A Última Linha de Defesa

I've had a bit of a historical interest in the war on the Eastern Front since childhood. The attempt at historical accuracy in this movie was much appreciated, although I'm not an expert. The battle scenes might seem a little slow to some, but when you compare it to actual war footage it's not really. Hollywood movies tend to speed things up for extra dramatic effect.

There is an air attack scene by Stukas dropping what appear to be barrel bombs. I guess that must have actually happened. But that scene ends with a Heinkel dumping it's load on the front line. It's a bombing scene that is high budget and impressive, clearly not CGI. It reminded me of that bombing scene in Apocalypse Now where they had only one chance to get it right due to the cost. I expect that was true for this given all the explosives and damage it actually did.

As somebody else pointed out the Germans were highly trained and the Russians usually lost more people in confrontations. This is reflected in the movie. Unlike some Hollywood movies where a dozen or more German soldiers are killed for every allied soldier. It also shows realistic tactics used by the Germans to deal with a Russian ambush by fighting while repositioning to flank their artillery.

It shows women right up there on the front line. That was authentic for the Eastern Front. Completely unheard of on the Western Front.

Yes the dialogue is pants and it's clearly hyper patriotic. But then how must our war movies seem to them? Despite this there are no happy endings here and a very worthwhile watch to see the variety of German tanks, the artillery tactics and the realistic location.

Although not the same type of movie, and not in the same league, it has given me the idea to re-watch Klimov's masterpiece of war horror: Come and See. If you haven't seen that one I very highly recommend it.

It has good characters and an interesting subject. The war scenes are professional taken with explosions and soldiers flying through the air when that happens. So far so good. But the story is boring in long parts and through the hole time - except the battle scenes - the music tries to ballance the weak dialogues; tries to make them more interesting. Most of the time the movie drips from patriotism and has less scenes to point out the fears of war. The soldiers are unrealistic motivated, no weakling, no coward. It's a black and white scenario. Here the good, there the bad. It's a one dimensional drawing of the.incidences. There is no bad russian in this movie, but all bad people are on the other side. Underlined with dozends of cheesy patriotic expressions.

It had the chance to be something special, just because of the professional making. But the nerve killing cheese score blew it. And of course the weak dialogues. Sorry for the actors. They seem to have tried their best.

I am an avid fan of ww2 history and I enjoy reading as much as I can about it, so inevitably I'm a big fan of ww2 movies. What drew me to The Last Frontier was that unlike other movies made by hollywood depicting an eastern front battle. "Enemy at The Gates." comes to mind. All the actors and actresses here are Russian and speak Russian, which gives this movie a level of authenticity that Hollywood doesn't aim for that often... This movie portrays the Battle of Moscow at its most desperate hour. Operation Barbarossa is well underway and the majoity of the frontline Soviet armies have been surrounded and destroyed. Time is everything. The Soviet top generals need more time so they can raise new and fresh armies from the interior of Russia and to movie them to front. All the while holding the Germans back from taking Moscow at all costs. The situation being so desperate that very young trainee cadets from the artillary and infantry school of Podolsk are called to the front to hold back the German's seemingly unstoppable advance. From Podolsk we meet several of the students there, both male and female. The time spent engaging with them prior to battle really allows the viewer to care for them when everything goes downhill.

There is a love triangle where two boys fall for one girl but she only cares for one in a romantic way, while the other is like a brother. But it doesn't feel like cheap emotion. I watched it thinking that the movie feels extremely genuine in that regard. I came away from the movie feeling asking myself a hypothetical, what would have happened if one day in my very small college where I studied. We were asked to fend off an invasion and were handed weapons and death could happen to yourself or your closest of friends at any moment. I was transported into this movie by this thought.

I watched the movie in the Russian and not dubbed. I'm not a fan of dubbed movies so I can't speak for how good or bad the dubbing was. But the genuine emotion I felt from the original actors talking, I didn't feel the need the dubbing. The action scenes were excellent for a war movie. My heart strings were pulled more than a few times. I just wish more Russian ww2 films of this quality existed, that would explore other aspects of tbe war. 9/10 I really can't fault this movie.

Superb action. Very well acted. Realistic war activity as regards methods and missions. Very highly recommended. Cannot go wrong with this movie.

Basically the first 30 minutes might give you the opinion this movie suck. I had a really hard time cooping with the dubbing and what it looked like bad effects. I decided to give it a shot though.

However, the effects are sometimes massive, perhaps especially the scene with the medium bomber. Rating from fairly good to great.

But I think the Germans are portraied in a better way speeking native language.

Dubbing takes some stars out of this movie and a pretty boring first 30 min ending up in good overall.