The Pilot: A Battle for Survival

First up, this movie was made long before the invasion of Ukraine and anyone who thinks this was made as propaganda for that invasion needs to stop with the delusional thinking.

As usual, this WWII movie is superbly made, with great cinematography and superb aerial effects. I really wasn't sure if they had real aircraft or CGI a lot of the time, that's how good the aerial scenes are.

The leads play their roles well and the story is quite inspiring, not dissimilar to the Douglas Bader story for the British in WWII.

Well worth a viewing. Watch the Russian audio with subtitles, not a dubbed version. Why anyone watches dubbed movies is a mystery!

I believe this is based on a true story, and frankly the action sequences in the air reminded me of Dunkirk. The movie has it all and if you enjoy stories of survival, this one doesn't disappoint. Heroes are everywhere and here we have a pilot who goes the distance in fighting the good fight for his country. Man do we need more Nikolai Komlev's in the world. This isn't a propaganda movie, this is a movie! From my seat in the rear-gunner's, this is a movie that cuts to the chase and delivers the kabooms.

This russian-made movie is also known as "The Pilot". It is not only excellently produced, but in my opinion also deserves to be more popular and have a better rating. It shows very well - like the movie "Into the White" - what a struggle it must be for a pilot that is shot down and stranded in enemy territory.

And yes - as is typical for many a russian-made movie - there is a tendency to make it a "hero movie", whereby a russian soldier performs the unthinkable. But honestly said, the 'heroics' were at an acceptable level (i.e. Not annoying), whereby the viewer gets to see some pretty good acting combined with quite impressive scenery, props, vehicles...

Overall, I deem this to be one of the better russian-made movies. As such, I score it at 6.9/10, which results in an IMDb rating of 7 stars.

Watching "The Pilot" was a pleasure, first because of the quality of the air combat scenes, very well filmed. Another highlight is the editing of the film, which streamlined a predictable story, but which catches our attention. I liked!!

A refreshingly realistic WW2 shot film, right down to the Russian "Ilyusha" (Ilyushin Il-2) ground attack warplane. The acting throughout was superb.

The ending credits to so many actual Russian WW2 pilots is a sobering and tragic reality of War.

Lest We Forget.