Tuntematon sotilas

This new version of Tuntematon Sotilas is very different from the earlier one made during the fifties, when Finland still had vivid memories from the war. In Mollberg's version there are less humour, and in addition to this there are nothing left of the nationalism, that we are used to connect with this kind of movies. Tuntematon Sotilas reflects about the situation of the soldier and the front-men as a mass. Instead of pathetic patriotism the film tells about the war without great gestures and bloody action scenes. The director keeps Väinö Linna's very critical outlook on the world.

I find the 1985 version of "Tuntematon sotilas" far superior over the older version. The new version is much more realistic in its description of the war. The actors are of real age instead of the original movie. Also all the battle scenes really give the feeling of chaos when defensive lines are shattered and despair takes over the men.

The film describes continuation war with good accuracy. Also I like how the characters develop over the film. At start the green men who are panicking easily and so afraid of the enemy who they don't even see... To the heroic defensive battles against Russian tank hordes at the end.

Many of the since-unknown actors have now become main pillars of Finnish movies and entertainment. Mollberg's idea of using less famous people than Laine did in his version works. When movie was released the faces weren't familiar - and so the characters are much more neutral.

All-in-all I consider the 1985 Tuntematon sotilas as one of the best and realistic war movies ever made, close to second is "Winter War" - another Finnish war movie.

This movie is following a Finnish platoon in Finlands struggle against Soviet Union in the Continuation War starting in 1942. In the beginning the men are conscripts who are sent to the front when Finland attacks SU in hope of getting back the area that SU took from Finland in Winter War in 1940. In the beginning Finland is victorious but then the luck turns... Finland has to start its retreat. The men are just 19-year-old boys when the war starts, but in the end they are heroes who kept the Finland independent despite of the massive Soviet Army.

During a visit to the Salpalinja in the late eighties, a friend mentioned this film. We had had a tour by a veteran of the Winter War and the Continuation War of the fortifications and I really wanted to see the film. On our way back to Pyhtää, we hired the video of the film in Kotka and prepared for an evening's viewing.

To say I was stunned and amazed would be an understatement. The film captured perfectly what the aging ex-soldier had recounted to us - he hadn't held back about anything, including atrocities committed by both sides and about the sheer horror of the war.

The Finnish front is barely known elsewhere in the West. Nor were the transfers of populations when Russia took Finland's arm and skirt. What madness possessed the Finns to march on? The film explains the collective frenzy of nationalism gripping the dirigeants and (most of) the men. No dissent was allowed. Those who refused to cross into Russia proper were killed. This was sensitively shown in the film.

Parts of the film were unbearable. The attack on the ambulance stays in my memory. The new lad who doesn't heed the warning about snipers and is rewarded with a bullet in the skull. The line of Russians crossing a snow-covered field only to be mown down to a man.

Loud, lurid and gory, the film captures the dreadfulness of war and the vagaries of the human spirit in a Finnish context. Definitely recommended.

Rauni Mollberg's (from now on referred to as 'Molle') Tuntematon Sotilas has been left far behind in fame to its predecessor, that of Edwin Laine's Tuntematon Sotilas from 1955. This is not surprising as the newer movie lacks the sentiment that is almost omnipresent in the older version. Despite this, is Molle's version more faithful to the original novel by Väinö Linna who was himself involved in making of the new version. Both movies however deserve their place, in Edwin Laine's time there was a need for high national epic but as the times changed a new version was also welcome and maybe even in demand.

Molle's version deserves perhaps more praise and attention than it has been used to have, but also criticism. The newer version is no way meant to be 'a better' version but rather an alternative account of the psychological reality of a man. Therefore I call it an antithesis, it is impossible to see the newer version without comparing it to the all too familiar older version. You actually need to watch the film several times before it really opens to you in the way Molle had intended it. Tuntematon Sotilas is a war film, but the highlight is upon the people who fought in there, both Finns and Russians, who are brought to suffer the very same meat-grinder. Parts of it are funny, parts of it are disgusting.

What is left to a lesser notion is historicity, the weapons and uniforms are from the second world war but you should not expect them to appear in correct order. For the weapon freaks be it informed that the same KV-1's appear as both Finnish and Soviet tanks. For those who already know everything that has been written about the Continuation War this movie does not offer any historical references, this time it is all literature from the ground view. Nevertheless this is one of the best war films there is, perhaps there is a conscious focus and perhaps there is some message, but the weight of the overall work will just make you silent.

If you are going to see this film, make sure you are watching a quality copy. Many dark scenes have become incomprehensible in poor quality VHS transfers. The darkness is essential visual effect in Molle's version.