Rukajärven tie

I liked this movie more than I liked Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line. For some reason it was able to capture better what the other movies were trying to capture. What I liked even more was that it was able to "cheat". Meaning it was able to make it look like there was a war going on with a few well taken shots and angles and sound effects, an inspiration for all aspiring filmmakers with no Hollywood money. =)

This movie has gathered huge crowds in Finland, but as an outsider with only a superficial grasp of Finnish history you loose a lot of the points.

Focusing on a small Finnish bicycle unit as they penetrate into Russian held territory in 1941 the film has a lot of poetic moments and a high degree of tension in some scenes. Just seeing combat from a Finnish perspective is interesting for anyone brought up on mainstream American war tales, but there are problems...

As said in another comment, there is a lack of realism in the unit tactics displayed and some fighting scenes are ridiculous (especially the last unnecessary heroic showdown). Given that the soldiers portrayed are veterans of the Winter War they do *not* act sensible.

Well, that might be a minor point had it attempted a more thorough investigation of the motives of the soldiers and the inherent conflicts that must arise given the situation. Instead it centers on a banal lovestory as seen many times before in Northern European films. Mandatory nakedness, melancholia and a touch og golden light is the name of the game. Argh!

For those of you that don't know, Finland was an ally of Germany at this point, though they probably had no other choice, and the fighting in this film is not heroically defensive, but offensive. Nationalist sentiment was high at this point and just a tiny bit racist, ala the German kind. Had it more explicitly discussed these topics and the views of the soldiers in the unit, it might be more interesting for a foreign audience and in the end more balanced.

Instead it avoids discussing if there was a real need for the Continuation War and the huge drains it made on Finland. There are attempts at portraying conflicts among soldiers of different background, but no more.

As it goes it's mainly a crowd pleaser for the Finnish audience, showing that war is hell, love triumphs and the Finns were heroic, after all (which they were, but was it worth the losses?).

Very well done film about the battle between Finland and Russia in the early stages of World War 2. Well shot, well acted and exceptionally moving. I found this film on DVD at Vidiots in Los Angeles. Never had heard of it before and found it to be a big treat. The label lists Vanguard Cinema has the distributor. I highly recommend it.

It's a shame they made a "Hollywood" movie out of it. Even though it does tell something about the situation Finland was in during that time, the movie looks like one made in Hollywood.

The battle scenes were unrealistic with the characters heroically running in the forest even though the air is full of bullets and kill many of the Russians while at it (pretty much like a Rambo or Commando but not that far out). Also, the love story plays too big a role in the movie.

I don't mean it's a bad movie but if you want to really get an idea of the Winter War or the Continuation War, try to see The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon sotilas, 1955) or The Winter War (Talvisota) or read the books.

Of the American depictions of war (in films), only Band of Brothers comes close to what The Unknown Soldier and The Winter War deliver.

I saw this film at a Finnish cinema, with only swedish subtitles. As I can only speak a small amount of Finnish and no Swedish, I expected it to be an uncomfortable film to watch, but I found it uniquely interesting to watch a war film in which everyone spoke their own language, instead of an American with an accent. I would recommend this film to anyone.