9 rota

At 38, Fyodor Bondarchuk makes his directorial debut at the same age at which his father, Sergei Bondarchuk, made his own classic "Destiny of a Man". An epic in every sense of the word, 9th Company boasts a rousing soundtrack, broad camera shots, unbelievably beautiful landscapes, empathetic characters and vividly brutal action sequences.

Based on actual events that culminated on 7th January 1988 on the Djardan "3234" Heights of Afghanistan, 9th Company follows the ill-fated fortunes of a small group of young Soviet soldiers, from the trials of boot camp to their arrival in the heart of the war zone and the climactic, bloody battle that made them heroes.

The 9th Company is first and foremost a war film. Not a anti-war film, and certainly not militarist - but a genuine war film. It is not about the glories of Russian weapons, rather the glories of those who fight with them down to the last round of ammunition. Apart from the odd radio murmur from Mikhail Gorbachev, the film has cast all politics aside.

Visually, great care was taken to immerse the viewer into the world of the 9th Company. The Afghan scenes are painted in a sepia, red-brown hue, while the training camp portions of the film appear colder, with more pronounced hints of green and blue. Fyodor Bondarchuk has a fondness for using slow motion for emphasis and in this instance it is particularly effective. The props, military equipment, costumes, specially constructed Afghan village, the characters, their speech, the sound, and finally the dust - all appear authentic. Bondarchuk makes good use of a $9m budget (lavish by Russian standards) and the film features some impressive hardware including 30 T-64-B tanks, 10 Mi-24 Hind attack helicopters, 10 Mi-8 multi-role transport helicopters, 22 AN and MIG fighters, 1500 Ukrainian army troops, and 42 three-ton loads of stone and rubble for pyrotechnic effects to name a few.

The 9th Company showcases some explosive action sequences. Violence and vodka are served up in equal measures and it makes for a highly intoxicating cinematic cocktail that's guaranteed to push your excitement levels over the limit by the time the climactic final firefight arrives. Drawing obvious parallels to numerous conflicts occurring around the globe today, 9th Company is a tense, powerful and tragically topical war film that demands to be seen. It's a timely reminder that war is hell, wherever you are from and whatever language you speak.

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The poster of this movie is not the most attractive, unfortunately, but everything else that's beyond that, exceeds the expectations to a Russian movie.

"9th company is a film about war cruelty, inhuman cross crippling the heroes' lives, about honour and duty, sufferings and friendship, about life that is one for all and death that is different for everyone."

9th company truly shows the beauty, the reality and the uselessness of such wars against locals. Now, 20 years after, the equipment has developed, all in all, it still gives an impression of the actions against the Iraq.

The characters were colorful and well picked, although some of them still looked too similar to me for messing them up.

The movie is high quality, with well mastered sound and Russian spirit in it, but vastly dramatic and definitely not a typical American movie with a happy end. It is a great example of human values and motivates to think about "What matters most".

In all post Soviet republics you can find bunch of veterans of the Soviet war affairs in Afghanistan. It is good that finally such movie was made. The previous movies about Soviet war in Afghanistan never managed to be so successful and therefore they didn't reached the masses. Bandarchuk's movie helps the youth as well as other people in the post Soviet republics to understand, what the veterans of the Afghanistan war have gone through. It is actually pity that I living in Latvia now more about what Americans have gone through in Vietnam then my neighbor in the upstairs apartment in Afghanistan. I believe that such thoughts could share with me many, who live in the post Soviet area.

The actors were well picked and they plaid well. The sound effects were cool and the music was fine. But still the movie was not perfect. There were some little things that didn't fit together. For example the plain that got shot – with four engines on smoke and flaying at such a low altitude it would never be able to get back to the runway, besides if it even had, it would never crash in to gasoline cans, since on a battle airfield there are no open air storage for fuel. If they had then those Afghans would simply shoot at those cans instead of the plane. The last fight episode was not clear either. If Dzhakonda was sitting on the edge of a mountain, then how those Afghans could get to him without waking up anyone else? So the overall impression is that the movie was very good but not perfect.

I am big fan of war films, specially from Vietnam and WWII. Afghanistan was taboo in Russia for long time, therefore I was very impatient to see 9th company and because of Bondarchuk, that is the name.

I was really surprised about this film. Perfect acting, spectacular special effects, costumes and different point of view on war. All of these made this film superlative. And something more. I felt something strange after the end of this film. It was mix of feelings like anger, sympathy and sorrow.

9th company is impressive successor of famous Russian war films and Fyodor is brilliant follower of his father Sergey. Is nice to see excellent masterpiece from different, like American production.

God bless Bondarchuk !

...are indeed bound to repeat them. This cracking Soviet/Afghan war drama from director and actor Fyodor Bondarchuk has echoes of US war stories like Hamburger Hill, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket, but with none of the predictable American schmaltz, propaganda and dubiously good teeth. It grips the viewer entirely with impressive repertory performances from a great young cast of faces unknown to western audiences; deserving all of its accolades and every cent of the post-Soviet era record-breaking $20m the film has raked in. Worth a look for those who think current Western military ambitions in Afghanistan are anything but futile.