Tanks for Stalin

Thankfully I did not let the low rating on IMDB sway me. I thoroughly enjoyed this film on Amazon Prime - the story kept me watching. With most films today I stop viewing half way through. Tanks for Stalin presented great storytelling, acting and directing. Why this film has been swamped with low ratings has me bewildered. I hope more films, that tell a unique and entertaining story keep coming - Tanks for Stalin does that. Thank you to the director, Kim Druzhinin, and writer, Nazarov Andrey, for a job well done.

This film presents a fictionalized account of the cross country field test of the T-34 Soviet tank.

The obsession with WWII in Russia and the stupendous quantities of war films and tv series that are in constant production, as if pumped out by some giant WWII factory in the Urals, has led to a trend of turning WWII narratives into fairy tales. The truth is not the object. At least, not in the sense of being factual. The 'truth' these films care about is that of Russian greatness, of Russian ingenuity, of Russian resilience and spirit of defiance, of Russian eternal role of defending herself, and the rest of the world from evil. In pursuit of depicting these truths, facts are not allowed to stand in the way. Narratives in these films seem as though they come from some ancient book of myths, and not from history books. Alas, one can only endure this kind f manipulation for so long. I am fed up with Russian myths. And frankly, I am beginning to wonder how many people in Russia are fed up, too.

I am not sure why some of the reviewers gave it 1 star and were bashing it. I think they and I were watching two different movies. Some points to make: 1. The movie is based on a historical event documented in Russian archives. So, there goes a "fairy tale" title of one of the reviews. 2. Even if a movie tries to adhere to known facts, some "artistic" freedom is given so it is entertaining. In my opinion, it was very well balanced and was enjoyable to watch. 3. It shows shortcomings of a centrally managed economy (top down) where bureaucrats ALWAYS stand in the way of progress and human nature ALWAYS finds a way to work around it.

I enjoyed this movie and if you give it a chance, you will too.