28 hommes de Panfilov

This is an excellent war film about a very straightforward story. Hold your position. That's it.

The protagonists are a group of Soviet soldiers from the Russian and -stan republics (Kazakhstan and co.) Not much importance is given to the characters (there's 28 of them, after all) but they have some very interesting discussions about nationhood, war, life and death, quite philosophical for a trench, without being unrealistic or preachy.

The bad guys don't need a lot of presentation. We've seen them before in other films, they're Nazis.

We are not given more, neither reasons to hate the Nazis (no preaching to a choir) or chest-thumping nationalism or an unsubtle "hidden" anti-Soviet message. The Nazis are advancing to Moscow. These guys want to stop them. It's black and white.

Many Russian movies take an opportunity to take a dig at Communism/Stalin at the same time, showing indifference from the state towards its soldiers or pure incompetence. There's none of that here. Politics are not present in this film and other than the usage of tovarishch (comrade) when addressing officers, one would not know that it was the Soviet Union, a communist state, in this battle.

There are no Soviet flags, no red anything really. It doesn't change the story either way. It was 28 men against a large group of tanks and infantry. It wasn't empire vs empire.

The action is beautifully done and very realistic. There is no unnecessary gore, blood, scalping, decapitation, etc. I don't know how realistic or unrealistic that is. I've seen movies that overdo it (a bullet to the chest causing a waterfall of blood), and although the depiction of gore doesn't bother me, overdoing anything gets boring quickly. In all cases, when people wearing layer upon layer of heavy winter coats get shot, you won't see a lot of blood.

The added bonus of not seeing blood is not knowing who is dead and who isn't, who is covered in earth and who is buried alive, who is mortally injured and who is just knocked out. The Russians can feign death and the Germans would not know it, but the Russians could also really be dead and their own men won't know it.

It adds a bit of mystery, unpredictability and suspense to the story.

The soundtrack is amazing, but let me qualify that. Most of this film is action, so it has action scene music with loud and low (bass) instruments, trumpets and so on. But they still found a way to add three unbelievably beautiful pieces: Rodina (Motherland), Vechnyy Ogon' (The Eternal Flame) and Zimnyy Vals' (Winter Waltz). They're worth buying the soundtrack for. They made me almost cry (at home. The film is not sad at all, at least not for me.)

Overall, a very entertaining, even if straightforward film. Best to watch it in the cinema as the experience there is better for such big films. This may not be a film one would want to watch multiple times, but it's really worth seeing, don't miss it.

I usually prefer to talk about the a film, what's on the screen and not about what's going and what's being said around it, but I'll make a slight exception.

Russia churns out a lot of war films and a lot of films with patriotism as the key (sometimes only) ingredient. There is an understandable fatigue of these films (just like some are tired of comic book or superhero films) so people are now giving low scores to any war film, regardless of its merits.

Russia also has a lot of people that love to see Russian films fail. Russia produces a lot of trash and cash-grab (popsa) films so you have people that call everything that comes from Russia as popsa and want to see it fail.

No, this film is not a box office failure nor a financial failure. Yes, the budget is underreported, (which is strange considering people want to see bigger budget films) but it seems to have made its money back already. One cannot compare it to American films with bigger budgets, star power, the advantage of English, etc.

Without going into spoilers, this film is about a battle, or series of battles, between a Nazi Germany Panzer division and Soviet (Russian and Kazakh) defensive positions. If you want a love story, you've come to the wrong place. If you want a superhero, you've come to the wrong place. Rambo doing it all by himself, taking down the Wehrmacht and killing Hitler himself? Wrong place.

This film has been de-Sovietized, reducing references to Stalin, red flags, Marxism, Communism, etc. People seem to take issue with that and feel that this point makes this film a 1/10 film.

The fact is defending a trench is defending a trench. It makes no difference if one does it for the union of republics (USSR) or for a particular republic (RSFSR). In this case, the soldiers were defending (the road to) Moscow and it was not inaccurate that they were defending Russia. Yugoslav WW2 films also have people talking about taking/defending particular regions (Slavonia, Vojvodina, Kosovo, Serbia, etc.) and that does not necessarily mean they denied the existence of Yugoslavia.

Not that this film has not been de-Sovietized. It has, but it's not such a big deal. People still referred to each other as comrade, and yes, there were not a lot of flags and hammer-and- sickle stuff, but this was an undersupplied unit, lacking both men, guns, ammo and supplies.

The production values are quite high and this film lacks the TV-cheesiness of many Russian films and shows.

The Russians are not presented as good people, nor are the Nazis presented as evil. There is no need for that. We know who's who. This was like two boxers in the ring - "this is where we are now. Let's settle this."

It's dark, without being gloomy and depressing. It's violent without being disgusting.

It has professional acting, professional camera work, professional lighting, sound and CGI.

The script is not very deep because this is a film about men defending a trench. It sets out to do one thing and does it very, very well.

8/10.

You won't believe that movie with the budget of 5 million dollars (by the time it was produced, now with the current currency value it is lower) can look like a 100 million dollars blockbuster. In the cinema it hits your brain like a truck. No CG-rendering of tanks, all those models of Pz-III, Pz-IV were scratch-built or borrowed from museums, though some models were smaller than real (like 1:1,5) and put after combined view processing. Guns shooting real bullets (experts of WWII might prove that), that's why sounds are real. All the blasts are real as well. Also the details of clothes, ammunition and tactics from both sides are perfectly given and approved by team of historical experts helping the director. The only woman in the movie takes like 16 seconds of your attention, all the 2 hours are about War. All in all, if you didn't understand earlier how Nazis lost 80% of their total armies in the East Front, that is a quite an example of real battle happened 16th November 1941 under Moscow near Dubosekovo (Petelino).

First off, don't pay attention to frostvortex's review since he/she is a troll spreading lies.

Panfilov's 28 battle is not a myth and is documentally proved by both Russian and German sources, the only inconsistency is the number 28 which is not correct. There were more than 100 fighters, and the movie also reflects that.

The movie is very dry but unique in its language. Don't expect anything Hollywood-like. It does not depict complex plots, flashbacks or tear-filled love story, no bursts of emotions, it does not have a main hero. It is almost documental since the viewer is indifferently thrown into one day of Panfilov's men life without being much prepared for it. No one cares about being introduced or explained to the viewer as everyone are busy preparing to fight the Nazi tanks. But each character's individuality can be recognized though the dialogs.

Next comes the battle which is just great. You have to hear that sound. You have to see it. No gibs, no gore, but it is really scary ang gives great impression of what Red Army soldiers have gone through. It literally puts you into their trench. Also, no super-heroes. Just the ordinary people who modestly gave their lives to stop the Nazis.

The level of realism and historical details is very high. You will see proper explosions, proper guns, proper tanks, proper uniforms and other things from that exact time.

Go and watch it.

Amazing movie! The story is simple, close to ascetic. It might be not what you used to hear/see, but it is served to you marvelously! Every single scene is a piece of cinematography art. The preparation work is extraordinary. Attention to every detail is exceptional, though this is not merely a reconstruction, but a full war drama, based on real events. Visual impression is extremely engaging. Simply put, You will be one of them. Sound is convincing, giving the audience the effect of being right there on the spot. Though in this case you wouldn't have heard the music, which is excellent too. I am not sure if all the dialogues in the movie will be (or could be) interpreted into English (or other language in your Country) adequately, but I hope so. Wish you enjoy this masterpiece like I did.