?
Another example is the wanton strafing of soldiers who choose to retreat.
Here, it can be seen that the film has played this wave of smear to the extreme, when the Soviet soldiers failed to charge and retreated, the political commissar actually used heavy machine guns in the back to shoot his own people wildly. Countless bullets shot out, putting all the cannon fodder down. Bullets are distributed to combat soldiers according to grains, while strafing their own people is so refreshing? The Soviet political workers are afraid that they are not the internal response of the German army, right?
I was so anxious that I wanted to drag the heavy machine gunner who was overseeing the battle to the front!
It seems that the wise Arnold can only show the silence of the Soviet state's slaughter from the perspective of the destitute Russian peasants?
Vasily, the mesmerizing Soviet sniper, was portrayed as an illiterate peasant.
In fact, the Soviet hero studied at the Magnitogorsk Institute of Architecture and Technology. He was also an elite naval soldier, a financial clerk of the army, and then a rifleman and a sniper. You can read his autobiography
Another major reason these strong ideologically biased film plots did not ruin "Soldiers In the City" is because, in addition to the infiltration of Western ideology, the film has enough brilliant war scenes, thrilling sniper duels and the smooth handling of the director's narrative rhythm.
The director perfectly shows how Vasily was able to kill the German army without false hair under the pressure of the German snipers, with super professional sniping. Although he will also be afraid, he will sleep and miss the fighter, and he will also fail.
Including the hypocritical political instructor who was portrayed as only jealous of Vasily, in despair, also sent out human and social ideals to think.
"In this world, even in the world of the Soviet Union, there will always be rich and poor... Rich in talent, poor in talent, rich in love, poor in love..."
Not to mention that Tanya accompanied Vasily on the battlefield, not retreating! When she sneaked up next to Vasily, revealing her snow-white plump ass, I was shocked... This is the most beautiful scene in a brutal war.
Finally, even with so many flashpoints, my personal view is that this kind of anti-war history blockbuster still needs to look at the history of the country.
The director's shooting method is a kind of smear on the soldiers who participated in the Great Patriotic War. Regardless of whether the Overseer Team existed or not, the victory of the Soviet Union could not be separated from the patriotic enthusiasm and flesh and blood sacrifice of most soldiers, not to mention that many political commissars of the Soviet Union took the lead in the charge, and their casualty rate was heavy.
To this day, the history of World War II is an important part of Russian patriotism education. The annual Parade on Red Square is enough to illustrate their pride. On important holidays, Russians also take part in commemorations with photos of their loved ones who died in world war II.
This is the most important value in a just war.
(Image from the Internet, copyright belongs to the original author)