This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Yes, I am sure many people will find this movie hard to watch.. and it is. But isn't it so in live - whatever matters takes a part of us and transforms it - and the process is painful. In the movie we see how a bunch of teenagers from a completely different social and cultural background(and that is being stretched in the movie quiet enough) through fear, suffering and death become heroes worthy admiration. It gripped me so that felt I only wished I could stand next to one of them and he would know - I won't fall back. This movie is not glorifying, beautifying the war, it is about the beauty of life, life that is worth living. As I am sure many others I also thought of what "Gioconda" (one of the main characters) says in the movie: "Beauty is when there is nothing unnecessary, no chaff" ("Красота – это когда нет ничего лишнего, никакой шелухи."). To me it's a reference to Psalm 1:4 "Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.". Whatever true, admirable and praiseworthy - will stand the storm. Love never ends

9th Company would have to be the most interesting war film I've seen to date. I've often heard it compared to Black Hawk Down and I have to agree that it is on that level of filmaking. First off, the film appealed to me as a vet and war buff. I was very pleased by the authenticity of film, i.e. accurate equipment, similar location, and etc. The movie had all of the classic elements of a war film, hardship, triumph, tragedy. The cast's acting was good, everything you would expect from war movie. A very, very good movie even with the occasional strangely shot scenes, such as the excess amount of gore in the final scenes; the actors were just covered, almost more than humanly possible. Overall, definitely a movie worth watching. Just excellent, you will not be disappointed. Is certain to become one of your war classics as well.

I was born and raised in Poland (until I was 18) and came to US 23 years ago. The reason WHY I mention it upfront is to make it understood that I viewed this film from the "Communist" and "Capitalist" perspective/indoctrination... and I didn't like anything about this movie. There is nothing original about the movie. There is nothing compelling (to me) about this movie. Just a very poor re-cycling of old Hollywoody clichés (like the helicopter raising behind a heroic soldier... or a reprimanded commander who is itching to get back in the fight, but who is prohibited from doing so). The scene where "the commander" is sitting in the field of red-poppy-seeds crying - is just such unsophisticated and clichedy scene that it evolved laughter in me instead of compassion which no doubt the director was shooting for. If you really want to see Russian war drama, a real tension, than nothing beats the old and tested "Seventeen Moments of Spring".

A Russian war film that follows the exploits of a band of green soldiers as they undergo basic training before flying to Afghanistan, where they will take part in Russia's ill-attempted war in that country in the late 1980s.Having never watched a Russian war film before, I was excited about this one. Unfortunately, where 9TH COMPANY falls down is in its slavish adherence to war movie clichés and plot themes familiar from dozens of Hollywood movies that have come before. FULL METAL JACKET s a particular reference point as it follows that film's structure down to the smallest detail.Recent Russian cinema has a tendency to be bombastic and over-the-top, as was the case with recent vampire hit NIGHT WATCH. Here we get lots of overblown slow motion, drawn out scenes of the utmost emotion and some ridiculously over the top moments of melodrama.Sadly, it's also a film roughly twice as long as it needs to be, with long scenes of male bonding and dialogue that really drained my energy. The characters are bland and as a whole the cast has few standouts, although the deranged drill sergeant is a highlight. The climax is a bit silly but generally exciting and well-staged, a shot of adrenaline at the end of an otherwise sometimes sleep-inducing experience.This isn't a bad film by any means, but Kubrick did it first.