Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

ShangLuda Admirable film.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

FedRev Fortress of War is a powerful war film that illustrates in microcosm the sacrifice made by the Soviet people in defeating the Nazis. Set in the Soviet outpost in Brest, Belarus, it's an exhilarating film that takes place during the Nazi invasion in June of 1941. Vastly outnumbered, the Soviets bravely repel wave after wave of invading Nazi soldiers. The film primarily follows Sasha Akimov, who at only 15 years of age was able to move around the fortress assisting many separated pockets of Soviet soldiers. While many believe the United States is responsible for defeating Hitler and the Nazis, in reality it was the Soviets who played the biggest role, and Fortress of War provides an excellent history lesson in that regard, as well as being an exquisitely made film

Lou Coatney In its way, this is as good as Enemy at the Gates, and I know there is criticism of that film in Russia, but it still helps people in the West understand the heroism and contribution of the peoples of the former Soviet Union in our Allied Victory over Nazism.It is far better than the film Stalingrad which seems all too sympathetic to the Germans.I design military history boardgames - wargames - and most of them are about the Russian Front in World War 2 ... the Great Patriotic War, as it is known to the Russians (and Belorussians and ....) (Most of my games are free to print off and play, on my webpages.) There are wargamers in Volgograd/Stalingrad, and one of them has told me that the 6 year old little brother of his grandmother was taken away by the Germans to be drained of his blood for transfusions - murdered - something I had once thought was exaggeration and/or propaganda. As Omer Bartov has described, even the non-SS German Army was a pack of monsters, in the East.The film is unsparing in portraying the hopelessness but heroism of the initially unprepared Brest Fortress garrison. And I hadn't realized their families had been murdered by the Nazis a couple years after they had been allowed to come out and surrender.I was astonished by the accurate German Mark III panzers/tanks. (Were these actual reconstructions?) I was surprised and impressed that the Jewish commissar Fomin was portrayed so positively, as antagonistic as Israel and its supporters have been toward the Russians and Belorussians.Everyone in the West should see this film to better understand what the Russians, Poles, and other Eastern peoples went through, during World War 2. The world is a much better place, when we are working with the peoples of the East as former allies and friends, instead of against them.Lou Coatney

hweideman46-382-585516 The events that took place on the Eastern front were wide and complex but when one steps back from the neatness of usual Soviet or Russian documentaries about the great patriotic war and zooms in on a smaller yet infamous event such as the defence of Brest fortress one is up for a real ride in blood.The film portrays only a small area that suffered as a result of Hitlers aggressive push eastward that shook the world with his sheer comitment of military might.I own about 15 Soviet movies all dealing with ww2 and this has got to be my first choice when voting for the "best".The fighting and battles look realistic almost as if modern movie cameras were transported back in time to capture the situation!!!! The war gear used and computerised all look identical to their historic counterparts(mention should be made of the mocked Panzer 111 and screaming Stukas that appear here and there).Though the excellent hardware will lock ww2 buffs enough to create a trafic jam,the gory atmosphere will test the faint of heart.Using the Russian kid(Alexander Akimov)for telling the story does however bring another dimension for those who need a soft character to identify with.The musical score also contributes greatly to the overall feelings that the film represent,the bit of it in the last minutes of the movie clearly voicing the hopelessness of the resistance made by the brave defenders. The small amount of propaganda blown into some gunfight scenes are minimal but never the less distracting at times because of its "godlike" fighting capabilities given to the Red army who seem to be invincible in hand to hand combat with the Nazis!!! In anycase the Motherland deserves the right to glorify the war it had with the Fascists,she withstood all the evil that the Fuhrer was capable of unleashing and eventually saved the planet from his reign more than any other country can credit itself with.In todays world we must take on an sober view when we recreate events of the past and this epic film delivers that message in my opinion.

el-nebuloso Positiv: The sound engineer and the explosives guys did a great job indeed. Great camera: Little of this horrible close-up-shakycamera-war-movie camera in fast and nervous montage, which is refreshing. The actors deliver a great performance.Negative: -Tactically, its like the A-Team with lots of casualties added. -The main plot is untouched: The fortress is pointless. The attackers just moved around and left pockets of resistance to the second line mop-up troops. The German advance was not hold up by this fighting, no important road or railway was blocked by the fortress. It would have been a nice angle to the story to portrait the relentless defense put up despite knowing the pointlessness all of that. That leads to me being unable to connect ("feel along") to the characters. Not the soldiers put up the fight but the officers and commissars lead the headless pack. The soldiers do what they are told and die attacking over open ground without anyone questioning this.A fair share propaganda can be overlooked, because in sowjet times you obviously had to build it in. The breathtaking "come and see" has its propaganda captives scenes at the end, but its a side note to the amazing movie. Here, its too much. The propaganda spin of the story is told, not the story behind the propaganda story. So just six stars to the hero fortress.