It was originally published in the 6th issue of "Watching Movies Weekly" in 2017. Due to the limited space specified by the magazine, I always felt that it was not fully explained, and it was quite unfinished:
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia inherited the mantle of the Soviet Union. Constrained by the sluggish economic situation, Russia has been unable to recreate the endless glory of wars in the Soviet era. From 2010 to 2015, "Fighting Nation" finally changed the embarrassing situation of Russian war films that "the quantity is not much, let alone the quality is not good", and launched relatively exquisite "Brest Fortress" and "Battle of Stalingrad". "(2013 edition), "The Female Sniper" and "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" (2015 edition), etc. On November 16, 2016, the Russian war film "28 Warriors of Panfilov" was released. While pushing the restoration of props and the special effects of war scenes to a new height, the film has also fallen into the whirlpool of public opinion in the dispute between "true and false"...
Although the props are "fake", the effect is "true"
The level of military enthusiasts in the audience is constantly improving, and the common sense of ordinary audiences is also gradually increasing. In order to be less "scolded", war films have to be made more and more professionally. "Panfilov 28 Warriors" obviously did a lot of work in terms of props and special effects of war scenes. The producer invited Artem Kogin, the head of the military history club "Leningrad 900", as the film's military consultant, who borrowed Soviet uniforms from World War II from the Karelian Isthmus Military Museum. Weapons and equipment were borrowed as props from the Chernogolovka Military-Technical Museum.
The Soviet weapons and equipment appearing in the movie are relatively comprehensive, including TT-33 "Tokarev" 7.62mm pistol, PPD 7.62mm submachine gun, PPSh-41 "Bobosha" 7.62mm submachine gun, M1891/30 "Mo Sin-Nagan" 7.62mm rifle, SVT-40 7.62mm semi-automatic rifle, DP 7.62mm light machine gun, M1910 "Maxim" 7.62mm heavy machine gun, PTRD-41 14.5mm anti-tank gun, Molotov cocktail, RGD - Cluster grenade, RPG-40 anti-tank grenade, M1937-type 45mm anti-tank gun and M1938-type 122mm howitzer. The German heavy weapons include Junkers-87 "Stuka" dive bombers, sFH 18 150mm howitzers, No. 3 G medium tanks and No. 4 F1 medium tanks, while light weapons are only embellished with MP40 9mm submachine guns, K98k "Mauser" 7.92mm rifle, etc.
Due to limited props, the weapons and equipment that appeared in Soviet-era war films were often imprecise. Soviet producers tend to make all German tank props to look like "Tiger" heavy tanks, or the Soviet Army before 1942 was also equipped with PPSh-41. In this film, although PPSh-41 once again "traversed" to the Moscow defense battle in 1941, the PPD as the "real body" also showed its face, and the settings of other weapons and equipment were also very realistic. For example, the Soviet infantry had to pull the fuse before throwing the Molotov cocktail, and the anti-tank gun could only shoot at the weak parts such as the German tank observation hole or engine compartment to be effective. Careful military enthusiasts can even find that the on-board machine guns of all German tanks are MG34s, not MG42s that only appeared in 1942. This kind of professionalism that does not fool the audience is really admirable.
In fact, it is really not easy to film the scenes of these tanks attacking. Whether it is to find a real German tank during World War II, or to remake a metal prop car that can run, the cost is obviously too high. In the end, the props team used a combination of computer effects and model shooting. The scales of the tank models used range from matchbox size, to 1:16, and even 1:1 full-scale wooden models.
"True" stories are "false"
In the Soviet era, the story of "Panfilov's 28 Warriors" is well known. According to Soviet propaganda, on November 16, 1941, during the Battle of Moscow, the Soviet 316th Infantry Division resisted the attack of the German 11th Panzer Division. In Dubosekovo, the instructor Vasily Klochkov commanded 28 officers and soldiers of the 4th Anti-Tank Fighter Group of the 1075th Infantry Regiment, fighting to the death with 54 German tanks and a large number of infantry, destroying 18 German tanks. , After killing and wounding more than 800 people, all of them died heroically. The movie "Battle of Moscow" shows this tragic battle in detail. Klochkov, holding an anti-tank grenade and dying with the German tanks, shouted: "Russia is big, but there is no way to go back, and behind it is Moscow!" It left a very shocking and profound impression on the audience.
Shortly after the battle, the Soviet "Red Star" reported this heroic deed in a row, and described the details of the battle in detail, and even announced the list of 28 sacrificed officers and soldiers. Their deeds spread rapidly on the front and rear, and they became an idol and a symbol of the fearless spirit that inspired the Soviet military and civilians to fight against the German army. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union even awarded the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union" to 28 officers and soldiers.
It didn't take long for the Soviet army to discover that this "heroic deed" was not the truth. Not all the Soviet soldiers who participated in the war were killed, but 6 people survived. Two of them were seriously injured and taken to the hospital, two were captured by the Germans and survived the war; one was knocked unconscious in battle and buried by the Germans, he escaped from the tomb and rejoined the Soviet army; one was captured by the Germans , managed to escape, and returned to his homeland, which was occupied by the Germans, to join the pseudo-police forces under German control. Under the coercion of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs, the soldier who escaped from the tomb was forced to admit that he was an "impostor" and finally died in a labor camp. Later, Stalin also got reports that "Panfilov 28" was fictitious. However, the heroic deeds that served as role models in the Soviet Union were fabricated and undoubtedly became a huge scandal. In the end, the report was not made public, and the counterfeiters were not held accountable. In 1966, New World magazine questioned the authenticity of the "28 Panfilov Warriors", and was severely criticized by Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. In July 2015, the State Archives of the Russian Federation released the report of military judge Lieutenant General Afanasyev on the "28 Panfilov Warriors", and the truth was revealed to the world.
In fact, the 4th Infantry Company, 2nd Infantry Battalion, 1075th Infantry Regiment did defend against the attack of the German 11th Panzer Division, but not only with 28 men, but with 140 men. In the battle that day, the whole regiment destroyed 9 German tanks. This is obviously a far cry from the deeds of the "Panfilov 28 Warriors" celebrated by the Soviet Army's red propaganda machine.
Support or criticism?
During the war, in order to boost the morale of the military and civilians, the propaganda carried out by the state propaganda machine will have some "false" elements to some extent. Even the U.S. has adopted "pose" in the famous "Iwo Jima flag" photo. However, the "virtual" of "Panfilov 28 Warriors" is simply too much, reaching the level of scandal. This put the film in an awkward position and sparked a heated debate between the media and the public in Russia.
Although "Panfilov 28 Warriors" is too fictional, there are still many supporters in Russia. In fact, the film was originally funded through crowdfunding. The producers raised 34.74 million rubles for the film through crowdfunding, and the Russian Ministry of Culture and Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Culture also donated funds. Ultimately, Gaijin Entertainment, which designed and distributed a number of military-style computer games, provided substantial funding for the film's production. Controversy in public opinion instead brought hype to the film, making the film, which cost 150 million rubles, reaped 384 million rubles at the box office.
"Panfilov 28 Warriors" is indeed a fiction, but this fictional story did inspire the Soviet military and civilians to fight the German invasion. As for the choice of "supporting" this movie or "opposing" it, it is entirely based on the political stance of "butt decides head". Military enthusiasts or audiences in China also have two distinct attitudes towards this film. However, in the face of historical records, there are still people who refuse to believe that this story is fictional, which is purely the wishful thinking of "Su Fan". In foreign countries, equality and equal rights between men and women is a manifestation of "political correctness". Therefore, this "pure man" movie, which has no female characters at all, was inexplicably accused of "discriminating against women". To this unreasonable point of view, really can only "hehe". If the director really put some beautiful "female literary and artistic soldier" or "female medical soldier" into the movie, and then had an octagonal love with some male protagonists, then this movie would really be unwatchable.
Of course, even without looking at the "pro" or "anti" political stance, the film has other flaws. As a war movie made by a "fighting nation", the movie has almost no literary drama. From the 30 minutes of the movie, the two sides "get off to work as soon as they disagree!" The martial arts drama with such a heavy weight will obviously make military fans hooked, but in fact, many viewers feel "unfinished" after watching it. It was too early to enter the climax, and then it was unsustainable. From the point of view of military details, this film can be viewed as a military science and education film, especially the layout of the Soviet anti-tank positions, the positions of anti-tank guns and heavy machine guns, just to hit the flanks of the incoming German army. However, the film's portrayal of the characters was not successful. The portrayal of the characters is very bland, the characters are not prominent enough, and there is only a thousand people's masked heroism. Under the current enemy, these Soviet officers and soldiers were as calm as machines, and it was completely impossible to tell that they were people who had just received anti-tank combat training before the battle. The German officers and soldiers were completely reduced to the symbolic roles of "bandit soldier A" and "enemy soldier B". They were so stupid that they approached the Soviet trenches and didn't know how to throw grenades, which made this film a strong "anti-German drama". color. Of course, the most "crazy" thing is that this 120-minute movie, I only found out that there are 16-minute end credits at the end...
View more about Panfilov's 28 reviews
