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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My first review ever, but I have to do this. In my humble opinion this movie is an insult to the real members of "Spetsnaz". What's more:the high rated reviews must have come from Russian youngsters who you can offer (I know from real life experience) any cr*p as long its Russian cr*p! My advice:Do Not watch this movie. See instead "The Beast Of War" (1988). That will give you the chills ! Greetings from Ardu Bleu.

As the movie opens and we see a squad of young, boisterous, Soviet civilians enter basic training, get their heads embaldened, and loafing around joking afterwards, my initial thought what "WTF? What kind of an army is this?" We see a recruit attacking his barber and cutting a swath through his hair with electric clippers because he didn't like the barber's twitting him. I had my hair cut off too, along with dozens of others, but everyone was hypervigilant, too nervous to gripe about any indignities. Then, now bald, the men pass the time in the barracks waiting to be told what to do and they share a bottle of VODKA and get loaded. This is the first day of basic training? Later they sneak off and gang bang a local girl, then pass around a joint. This is an ARMY?

There is the usual diversity among the men, but not very like an American combat film. No Texans or wise guys from Brooklyn. But there are class differences. One soldier who has eaten out of garbage cans snaps at another who is an educated artist. The training regimen soon turns earnest, rigorous, and brutal -- and much more familiar. The F bomb is generously deployed, along with plenty of single entendres. The battle-scarred drill sergeant always in a rage, swearing and humiliating the men. The growing cohesiveness and developing friendships within the squad. Actually, we get to like the guys because we can identify with them, just as in an American movie.

There's a touching scene involving the camp's whore, who is blond and rather plain. The squad are all stoned but the chuckling dies down as they trade ideas about wounds and death. The artist is sent by the others into the next room with "Snow White," the blond, told to lose his virginity and become a real man. The girl is sweaty and bedraggled but the young man sees beauty behind the ordinariness. He tells her so and she giggles in surprise, disbelief, and the kind of relief an animal must feel when, instead of the usual kick, he's petted instead. And when the artist pulls her naked back into the squad room, he shouts that he's found Venus rising from the sea. The other men, howling with laughter, throw themselves at her feet while she holds her fingers to her over-ripe lips and laughs in little bursts, half uncomprehending and half swooning with pleasure.

In the second part of the film the squad reaches Afghanistan and most of the jokes disappear. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. (Eventually something is going to kill you, though.) The combat scenes are savage and yet recognizable from American movies about Vietnam or, more particularly, from "Blackhawk Down." It takes a little getting used to because at first the uniforms, weapons, and military protocol are a little different from ours. And at first it's odd to hear up-to-date American voices and slang terms from other nationals but the pattern soon reveals itself and we can sit back and watch another movie about a futile war against the masked and black-robed Mujuhadin against whom we would send our own troops in another twelve or thirteen years.

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".

...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.