Grand narratives and scenes, yyds
Why do men love to watch war movies?
Nine times out of ten, the answers seen on the Internet are answered from an anthropological point of view: in ancient times, in order to survive, men engaged in hunting activities, which was a war with animals. Later, men had to wage larger wars, to conquer rival tribes and nations, which became a war between humans and humans.
And no matter how the times change, the final outcome of the war will not change - as long as they can survive the war, men can reap a lot of benefits and eventually leave more offspring.
As a result, men's warlike genes have been flowing in the blood since ancient times and have been internalized into male instincts.
However, in the current era of relative peace, war is no longer everywhere, men's desire for war has nowhere to be placed, and war movies have become a good outlet.
Listen, there are many compulsions.
But today, let's not talk about these illusory things.
For a long time, for me, in addition to the various weapons and equipment that are treasured by the family, what attracts me most is the grand war scenes.
The bigger the better.
When it comes to war scenes, the first thing that everyone will think of is, of course, the "Armageddon" trilogy series, which is known as the peak of domestic war movies.
I believe that the "Armageddon" series is no stranger to everyone. So, what other war movie scenes can match Armageddon?
1
Soviet Version of War and Peace
As we all know, the competition between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War was all-round, and in addition to military and economic, the confrontation in culture was also fierce. One of the classic events is the scramble to make the movie "War and Peace"
Although Tolstoy's War and Peace is a Russian work, it was the Americans who first put it on the screen.
In 1956, Paramount invited Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda to star in this completely Russian story. Both of them were popular superstars in Hollywood at the time, plus the big director Kim Wido, and the lineup was quite luxurious.
But Hollywood's consistent practice is to take someone else's IP and change it casually, and it becomes its own story. The director gave up a lot of the plot and connotation in Tovon's original work, focusing on the emotional entanglement between the three protagonists, and made a huge realist production that reflected the patriotic enthusiasm and heroism of the Russian people into a love story of love triangle.
The Soviets said go to your uncle's, what kind of thing you have photographed, our own famous works still have to come by ourselves.
In 1959, an open letter co-signed by Soviet filmmakers was published in the Soviet media, stating: "It is necessary to make a film that surpasses American cinema in artistic value, and it is a matter of honor for the Soviet film industry." ”
This plan was strongly supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Defense of the USSR.
▲ The logo of "Moscow Film Studio" at the beginning of the movie is very contemporary
The Ministry of Defense directly filmed three generals as military advisers to the film: General Vladimir Kurazov, chief adviser to the film, assisted by Army General Malkian Popov; and cavalry specialist Lieutenant General Nikolai Oslikovsky as cavalry adviser.
More than forty museums have produced a large number of historical artifacts as film props, such as chandeliers, furniture and tableware, to create a real scene of early 19th-century Russia. The props group also sewed 11,000 uniforms worn during the Napoleonic Wars and specially cast 60 cannons of the time.
Director Sergei Bundarchuk inherited the tradition of the former Soviet Union when shooting historical films, arranging a large number of scenes, trying to restore the magnificent scenes in Toon's original work, as well as the historical pictures of the Russian land during the Russo-French War.
Most dramatically, don't you want to restore the most realistic war scenes? The Soviet military directly transferred Sergey's 120,000 active duty soldiers to perform group exercises. Therefore, the war scenes of the Soviet version of "War and Peace" are extremely grand. Privately, I think this is the one that best embodies the aesthetics of war among the three movies recommended today.
▲ Look at the infantry squares in the distance
The entire film cost more than 8 million rubles, at the exchange rate at the time, about 100 million US dollars, and at the exchange rate of 2007, it was equivalent to about 560 million US dollars. There are many versions of this number, but it is undeniable that the Soviet version of War and Peace is definitely one of the most expensive films in the world.
And at that time, there were no film special effects, all the pictures were filmed, and the picture of the whole movie reflected the beauty of an oil painting all the time.
▲ Films in the film era are really beautiful
In addition, in order to reflect the scene of the burning of Moscow that year, the crew specially built a "Moscow City", for which the Soviet Union specially designated the suburbs southwest of Moscow as a military restricted area, and then spent two years to build an 18th-century style Moscow City, residential areas, commercial areas, administrative districts, etc., very complete, covering an area of 100,000 square meters.
Then a fire really burned.
The whole movie, divided into 4 parts, is more than 7 hours long, so the volume is to truly restore Toon's original work. But after watching the whole process, it will not feel boring, on the contrary, it will be immersed in the texture of the film film.
I just want to say, yyds.
This film was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1968 and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1969, which has to be said to be quite dramatic. It seems that Lao Mei was still impressed by the spirit of Old Maozi.
2
Multinational collaboration on the Battle of Waterloo
The film was released in 1970 and was also directed by Sergey.
The film's original idea was first proposed by Italian producer Dino de Laurentis, and it was planned to be filmed by Columbia Pictures in the United States. But because the offers from U.S. companies were too high, it was difficult for Laurentis to raise money.
Laurentius thought for a moment, the Americans can't do it, can the Soviets?
Then Laurentiz found a Soviet film company to work with, and the director's choice fell to Sergei Bundarchuk, who had filmed similar war scenes in War and Peace.
Sergei Bundarchuk, hero of socialist labor and people's artist of the USSR
However, the actors of the film come from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and other countries, which can be said to be a multinational cooperation.
The film's final cost was more than £12 million, equivalent to $38.3 million in 1970, making The Battle of Waterloo one of the most expensive films of its time. But that's only a third of what U.S. companies offer.
It seems that from "War and Peace", the use of troops to shoot war scenes has become sergey's traditional skill, and this time in the filming of "Waterloo", he used 17,000 Red Army soldiers, including 2,000 cavalry.
In the months leading up to filming, the soldiers began to be trained to learn the formations of platoons and battles from 1815, as well as the use of muskets, sabers, bayonets, and cannons.
Some joke that Sergei Bundarchuk "commands the seventh largest army in the world."
The scenes of the war were filmed in Uzhgódro, Ukraine.
To recreate the battlefield realistically, the Soviets bulldozed two hills, paved 5 miles of roads, transplanted 5,000 trees, sowed rye, barley and wildflowers, and rebuilt four historic buildings. To make the mud, more than 6 miles of underground irrigation pipes were specially laid.
The final war scene, although not as good as the Soviet Union's national efforts to complete the "War and Peace", but compared to the current film, it is also a god-like existence.
The film also presents the classic scene of the French cavalry attacking the Hollow Infantry Phalanx of the British Army, which is also quite spectacular. It was this battle node that allowed the British to hold back the French attack, deplete a large number of French forces, and wait for the support of the Prussian army, and finally defeat the French army.
▲ The classic scene of cavalry attacking a hollow phalanx
▲ The French army, which did not want to surrender, was finally collectively "shelled"
Who says the army will only surrender ...
3
The stronger the enemy is, the better we are
The third film recommended today is still a Soviet movie, "Liberation", which is also a must-see movie for military fans.
This film, which did not use more than the previous two films, presented us with the most spectacular World War II scenes.
Released in 1970 and 1971, the film consisted of 5 episodes, each titled " Arc of Artillery " , " Breakthrough " , " Main Direction " , " The Battle of Berlin " and " The Last Strike " .
The main plot begins with the Battle of Kuryusk, from which the Red Army turned into a counter-offensive, followed by the Red Army's forced crossing of the Dnieper River, the liberation of Kiev, the reconquest of Belarus, the liberation of Poland and other Eastern European countries, and finally the capture of Berlin. The time span lasted from the summer of 1943 to May 1945.
▲Restoration of the Battle of Kursk
The largest tank battle in the world
A work about the soviet union's historical exploits in World War II, and director Yuri Ozelov has always emphasized that Liberation is a political film, so it also received strong support from the Soviet military. But for reasons you understand, the film doesn't cover the first two years of the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union.
But that didn't stop "Liberation" from becoming an epic blockbuster of Soviet war.
Making epic movies means a lot of budget. Although the filming of the film was carried out jointly by several socialist countries such as the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Romania, etc., the vast majority of the budget was provided by the Soviet Union.
A large portion of that budget was in turn spent on items such as costumes and weapons.
The costumes were relatively simple, except for the German uniforms that needed to be remade, and all the Soviet uniforms were pulled straight out of the warehouses – these Red Army uniforms were kept in safe custody after the war.
The most expensive ones are tanks. Since neither the Soviet Union nor East Germany had available Tiger, Panther, or Ferdinand tanks, the crew built 10 fake Tiger and Panther tanks on the chassis of the Soviet T-34-85 tank and T-44 tank.
In addition, in order to create a large tank duel scene, the Minister of Defense, Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, ordered the redistribution of about 100 more tanks such as the T-55, T-62 and IS-3, which were only installed after the war, "playing" German or Soviet tanks.
In total, about 150 tanks were involved in the filming. Although these tanks can sometimes be recognized during the movie, it does not matter, the key is, it looks cool.
"Liberation" does not use a huge number of group performances like director Sergey, only 5,000 people, but the main thing this film wants to express is not the dense army on the magnificent battlefield.
Although the film praises the great mission of the Soviet Union to liberate the people from the Nazi iron hoof, it does not devalue the combat effectiveness of the German army, but on the contrary, it is very bold to show the defeat and casualties in the process of Soviet victory, and throughout the film.
The amazing thing is that it does not make people think of why the Soviet army is so crotch-pulling, but it will make you feel that the Red Army is really great, which is the typical shooting method of "the stronger the enemy is filmed, the better it is for us", and the domestic anti-Japanese drama can be used as a reference.
What struck me the most was a thought-provoking line at the end of episode five:
"What has fascism brought to the whole world?"
This was followed by the victims of world war II, including the Soviet Union, Poland, Yugoslavia, Britain, the United States, and Germany. ...... The film's reflection is clear – war is always a tragedy for all of humanity.
At the end of the film, there is a famous sentence inscribed in the tomb of the unsung hero: Your name is unknown, and your exploits will last forever.
There are scenes, reflections, and commemorations, and "Liberation" is worthy of being an epic film made by the Soviet Union at the peak of its national strength.
The three movies recommended above have a magical similarity - they are all piled up with huge manpower and material resources in the era when film special effects are not yet popular. It may seem clumsy, but it represents the pinnacle of the film. In today's movies, the big scenes smashed with money and special effects are also very grand, but they are indeed less realistic.
For example, "Dunkirk", although there are only 1500 group performances, but with the help of paper people and special effects, the crowded scene on the beach is indeed grand, but when you learn that you see all paper people, there will still be a sense of being deceived.
▲ Stills from "Dunkirk"
▲ In the distance, there are actually paper people
It can only be said that the times are different, the director is also good at different, Nolan is good at special effects, and Sergey is good at big scenes and the scheduling of large troops.
Perhaps these movies with grand war scenes will become a masterpiece in the future.
What other movies do you know have similar war scenes? Welcome to leave a message to recommend.