remotely inspired by fragments of a true story

Rating: 2/10 (25 January 2009)

this film surely merits the two stars.
if you're brave enough to make a movie, you deserve one star. the second is for the pictures. and that's it.
the movie sucked, in general and in detail. and we have noted down quite some of them.
so, if you're not pulled off by the above and want to continue reading go ahead.
first of all, the Bielski family were Polish, not Belorussian, Jews. and Polish Jews spoke Polish, not Russian. Bielski himself spoke poor Russian, he was quite fluent in Polish and Yiddish. so.. the question is... why do they make the characters in the movie talk Russian and write Polish? another thing is, if you make a movie and want to put something in a foreign language in it, make sure it's correct. just a little movie-makers hint. what was written in Polish on a label attached to the hanged farmer said "amant żydów", which translates roughly into, putting it nicely, "someone who enjoys Jews in a sexual way". the English translation said "Jew lover". well.. I'm quite sure they did not mean THAT kind of love here...
the Bielski group never fought Germans. they were never a guerrilla. they lived in the forest alright, and fought mostly Russians. and Polish guerrillas. basically, they would fight anyone.
so... Tewje Bielski is not a Robin Hood. nor would he ever give speeches like that about "freedom", "being chased like animals but not being animals" and all other sort of American rhetoric.
btw, didn't he look just like Braveheart, on his white horse, talking to those tormented Jews? now... we are reaching a very complicated issue with the name Naliboki.
in the movie Naliboki was the name of Bielski's camp. quite an unfortunate name as in reality it was not quite so.
Naliboki was/is the name of a small Polish town that was allegedly massacred and burnt by Bielski's "troops". the truth is though, that the massacre was authored by a Soviet fighting group with the help of some local guerrillas, none of them being even related to Bielski. the blame was put on Bielski by the Soviets years later when investigation was drawn to explain war crimes in that region (many people today still believe the Bielski people are responsible for the massacre.) to include this in the movie might have made a really interesting plot line, instead we have a huge confusion.
the Bielski forming his group and the Naliboki massacre took place during a war, quite uncomfortable for Poland, Soviets, Jews and everyone else Polish-Soviet. this conflict broke out round 1943 in the nowogródek area (a local little war inside the World War II, with no clear division between the "good guys" and the "bad guys".. that's a bit too complicated for Hollywood..).
OK, but referring to the movie, apart from the fact the shots were good, it was historically inaccurate, interpreted in a wooden and iconic way... can't say much.
waste of celluloid.
I'd rather some movie makers didn't wipe their mouth with a "true story" label. if anything, it might have been "inspired by" with the source of inspiration left remotely behind.
(pity you cannot paste links... I've got some really nice ones about the true story.)