My impressions from this movie are mostly positive but I must clarify that: 1. I love war movies. 2. I'm particularly interested in Eastern Front theater. 3. I'm immune to some propaganda and one-sided view of history that can typically be expected from Russian war films.
All in all, "Brestskaya krepost" does a good job showing us the dramatic and heroic struggle of Red Army soldiers. The problem is that the Germans would never do a movie glorifying the bravery of Wehrmacht, without showing their cruelty and war crimes for balance. The Russians have no such dilemmas. What am I talking about? The Soviets invaded Poland in 1939 alongside Germans and the city of Brest became part of their loot. Actually it was captured by the Germans back then and handed over to Soviets. The Polish general who was in charge of the Polish defence of Brest fortress was taken captive by the Soviets and murdered by them as part of the Katyn massacre in 1940. In general during those 2 years of reign over formerly Polish territory the Soviets did very nasty things to the people living there, so nasty that those who somehow managed to evade prisons and gulags welcomed the Wehrmacht with some hope. But the film shows none of that. Watching the movie I constantly asked myself: why are they behaving like they were living in that area since generations? like they were defending Moscow? why are they so faithful to a criminal totalitarian system run by a madman? Red Army soldiers couldn't know in June 1941 that surrendering to Germans meant likely death. Yes, you can see some Soviet soldiers surrendering in the movie, but still the message seems to scream: those were cowards, the real heroes fought to the last bullet - totally wrong!
All in all, "Brestskaya krepost" does a good job showing us the dramatic and heroic struggle of Red Army soldiers. The problem is that the Germans would never do a movie glorifying the bravery of Wehrmacht, without showing their cruelty and war crimes for balance. The Russians have no such dilemmas. What am I talking about? The Soviets invaded Poland in 1939 alongside Germans and the city of Brest became part of their loot. Actually it was captured by the Germans back then and handed over to Soviets. The Polish general who was in charge of the Polish defence of Brest fortress was taken captive by the Soviets and murdered by them as part of the Katyn massacre in 1940. In general during those 2 years of reign over formerly Polish territory the Soviets did very nasty things to the people living there, so nasty that those who somehow managed to evade prisons and gulags welcomed the Wehrmacht with some hope. But the film shows none of that. Watching the movie I constantly asked myself: why are they behaving like they were living in that area since generations? like they were defending Moscow? why are they so faithful to a criminal totalitarian system run by a madman? Red Army soldiers couldn't know in June 1941 that surrendering to Germans meant likely death. Yes, you can see some Soviet soldiers surrendering in the movie, but still the message seems to scream: those were cowards, the real heroes fought to the last bullet - totally wrong!