Leningrad

Mira Sorvino plays a Russian born journalist from Britain who gets trapped in the besieged city of Leningrad during WWII. I recently completed a book called Armageddon by Max Hastings about the end of the war in Europe. Even though I had read quite a lot about WWII in Europe I was still shocked by the savagery inflicted on the people in the path of the German attack (Barbarossa) and then the return of the Russians as they pushed them back to Germany. The war on the Western front (France and Belgium) was fought almost as a gentleman's war when compared to the fighting on the Eastern front. (A generalization, I know) The siege of Leningrad was typical of the war on the Eastern front. If you want to read about savagery read Chapter 10 on East Prussia in Armageddon - or read Harrison Salisbury's the 900 Days, which deals exclusively with Leningrad.

God help us if any of us ever had to endure what the people in Eastern Europe suffered during WWII. Almost 3 million Russians were directly affected by the siege of Leningrad - by dying or being evacuated from their home. The movie does an excellent job of depicting for us what it must have been like. We observe: the politics and propaganda of war when the Russians first let the journalists into Leningrad - not showing them the bread lines, etc.; a young man's delight (Yura) at receiving a bar of chocolate; the trading of a 8 carat diamond ring for a small tin of black marker meat; a coo - coo clock working in the midst of a devastated city; selling top soil for people to eat because they believed that some sugar had been melted into it; children speaking longingly about leaving the oven door open so they could go to sleep for good; people butchering a horse while still alive for its meat; and human cannibalism.

This film shows how desperate people become when they are starving.

My Mother lived thru the Blitz in Plymouth, England during WWII. She always used to laugh when she heard Americans complain about rationing in the U.S. during the war. Watch Attack on Leningrad and maybe we will realize how fortunate we are to live in a land which has never suffered the privations of total war as Europe did during WWII.

This is a movie which I imagine few people will see - (there were only 20 reviews in IMDb.) But it is one which people need to see - if only so they can appreciate what others went thru and to be thankful for all we have in this country. I hope you watch it, even though it is tough to watch. Best regards DonB

One of the stories of WWII that has always deserved a lot more attention than it has usually gotten is the Siege of Leningrad. The Nazis blockaded the city, cutting it off from the outside world for over two years. Over a million Leningraders perished, mainly due to starvation. Aleksandr Buravsky's "Attack on Leningrad" is set amid this atrocity. It focuses on an English journalist (Mira Sorvino) caught in the city when the Nazis blockade it, although the main focus is her relationships with people in an apartment building as they all struggle to survive.

A previous review criticized the movie for concentrating more on the journalist than on the horror that the city experienced. Maybe that's true, but I still thought that it was a good movie. Obviously it can't accurately depict the tragedy that Leningrad suffered, but it does still look at this important part of history. At least that's my interpretation.

'Some fight. Others fall. All are heroes.' ATTACK ON LENINGRAD as written and directed by Aleksandr Buravsky does indeed address one of the longest and costliest sieges in the history of war. History books relate it as follows: 'This was undoubtedly the most tragic period in the history of the city, a period full of suffering and heroism. For everyone who lives in St. Petersburg the Blokada (the Siege) of Leningrad is an important part of the city's heritage and a painful memory for the population's older generations. Less than two and a half months after the Soviet Union was attacked by Nazi Germany, German troops were already approaching Leningrad. The Red Army was outflanked and on September 8 1941 the Germans had fully encircled Leningrad and the siege began. The siege lasted for a total of 900 days, from September 8 1941 until January 27 1944. The city's almost 3 million civilians (including about 400,000 children) refused to surrender and endured rapidly increasing hardships in the encircled city. Food and fuel stocks were limited to a mere 1-2 month supply, public transport was not operational and by the winter of 1941-42 there was no heating, no water supply, almost no electricity and very little food. In January 1942 in the depths of an unusually cold winter, the city's food rations reached an all time low of only 125 grams (about 1/4 of a pound) of bread per person per day. In just two months, January and February of 1942, 200,000 people died in Leningrad of cold and starvation. Despite these tragic losses and the inhuman conditions the city's war industries still continued to work and the city did not surrender.' Buravsky made a tough decision in this film - whether to sow all the tragedy of a grand scale or reduce it to an examination of the effects of this heinous event as it affected the lives of a few characters. He elected to choose the latter approach which is one reason this film stands tall among the many films about the Siege of Leningrad. Yes, there are reenactments of the battles at the beginning of the film (and the atrocities throughout the film) but Buravsky focuses on three cultures in the form of individuals - the Russians, the Germans, and the British - and is careful to present the extremes of all three groups in telling his story.

The time is 1941 and Kate Davis (Mira Sorvino) is a British journalist who pleads with fellow journalist Philip Parker (Gabriel Byrne) to be assigned to the war front. She succeeds and is assigned to Leningrad where very quickly she is separated from her confrères and is left, wounded, inside the city of Leningrad as the Germans attempt to destroy the city and conquer Russia. Kate speaks little to no Russian, is discovered by Nina Tsvetkova (Olga Sutulova), a member of the Russian resistance, and takes Kate to safety where she becomes friends with children Sima and Yura Krasko (the brother is severely handicapped), manages to write articles about the war around her when she receives a typewriter as a gift, and in general aids the Russians in surviving the lack of food an supplies and support. The film includes vignettes of the Nazi's involvement (meetings with Hitler as portrayed by Eckehard Hoffmann and Armin Mueller-Stahl as von Leeb, et al) and the Russian military and political groups to keep the action plausible. But by far the main point of the film is to honor the citizens of Leningrad as they struggled to survive - with some caring help from the outside.

The film is in Russian, German, and English with subtitles; the choice is solid for keeping the atmosphere but the mix of the three languages seems to stall the propulsion of the action in many spots. The screenplay is more concerned with depicting the sense of the event than it is in providing a dialogue of sophistication. But the actors make the best of the script: Mira Sorvino, Gabriel Byrne, and Olga Sutulova are strong enough to carry the film. This may not be the best of the films about this subject, but it is certainly one of the most successful depictions of the degree of human suffering war inflicts - and for that reason it is worthy of a larger audience.

Grady Harp

If you want to watch it because of the epic war theater - the siege of Leningrad - don't. As a war movie this one is a complete JOKE - from the bad special effects to a director with zero grasp of reality: in one scene 20 Germans are running towards 20 dug in Russians. The Russians counter attack by getting out and running towards the Germans. They shoot once and then they charge, the Germans do the same like a civil war battle and then we have a hand to hand fight of those 40 people?!?!? And that represents the battle at the Leningrad front. You want see more, that's it, that's all, move along to the acting.

Acting - 2nd rate. You will see the 2 stars, Gabriel Byrne and Mira Sorvino tired and going trough the mechanics of acting. Good performance from the kids and Olga Sutulova.

Ohh, but Wait you say! This is a great drama, an epic in human suffering and endurance, thats why i will watch it! Yeah, but this movie does no justice to the Siege of Leningrad where 1.5 million people lost their lives. It barely scratches the surface of the 872 days of bravery, self sacrifice and complete horror that was the siege.

The real problem with the movie is that after watching it i feel angry at an epic story being told to me by amateurs, for that is how it feels at the end. (except the kids and the militia girl)

This war movie was quite nice. It portrayed the lives of the people in Leningrad during the siege during World War 2. So in this aspect it was refreshing to see a new approach to parts of WW2.

The story was compelling and moving. You got to feel for and with the characters in the movie, like you were part of their struggles. The cast had a huge part in this, because all characters were well portrayed and really came to life on the screen.

The sets and sceneries were amazing as well, very detailed in every aspect.

The movie have a lot of moving scenes and images, and it makes you feel part of the story. It really came together in a good way, and the movie was not boring for a second, despite it not being non-stop action from start till end - as with most war movies. What really works in this movie is that the Russians do speak Russian and the Germans do speak German. It is crap when they speak English, but with an added Russian or German accent - which they do in most movies! That just doesn't work. But keeping it in their respective languages adds so much more realism to the movie, and that is one of the really good things in this movie.

This movie is almost as good as the 1993 German movie "Stalingrad". If you liked that one, then you should not let "Leningrad" pass you by. This is top entertainment, especially if you like WW2.