An Extremely Fine Misunderstood Film

Rating: 9/10 (20 November 2011)

This is a neglected almost-classic. It's a taut tale, of course, but one which quite transcends its subject matter -- which is not at all what most people think it is, a mere tale of survival. It is far, far more. While the mechanics of failed hardware are engrossingly well done and the issues of bravery and self-sacrifice are also treated with nice passion, still, almost every commentator has missed what is really going on. The greatest reason the movie is misunderstood is the difficulty for most of us in seeing Soviet era military except through the lens of we-good/they-bad. (I should interpolate here that personally I am quite pro-American. I still argue the necessity of the Vietnam war.) With such thinking it's impossible to comprehend the behind the scenes of the characters. In societies -- even those with which we are fated to compete with violence for our own good -- there are patriots and idealists who believe in their homeland, their cause, and in many cases their government. What this story treats, is the tragedy of a loss of innocence, of a sense, in one such individual from one such society, that what was revered in the system he was brought up to believe in as a mainstay may be inferior, weak and in many places even rotten and destructive -- and not only through direct immoral human agency but because of historic failure, an inability to sustain itself on the field of direct competition as a strong contender. Seen this way, this story becomes extraordinarily meaningful and poignant.