TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Cortechba Overrated

XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

opengates The film reflects well the historical events and a cruel shock from the destruction of a peaceful life and from a misunderstanding WHY they were attacked! In real historical documents on the defense of the Brest Fortress, there were even more heroic and shocking moments than in the film. It is impossible to accommodate everything in one film, it is necessary to remove a large cycle. Therefore, the film uses some "cliches". Not all actors played flawlessly. Probably without this it was impossible to do, but all the same thanks to the authors for their work!

richard6 Produced in honour of the Red Army soldiers defending the USSR Western borders, Fortress of War recounts historical events combined with fictitious chronicles surrounding the June 1941 siege of the Brest Fortress in Sothern Belorussia against the invading Wehrmacht Army Group Centre forces in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa.This historical event is creatively accompanied by reminiscing narration from an orphaned 15-year old boy named Sasha Akimov. His narration ties together three main defensive stages led by real life Soviet war heroes centered on the resistance zones holding out against the protracted German siege. One location is headed by regiment commander Pyotr Gavrilov (Aleksandr Koshunov) another by the political commissar Yefim Fomin (Pavel Derevyanko) and lastly the head of the 9th frontier outpost, Andrey Mitrofanovich Kizhevatov (Andrey Merzlikin). All three have a different story to tell. The film begins in an archetypal peaceful, though nervous per-war Belorussia in the summer of 1941. The heavy military presence contained in Brest, notably its historic 19th century fortress, explains the current political situation in the country following the Nazi conquest of Western Europe and the Politburo's rightful suspicions of Hitler next intended target. The focal characters are simultaneously introduced intermediately around Sasha's observational narration. The ensuing bombardment by Wehrmacht artillery and brutal assault comes with-out warning and is unleashed with fuming panic. The film thus continues along a direction of separate combat charges and defensive manoeuvres. These numerous skirmishes and scuffles between the two opposing armies are effective, edgy and well-staged. All the combat scenes are extremely effective and mastered by the production team using special effects and pyrotechnics to their full advantage. Because the film was produced by the Belarusfilm Company and in truth many of the cast and crew either lived or parents lived through the nightmare of the Wehrmacht invasion and resultant onslaught of the population, the accuracy to detail is visually authentic and at no point attempts to introvert away from the brutality faced by their ancestral soldiers or civilians during these troubled times. Yet, it does not go unnoticeable that this film contains blotches of patriotism and benevolence. The narration shifts between characters and their dilemmas in the three separate defensive locations at the beginning may appear to be unclear and confusing. Nevertheless, through skillful editing and directing as the film moves along at a steady peace the separate stories begin to coalesce into one and by no means are a distraction.In summary, Fortress of War is a first-rate factual dramatised war movie which subjects its audience to the brave climatic struggle for survival and once again is another example of the evolving historical films from the Counties brutalised by ideology fuelled hatred and genocide that was the Second World War.

hweideman46-382-585516 The events that took place on the Eastern front were wide and complex but when one steps back from the neatness of usual Soviet or Russian documentaries about the great patriotic war and zooms in on a smaller yet infamous event such as the defence of Brest fortress one is up for a real ride in blood.The film portrays only a small area that suffered as a result of Hitlers aggressive push eastward that shook the world with his sheer comitment of military might.I own about 15 Soviet movies all dealing with ww2 and this has got to be my first choice when voting for the "best".The fighting and battles look realistic almost as if modern movie cameras were transported back in time to capture the situation!!!! The war gear used and computerised all look identical to their historic counterparts(mention should be made of the mocked Panzer 111 and screaming Stukas that appear here and there).Though the excellent hardware will lock ww2 buffs enough to create a trafic jam,the gory atmosphere will test the faint of heart.Using the Russian kid(Alexander Akimov)for telling the story does however bring another dimension for those who need a soft character to identify with.The musical score also contributes greatly to the overall feelings that the film represent,the bit of it in the last minutes of the movie clearly voicing the hopelessness of the resistance made by the brave defenders. The small amount of propaganda blown into some gunfight scenes are minimal but never the less distracting at times because of its "godlike" fighting capabilities given to the Red army who seem to be invincible in hand to hand combat with the Nazis!!! In anycase the Motherland deserves the right to glorify the war it had with the Fascists,she withstood all the evil that the Fuhrer was capable of unleashing and eventually saved the planet from his reign more than any other country can credit itself with.In todays world we must take on an sober view when we recreate events of the past and this epic film delivers that message in my opinion.

Londonx54 I came across this film and got a little excited as the reviews were good and I am fascinated by the war on the eastern front. Unfortunately I had to turn the film off after an hour! The combat scenes are chronically unrealistic in my opinion. I know that Russian tactics were meant to be pretty basic at the beginning of the war but every scene seems to involve an infantry charge across open ground. The last scene, before I stopped the film, involved the Russians jumping up from cover and running a good 100 metres at the Germans who also seemed quite happy strolling around in the open whilst under fire. This feels more like 1812 than 1941.In an air raid at the beginning the film persistently showed mini-explosions occurring 6 feet away from the actors. What are these micro-bombs that only seem to happen in film world? They don't seem to do anything so I'm not sure why the Luftwaffe bother to drop them.