User reviews

Sergei Bondarchuk is a great director. He has proved it with War and Peace, with Waterloo and now again with They Fought for Their Moterhland.

The film looks great. It's amazing how Bondarchuk can translate a world to film and still make it feel very real. The production is great, except for some minor things (tank turrets don't move). When I watched this film, I got the feeling that the whole world was at war. Not only these soldiers somewhere in Russia, but that they were just small parts in a big world conflict.

Most people always complain about the acting in Russian movies. That doesn't go for this one. It all feels very natural. The pain they show looks real, their sweat is there and I cannot imagine it with other actors (or acting method). Sergei Bondarchuk himself plays a role and he shows that he cannot only direct, but also act.

What I loved the most, is that this film shows war as I think it is. There are humans, the enemy is just a dot far away and every fight there are losses. Russians and Germans bleed alike. The Soviet flag is shown and it's clear who we are supposed to root for, but the main characters aren't heroes. They fight because they are told too, not because they are tough.

The music is like the music of War and Peace; not really pleasant to listen to, but it's perfect for the film. When an act of horror is shown, voices rise as if they complain. A requiem to humanity.

They Fought for their Motherland is bit like Spielbergs Saving Private Ryan; only without the misplaced heroism and with that touch of humanity.

Maybe not for everyone (since their is a delicate balance between spectacle, humanity and of course philosophy), but when you are looking for more aspects of war than just the heroic stereotype combat, go for this.

In July 1942, in the Second World War, the rearguard of the Russian army protects the bridgehead of the Don River against the German army while the retreating Russian troops cross the bridge heading to Stanlingrad. While they move back to the Russian territory through the countryside, the soldiers show their companionship, sentiments, fears and heroism to defend their motherland Russian.

"Oni Srazhalis za Rodinu" a.k.a. "They Fought for Their Country" is a realistic war movie, with action and drama very well balanced. The greatest flaw in the screenplay is the usual exaggerated propaganda of the heroism of the soldiers, but it is nothing offensive to the viewer. This film has not been released in Brazil on VHS or DVD and I watched an unofficial DVD that skips the subtitles for long periods and consequently many dialogs are lost. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Eles Lutam por Sua Pátria" ("They Fight for their Motherland")

Russian production. Genre ; WW 2 drama.1975. Based on the novel by Mikhail Sholokhov.

Screenplay and direction by Sergei Bondarchuk with Vasili Shukshin ( as Poitr Lopakhin ), Vyaheslav Tikhonov ( as Nikolay Strltsov ), Sergei Bondarchuk ( as Ivan Zvyagintsev ), Georgi Burkov ( as Alexandr Kopytovskij ), Nikolai Gubenko ( as the Lieutenant ), Yuri Nikulin ( as Nekrasov ), Ivan Lapikov ( as Poprischenko ) & Nonna Mordyukova ( as Natalya Stepanova ).

The film is based on the book by Nobel Prize winning author Mikhail Sholokhov. The action is set in Russia in July of 1942. The exhausted Soviet army was in full retreat against the might of the invading German Panzer divisions. A decision is to hold a ridge with what is left of an infantry regiment near a small village on the banks of the River Don, to allow the exhausted remnants of the army enough time to withdraw across the river and help fortify Stalingrad for the decisive battle that must come.

The loss of Russian life during the campaign was horrific and while there are some impressive set battle pieces, the film concentrates on the exploits of half a dozen or so soldiers from the shattered regiment, who must not retreat even in the face of the Panzers' greater fire power. The film depicts the thoughts and fears of the individual soldiers in the face of the impending battle, and their thoughts of their Mother Russia as well.

While the battles rage, the viewer is not only shown the inhumanity of the conflict, but also the strong personal bonds that develop between comrades in arms in a deadly conflict. There is also plenty of humor in the script, even if it is often grim and tinged with violent overtones. Vasili Shukshin ( as Poitr Lopakhin ) takes the acting honors, with a character that is as much larrikin as it is proletariat.

They fought For Their Motherland is a screen adoption of the prize winning novel by Mikhail Sholokhovis and is directed by proclaimed Russian director Sergi Bondarchuk. It was nominated for the prestigious palme d'Or at Cannes film festival in 1975; which illustrate how powerful the film is. Approval for the film adoption of the Great Patriotic War came from the Russian Ministry of Defence via the Russian cinema council.

The film concentrates on a small number of individual regimental soldiers fighting within a larger battalion on the Russian Steppes in 1942. We are shown not noble soldiers and distinguished officers of the "glorious" Red Army, but ordinary fighting men. They are hungry, dirty, mentally and physically drained. Also, they are exhausted by their continuous 12 months retreat eastwards towards the river Donn and eventually Stalingrad. The soldiers find harmony in talking about home, family and express their emotions and feeling on the war and what it as done to them as people and their motherland. Location is presented impressively on film; firstly, by using wide angel lenses to capture the vast midst of the Steppe salt marches and corn fields. Secondly, by using close angel lenses to photograph the soldiers as they pass through, rest and interact with nervous civilians in the inhabited dwellings. With a large budget comes large battle scenes. The film shows the merciless destruction of land and villages by Luftwaffe air strikes. Defensive formations containing a whole battalion which is broad in scale and includes large battle formation shoots. The film doesn't over exaggerate when handling the destruction, human cost and horror of battle in its scenes.

The main depiction of war, battle and destruction are powerfully focused on individual soldiers. This film tells a similar story for many veteran soldiers of the second world war, whatever the nationality. Boredom, fatigue, fear, fun, friendship, enemies, orders, pain, loss, distress, death and a longing to go home.

They Fought For Their Motherland" tours the inferno imposed upon the soviet people, both military and civilian, on one side by the advancing, all concurring, disciplined German army. And on the other by years of hardship, personal sacrifice, poverty and living to the ideologist view of the soviet dictatorship. This is not the most graphic of war films in todays standard of brutal, realistic, fast passed combat movies. There are scenes of battle sustained injuries and death. However, this film focuses the humanity of war and what it does to the land, and the opinions of people in occupied nations towards the soldiers who are there to protect them. This is a patriotic film from a Russian point of view, which for many years, as at the time of release, future Russian generations, and other nations that fought in the red army, should look back with pride and honour towards those who fought, and died, for their motherland.

I don't understand why I had never heard of this film before. It was by accident that I found it, so I gave it a whirl.

And Wow! I think you could write a novelette on what makes this a great film. There's just too much to say in a review, so I'll be general.

This war film is about Russians fighting against Germans in World War II. In ways, it is much like old American World War II films, with the spotlight on a small group of soldiers in one unit.

The director does so much that is superior that I can't even begin to start on his achievement here.

The film shows us the reality of war, including the "down time" in between conflicts, when soldiers peruse the low points.

Yet we are never bored, even when the action is supplanted by drama. The reason is that the script is so well written, and I must also congratulate whomever translated this into English for me, because its dialog would make any American film writer jealous.

One of the clever things our writer-director team does is keep the reality in the beginning by not letting us know who will survive, and who may be a central character.

Two characters dominate the story, a lady's man and a cook. However, the other characters are also spectacular.

What really makes this film work is the humor, a dark humor, but a realistic one, and one that will make you laugh and cry and the same time. When one old veteran tells the story of his trench disease, you'll laugh along with the other soldiers. It's one of those stories that is Hell when you live it, but hilarious when you tell it after the war.

For me, the magical part is something that I can't say without a spoiler.

The camera work is amazing. The drama is amazing. The theatrics is amazing. Okay, it's all amazing.

Its 1942. The war in Russia is going badly for the Russians. They are being slowly pushed back by the ever advancing Nazis. This is the story of a regiment who's slowly dwindling numbers try to survive and remain optimistic as they continue to try to prevent the enemy from ever reaching Stalingrad.

This is a great war movie. As with all Sergei Bondarchuk films this is a movie that makes you think and feel by showing you what its like to be a lone man in a huge situation. We get to go inside the heads of the various characters and we see what its like to be in battle. The battle scenes are good as the Russian soldiers simply try to survive the strafing, the bombing and to keep the Germans far enough away that they don't have a good chance at killing them.

In someways this film reminded me of Terrence Malicks's Thin Red Line which used similar techniques at times (for example: subjective camera, manipulation of the soundtrack, disjointed flashback.) Actually this movie reminded me of several other war films produced after its release and I'm curious if film makers like Francis Ford Coppola and others studied copies of this all but impossible to see film when they made things like Apocalypse Now.

As good as the film is it isn't perfect. The film can come off as a bit too "rah rah" for mother Russia at times, even though the film ultimately speaks to the larger question of defending one's own home land. The film also is a bit unfocused in the second half as the film takes some odd turns; then again the second half has some of its most powerful imagery with the young nurse trying to save the wounded man in the bomb crater and the return of one soldier from hospital.

See this movie. Its a great great war war film which only suffers when compared to some of the gems in the Sergei Bondarchuk back catalog of films.

An excellent WW2 movie set on the Eastern Front near the Don River. Very authentic with lots of action. Kind of an epic scale of bravery at a period in the war when Germany seemed unbeatable. Stalingrad is raging at this time. This battalion is a rear guard as the others retreat across the Don River. The english subtitles are kind of poor. A man speaks and nothing or the dialogue is there but early or late for the scene. Its still a fine movie.

As a tradition for Soviet movies, most of the actors here are theatrical actors and their interaction on the screen is nothing if not realistic and natural. But Shulshin's talent makes him rise above others.

If that's not enough you have Nikulin, who was a war veteran himself, in one of his dramatic roles.

Given that director Sergey Bondarchuk's curriculum includes such works as War and Peace (1965-1967) and Waterloo (1970), I thought this movie would be worth a view. I was somewhat disappointed. The problem is not Bondarchuk's direction but the script, written by him and Mikhail Sholokhov on the basis of one of the latter's works, They Fought for Their Country.(1942).

Sholokhov is an enigmatic writer. His fame stems mostly from the novel Quiet Flows the Don (4 vol, 1928 to 1940), which was widely read, praised, and the main reason for him to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1965. Quiet Flows the Don stands so far above the rest of Sholokhov's output that questions (never resolved) have been raised about his authorship. In particular, They Fought for Their Country and this movie script belong to the rest and are not particularly compelling.

The subject is the first disastrous months of the German invasion in 1941 and the bravery and resilience of Soviet soldiers, which eventually turned the initial catastrophe into a juggernaut that utterly destroyed Nazism. Good intentions surely, but realization leaves something to desired. We are mostly witnesses to interminable conversations among the soldiers and scenes that are extended beyond reason, which produces a slow and overlong movie. Humor is strained, war scenes are not entirely credible and acting, although generally good falls here and there in over/the/top territory. There are other movies (such as Elem Klimov's Come and See, 1985) that do a better job of depicting the grim nature of WWII in the Soviet Union.

If u never seen this movie, you probably lost great part of "cinema" history. Best russian actors in most dramatic scenes of World War II ... it's like our fathers fought for us. I dont know if that possible to find this movie on english, but you must try.

Bondarchuk's big world war 2 film has some excellent scenery (as usual) and is mesmerizingly polished from a pyrotechnic standpoint. The two big battle scenes have lots of cool explosions and mock-up Panzer IV's, but lack focus, drama, and realism. The German soldiers don't seem like they're terribly motivated or even trying that hard. The first battle scene is particularly disappointing in this way - with the German tanks blowing up easily after only one AT rifle shot and the Germans too quick to retreat time and time again. Meanwhile the good Russian freedom fighters take no casualties.

Halfway through, the film has a huge battle scene featuring the complete annihilation of a town including a really cool plane crash and explosion. For the next 10 minutes or so the film does no wrong - Bondarchuk himself has a great role as a shell-shocked soldier who bayonet-charges some Germans while artillery goes off everywhere around him. Really cool! The problem is, after that point it's all downhill from there and there's a whole 'nother hour left! This last hour really drags on without much action - just a bunch of boring chit chat.

Also, one of the cameras used in the wide battle shots has the dirtiest lens I have ever seen used in a big-budget film. It's totally distracting and ruins what would have been a couple classic battle scenes. What happened?

A major war movie, with an intimate sight on a Soviet regiment that is fighting back invading Nazi troops while retreating. Another interesting issue that is portrayed here are their relations with local peasant people, whose feelings towards retreat are well explored by the script too. Anyway, the greatest merit of this film are the war scenes, very well done, quite realistic.

July 1942. Soviet forces are retreating in the face of a massive German onslaught towards Stalingrad. An infantry platoon is tasked with holding a vital hill in order to give their comrades time to cross the Don River and regroup. The odds are stacked against them.

I had high hopes for this film, considering its IMDB rating and the plot summary. This seemed like it could be a very tight and gritty war movie, Cross of Iron or Saving Private Ryan-style.

It has flashes of that potential but for the most part it's not. The battle scenes are well done and do give you a feel for what fighting on the Eastern Front was like and the heroism and sacrifice involved. A few implausible situations and events but for the most part the battle scenes are great.

Unfortunately, the battle scenes are a small part of the movie. Most of the movie is the interactions between the soldiers outside of battle and here the movie is often quite clumsy and dull. Lots of inane dialogue that goes on forever and adds nothing to the plot, silly sub-plots. Heaps of padding: the film could do with some decent editing.

Hardly the tight plot I was hoping for.

Not about the global war, the real war occurs inside each person. Sergey Bondarchuk show us a simple way of connecting with all cast. The usual hero war actor is replacing with a real soldier who have fears, willings, and hope. Your feels are honest and always survive the love for your motherland.