Production on this film started in 1943. The world had been battling the Nazi menace for 4 years. It is set in June 1941, not long after America entered the war. Operation Barbarossa represented Hitler's betrayal of his formal alliance with Stalin. The Russian dictator was said to have been stunned for weeks afterward. At the time, Ukraine was not independent of Russia. In fact, during the period 1930-33 it was forced to collectivize all farms while almost all of its food was shipped to Russia proper. Current historians view it as punishment for their resistance to Soviet rule. At least 4 million Ukrainians starved to death.
With that as background, it is not only absurd - but insulting - to open the film with an idyllic portrayal of life on a Ukrainian farm commune. Well fed, happy peasants were not the norm in 1941. Peasants singing songs with lyrics by Gershwin and music by Copeland are equally ridiculous. In fact, the House Unamerican Activities Committee ordered them cut in 1957 as communist propaganda. They weren't restored until 1976. I watched for a while, but must confess I had to fast forward through at least half of it. Once the Germans strafe a convoy of horse drawn carts returning from an aborted trip to Kyiv, the film picks up. These scenes of Ukrainian resistance are fictional but almost certainly have roots in reality. Because of the superb cast of actors, they pull it off fairly well, Just as contemporary reviewers did (see the 1943 New York Times piece), I found it uplifting to see the heroics of these peasants trod upon by Nazi jackboots. Setting their own village alight to deny the Germans any resources is also a historically accurate depiction of the "scorched earth" policy practiced by the Soviets.
So why is the film such a mess? The screenwriter laboured over it for 7 months. Halfway through she was incensed that Goldwyn himself and the director had changed the plot, dialog, characters and sequence she had written. After a famous shouting match with the studio head, she resigned and bought out her contract. Basically, the producer and director winged it. Keep in mind that Russia was our new ally against the Nazi menace and we needed to show our gratitude for the massive commitment of blood and treasure they were about to make.
Another IMDb reviewer questioned whether the Nazis ever used children for transfusing its wounded soldiers as shown in the film. Absolutely. The practice had just started as filming began. If you search the archives of the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials, you will see that the initial "research" for this practice was headed by none other than Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. Thousands of children died after being emptied of all their blood. A horrible truth I'm afraid.
If you are genuinely interested in learning what resistance against the Nazis was like, the Daniel Craig vehicle "Defiance" is a much better film in this regard. It is a meticulously researched tale of peasants in Belarus who successfully battled the invaders from lairs in the forests and mountains. I happened to attend the premiere of this feature and had a chance to hear grateful descendants of these fighters attest to its veracity.
The evil German doctor (von Stroheim) foreshadows the true end of this invasion when he talks about the populace being "difficult" foes. Millions of Soviet citizens died, but so did millions of Nazis. Hitler's obsession with taking St. Petersburg in the dead of winter allowed the weather to defeat the German army just as it had done with Napoleon.
With that as background, it is not only absurd - but insulting - to open the film with an idyllic portrayal of life on a Ukrainian farm commune. Well fed, happy peasants were not the norm in 1941. Peasants singing songs with lyrics by Gershwin and music by Copeland are equally ridiculous. In fact, the House Unamerican Activities Committee ordered them cut in 1957 as communist propaganda. They weren't restored until 1976. I watched for a while, but must confess I had to fast forward through at least half of it. Once the Germans strafe a convoy of horse drawn carts returning from an aborted trip to Kyiv, the film picks up. These scenes of Ukrainian resistance are fictional but almost certainly have roots in reality. Because of the superb cast of actors, they pull it off fairly well, Just as contemporary reviewers did (see the 1943 New York Times piece), I found it uplifting to see the heroics of these peasants trod upon by Nazi jackboots. Setting their own village alight to deny the Germans any resources is also a historically accurate depiction of the "scorched earth" policy practiced by the Soviets.
So why is the film such a mess? The screenwriter laboured over it for 7 months. Halfway through she was incensed that Goldwyn himself and the director had changed the plot, dialog, characters and sequence she had written. After a famous shouting match with the studio head, she resigned and bought out her contract. Basically, the producer and director winged it. Keep in mind that Russia was our new ally against the Nazi menace and we needed to show our gratitude for the massive commitment of blood and treasure they were about to make.
Another IMDb reviewer questioned whether the Nazis ever used children for transfusing its wounded soldiers as shown in the film. Absolutely. The practice had just started as filming began. If you search the archives of the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials, you will see that the initial "research" for this practice was headed by none other than Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. Thousands of children died after being emptied of all their blood. A horrible truth I'm afraid.
If you are genuinely interested in learning what resistance against the Nazis was like, the Daniel Craig vehicle "Defiance" is a much better film in this regard. It is a meticulously researched tale of peasants in Belarus who successfully battled the invaders from lairs in the forests and mountains. I happened to attend the premiere of this feature and had a chance to hear grateful descendants of these fighters attest to its veracity.
The evil German doctor (von Stroheim) foreshadows the true end of this invasion when he talks about the populace being "difficult" foes. Millions of Soviet citizens died, but so did millions of Nazis. Hitler's obsession with taking St. Petersburg in the dead of winter allowed the weather to defeat the German army just as it had done with Napoleon.