Czterej pancerni i pies

This film was made in the late 1960's, when the Soviet land troops (a so called "Warsaw Pact") was threatening a big part of the world. The main tune was to emphasize a Polish-Russian friendship during the 2nd world war. It was not true as Russians invaded Poland in 1939 together with Hitler and committed even worse war crimes than Germans.

The purpose of the film was to attract young boys from Polish villages to join the army, especially armored units. It was very funny, but in each episode the food and common meals play a significant role (mainly canned food made in USA and supplied for the Red Army). As under communist yoke the food supply in Poland was very poor, scenes of eating full cans of meat might have attracted young boys to join the army.

This TV series was also very popular in the former Czechoslovakia. I think that most of children then saw it many times. Every boy was in love with Lidka and Marusja and desired to be like Janek. We can label it cult TV series. Now some scenes could seem to be a bit slow-going, but still episodes affect us deeply with their strength and veracity. In fact there was less communist propaganda it that series than in most of other TV programs. Morover, we all were able to read between the lines (and still we are)... I would recommend to current movie makers to acquire skills from that series how to make great war movie without torrents of blood. There was everything - action scenes, heroism, friendship, love, humor, tragedy and sadness - but all very decent, all experiences of ordinary people. Little unskilfulness of actors made scenes more believable.

Only just encountered this series, but let me tell how much I enjoy it. The characters are all funny and likable, and the whole show is tremendously entertaining, even now in 2010. Is it Communist propaganda? No. It's a series about Polish soldiers during the WW2. I've heard comments about "it not being cool anymore to cheer the Russians and their allies in the WW2," but pray, who am I supposed to root for? Hitler? It does depict Germans as tactical zeros, though. In this aspect, this show doesn't differ from American shows made during the Cold War, which always depict the officials of the Soviet Union (and especially Russians) as a bunch of morons, easily double-crossed by the clever American protagonists. Oh wait, I think it does. It seems to me there are an awful lot of German soldiers in it speaking Polish, but you rarely see a Polish soldier that speaks German. There you go, now both sides have their negative aspects, happy-happy.

OK, what I actually mean is, this show is not about politics. It's about how these soldiers experience the war. If you watch it devoid of any sort of political bias, it's ultimately a very much entertaining series, showing war from a human perspective.

Damn...so many opinions....this serious was made according to the "general line of communist party", "german soldiers shown as a stupid and weak bastards there" etc...OK - I can agree but damn - THE MOVIE ITSELF IS AMAZING! Because of this movie I started learning Polish when I was 10 yeas old guy! Damn...and they say this movie humiliates Polish nation - shut up! Total respect and low bow to all who participated in creation of this masterpiece!

Miron / Tvangeste www.tvangeste.com ========================================================= Love and Respect Your Friends - and Let Our Enemies Die!

I think I watched the whole Series (about 15 episodes) maybe 20-30 times! I would watch whenever it was on. It contains old propaganda for the Communists during the time of the filming, but it has a great cast, great humor, love and war, and a dog!

This is a great show, and I recommend it to all, young and old.