A Última Linha de Defesa

I am an avid fan of ww2 history and I enjoy reading as much as I can about it, so inevitably I'm a big fan of ww2 movies. What drew me to The Last Frontier was that unlike other movies made by hollywood depicting an eastern front battle. "Enemy at The Gates." comes to mind. All the actors and actresses here are Russian and speak Russian, which gives this movie a level of authenticity that Hollywood doesn't aim for that often... This movie portrays the Battle of Moscow at its most desperate hour. Operation Barbarossa is well underway and the majoity of the frontline Soviet armies have been surrounded and destroyed. Time is everything. The Soviet top generals need more time so they can raise new and fresh armies from the interior of Russia and to movie them to front. All the while holding the Germans back from taking Moscow at all costs. The situation being so desperate that very young trainee cadets from the artillary and infantry school of Podolsk are called to the front to hold back the German's seemingly unstoppable advance. From Podolsk we meet several of the students there, both male and female. The time spent engaging with them prior to battle really allows the viewer to care for them when everything goes downhill.

There is a love triangle where two boys fall for one girl but she only cares for one in a romantic way, while the other is like a brother. But it doesn't feel like cheap emotion. I watched it thinking that the movie feels extremely genuine in that regard. I came away from the movie feeling asking myself a hypothetical, what would have happened if one day in my very small college where I studied. We were asked to fend off an invasion and were handed weapons and death could happen to yourself or your closest of friends at any moment. I was transported into this movie by this thought.

I watched the movie in the Russian and not dubbed. I'm not a fan of dubbed movies so I can't speak for how good or bad the dubbing was. But the genuine emotion I felt from the original actors talking, I didn't feel the need the dubbing. The action scenes were excellent for a war movie. My heart strings were pulled more than a few times. I just wish more Russian ww2 films of this quality existed, that would explore other aspects of tbe war. 9/10 I really can't fault this movie.