KV1: Almas de Ferro

Unless you have a thing for Soviet armor, I would say that you should give this movie a miss. It's supposed to be about the second battle of Rostov in July 1942, but it looks like it's been shot in the same muddy field in northern Russia. The makers might have heard about tactics, but if they have, they have promptly forgotten almost everything. Tank vs tank combat is often within spitting distance, and the Germans appear to be dropouts from the Imperial Stormtrooper Academy of Shooting. Meanwhile, the Soviets hit with almost every round, and every hit is a penetrating killshot. The German tanks must have cardboard armor, though, as in one scene, a tank is knocked out by two hand grenades tossed at it. While the "star" is a KV-1 tank (a rare bird in war movies), most other tanks are T-34/85, which weren't used until a year and a half later. All German tanks are supposed to be PzKpfw IV ausf. F2, but that tank was quite rare by that time. It's more likely that the real battle involved short-barreled PzKpfw IV's and IIIs with the 5 cm gun. The German tanks all sport side armor skirts (Schürzen), which were introduced in early 1943. They are probably there to hide the fact that the tanks are converted T-55s. The Soviets are a motley crew of comrades, and only the political commissar is a bit slimy. The acting is OK, but a few actors stand out as pretty wooden. There's never really any real suspense, as the tank crew (while suffering losses) manage to defeat almost every German tank, even when the enemy assault with an entire company. The script has a love story of sorts, which appears to be there just to make girlfriends endure this rather mediocre 90-minute movie.

Excellent Russian WW2 movie great battle scenes good action and acting. Very good plot. I actually read up on real story and main Russian character and it was very accurate. If you like WW2 movies you'll love this one.

Ever wonder what happened to those WWII tanks that were knocked out of commission by enemy fire or broken down? This movie gives a behind the scenes look at a WWII Russian tank depot where those wrecks are brought in for salvage or repair. Not a bad flick, and even though I don't speak Russian, it's well acted.

This film begins in World War 2 with a young Russian officer by the name of "Semyon Konovalov" (Andrey Chernyshov) scanning the area with his binoculars and to his horror finding a German panzer aiming its gun directly at the tank he is on. When the shell hits it he is thrown out into a field and all but one member of his crew is killed. Thinking that everyone is dead the German panzer then moves on to another Russian tank stuck in the mud leaving both Russian soldiers to be picked up afterward and taken to a surgical hospital for life-saving treatment. Once recovered Semyon is assigned to a military school as an instructor to train new tankers on Russian tactics. Eventually, after much insistence on his part, he is then sent back to the field where he is given a KV-1 heavy tank to command and it's at this time that the film really takes off. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a very good "tank film" which incorporates a realistic military background, good drama and some excellent special effects and action. It was only after reading that it was inspired by true events that I did some research and found some very noticeable embellishments that were totally unnecessary and led to a slightly lower score than I had originally given. For example, the entire situation with Semyon's wife "Pavla Chumak" (Olga Pogodina) was rather difficult to accept once I had finished my research. There were other minor issues here and there but that particular one aside, this was still a good film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

A russian woman who's a mechanical engineer travels to the front to be with her husband and to fix his KV1 heavy tank. and in the final battle thru all of the bad crap that happens in battle, she ends up as the driver of his tank, and together they kill 16 german panzer IVs. boy, they don't make movies like this anymore. why can't hollywood make movies like this?, actually I know why, at the same time in America it was illegal for a woman to be an engineer. turns all of the bad crap in war into a really fun movie, and I spent a year in Iraq and know about bad crap in war.