The second “magnificent Seven” films about World War II (here is the first selection) will present films by Soviet screen masters dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. The selection of films presented below is very biased and can easily be doubled or even tripled, because many wonderful films about that tragic and great four-year period were shot.
Soldiers (1956)
directed by Alexander Ivanov
Viktor Nekrasov‘s novel “In the Trenches of Stalingrad”, which is based on the script of this film, was first published in a magazine a year after the Victory and played a crucial role in the fate of Russian literature, becoming a great prologue to what would be called “lieutenant’s prose” two decades later. But even the “father of nations” and the “Generalissimo of Victory” unexpectedly paid tribute to this work, personally writing the author’s name in the list of winners of the 1947 Stalin Prize. But, in the first post-war decade, it was simply impossible to imagine a film adaptation of this work about the simple defenders of the legendary city on the Volga. In the last years of Comrade Stalin’s life, including by means of cinema, a great myth was created about his military genius and his main contribution to achieving Victory. Therefore, the appearance of the film “Soldiers” was so important, the script for which, at the request of the director, was created by the author of the story himself. The filming of the tape took place on the site of the legendary events themselves and very accurately conveyed the spirit of the literary original. And for Innokenty Smoktunovsky (a 17-year-old boy who went to the front in 1942), who played one of the most significant roles in the film – an intelligent lieutenant with glasses – this role turned out to be fateful, after which his subsequent roles in theater and cinema shocked the audience.
Watch online movie Soldiers (1956) (SD)
https://ok.ru/video/1786427935329
The Ballad of a Soldier (1959)
directed by Grigory Chukhray
Both the director of this film and the screenwriter Valentin Yezhov went through the entire war, fully experiencing the full weight of it and the bitterness of losing comrades as young as them. The creators dedicated the film to them, the fate of the hero of which we will learn in the first episode – he, like millions of other sons, brothers, and fathers, did not wait for their relatives after the war. Talking about several days of military leave, begged by the young hero instead of a well-deserved award, the authors presented an unforgettable image of Alyosha Skvortsov (Vladimir Ivashev‘s debut film role), filling the hearts of the audience with aching sadness from the fact that it is no longer possible to meet the one about whom the voiceover of the young Yuri Yakovlev was spoken at the very beginning of the film.:
“He could have become a wonderful citizen, he could have built or decorated the land with gardens, but he was and will forever remain in our memory as a soldier. A Russian soldier!”
Watch online movie The Ballad of a Soldier (1959) (HD)
https://ok.ru/video/1561420106392
The Fate of Man (1959)
directed by Sergey Bondarchuk
in the film “The Fate of Man” (1959)
Mikhail Sholokhov‘s short story of the same name, published in two issues of the main party newspaper Pravda shortly after the Twentieth Congress, which was a milestone in Soviet history, can be said to have become a certificate of rehabilitation for hundreds of thousands of soldiers and officers who had been captured by the enemy and the horrors of concentration camp life. In the center of the screen version of the story of the classic of Russian literature is the fate of one of these involuntary captives, who retained the power of the spirit unconquered by the enemy even under pain of death. This directorial film debut by Sergei Bondarchuk (who brilliantly played the main character of the film, Andrei Sokolov), like “The Ballad of a Soldier”, triumphantly hit the screens all over the world and, two-thirds of a century after its release, still amazes viewers with its artistic power.
Watch online The Fate of Man (1959) (HD)
Peace to Him Who Enters (1961)
directed by Alexander Alov and Vladimir Naumov
The film by the famous director’s duo based on the script by the wonderful playwright Leonid Zorin (creator of the Pokrovsky Gates, beloved by many generations) tells about several days at the very end of the war. But not about everyday life at the front, but about the “special task” – to deliver a young German woman to the hospital, who is about to give birth. And the very young second lieutenant Shura Ivlev, who has just arrived in the army, is very upset about this. He is eager for a real war, and he is assigned, as it seems to him, a child’s task. However, along the way of his small military unit, the heroes are waiting for various meetings that more than compensate for the desire of the second lieutenant to do something heroic. Interestingly, the role of Shura was played by Alexander Demyanenko, who soon became the most beloved Shura of the Soviet Union.
Watch online the movie Peace to Him Who Enters (1961)
https://ok.ru/video/237904464581
Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha (1967)
directed by Vladimir Motyl
For the creation of this film, according to the script of the poet-veteran Bulat Okudzhava, its creator Vladimir Motyl almost lost the opportunity to continue making films. And only an emergency situation, when, in order to save a failed film project about the establishment of Soviet power in Central Asia, the disgraced director was returned to the profession, presented the audience with the best eastern of all time – “The White Sun of the Desert.” And “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha” offended the film censors with what they saw as an unacceptable combination of comedic adventures at the front of the hero played by Oleg Dahl (albeit often imagined by him) and the tragic story of frontline love.
Watch online the movie Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha (1967) (SD)
The Ascent (1976)
directed by Larisa Shepitko
Vasil Bykov‘s novel “Sotnikov” about the fate of two partisans in its screen reading by Larisa Shepitko has become one of the peaks of world cinema, a kind of parable with deep Christian overtones. This is a story, on the one hand, about the triumph of the spirit over the weak flesh, and on the other, about how, saving your life, it is so easy to become both a traitor and an executioner at the same time. The film, which was awarded the main prize of the Berlin International Film Festival and, half a century later, impresses with the power of images and characters created on the screen.Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Sergey Yakovlev, Anatoly Solonitsyn, and others. This is one of the rare movies that can evoke a feeling of genuine catharsis.
Watch online the movie Ascension (1976) (HD)
https://ok.ru/video/2319025310261
Come and See (1985)
directed by Elem Klimov
This film, which was released exactly forty years ago, was put first by the world-famous film director and big movie fan Quentin Tarantino in his list of the best films about the war. And, indeed, the shocking impression of almost every frame of this more than two-hour film fresco can and even should hurt the heart of every viewer. The apocalypticism of what is happening on the screen (it is no coincidence that the title of the film contains the refrain phrase of the last and most mysterious book of the Bible) makes one shudder and long for such horrors of war as the extermination of civilians by probe teams to never happen again. The film is based on the texts of the outstanding Belarusian writer Ales Adamovich, who himself witnessed and participated in the events described by him as a teenager.
Watch online movie Come and See (1985) (HD)
https://ok.ru/video/93064333931
