Päämaja

This movie takes to the headquarters, where Commander-in-Chief, C.G.E. Mannerheim is making his decisions considering the war.Whether those decisions were right or not, historians can argue about that.Päämaja (1970) is a Matti Kassila film.It's based on Ilmari Turja's play from 1966, which I haven't read.This movie works due to strong performances by its actors.Joel Rinne makes a perfect Mannerheim.This was actually the last film role he did.Jussi Jurkka got a Jussi award from his performance as Quartermaster general Airo.Tamara Lund is wonderful as Lotta Markovilla, even though that one scene with her singing didn't quite serve the story.Martti Pennanen is great as Chief of General Headquarters Erik Heinrichs.Leif Wager is very good as Aladár Paasonen, military attaché in Sweden.It was pretty enjoyable to watch Veijo Pasanen as Wounded soldier.And it was nice to listen to Ossi Ahlapuro's singing.Heikki Kinnunen brings in some comedy as Orderly in the comb scene.Matti Kassila himself is seen as Colonel with shaking hand at dinner.Also Jyrki Kovaleff and Anssi Mänttäri are seen in the movie.Overall pretty good, yet flawed wartime movie.

The movie asks who were the heroes in getting Finland out of the Second World War. The honour of answering this question is left to the viewer who are presented images of actual wartime people. The level of historicity is high although the author of the script has taken some concise liberties to make the story more effective and the characters look more "like themselves"; for example the historical Colonel Armas Kemppi is replaced with fictive Colonel Markkovilla. The spotlight however concentrates on Major General Axel Fredrik Airo who is played by Jussi Jurkka and, mostly because of Jurkka's fine performance, Airo becomes the main character.

The movie does not extol specifically anybody. Marshall Mannerheim (Joel Rinne) is the army commander with almost mythological level of authority but he has his own small flaws too and sometimes he is quite humoristic character too. The Marshall will reprimand his Generals, dispute with them, admit his mistakes and he is also seen descending to the level of ordinary soldier without losing a bit of his status. Rinne's performance still remains as the most lively one among other pieces that feature Mannerheim.

Although "Päämaja" is a war movie pretty much of it is sheer drama. Even so it still captures the atmosphere of the time when Finland was threatened by Soviet steel steamroller. The picture of ordinary soldier's realm gives a very different impression than that of the headquarters' activity: they are like two different wars but because the picture of shabby foot soldier appears in the same movie with a cosmopolitan Marshall it gives "Päämaja" a considerable and genuine deepness.