Waste of time

Good concept, poorly executed.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

First of all the movie is misnamed. It is no more about the battle for Sevastopol than Dr. Zhivago was about the Russian Revolution. A better title might have been, "Lyudmila's War." This was an excellent character study of the battle between the inhumanity of war and the humanity of the people who are forced to wage it. I found the film to be very well done and once into it, had to see it through. The war scenes were vivid and believable, and the characters were played realistically. One could see the changes that overcame the heroine, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who was initially tepid about killing but warmed to the task--to the point of actually relishing in it. She reveled in competing with men--even in an environment that was nominally committed to gender equality. We witnessed a transformation from a studious girl, who was never appreciated by her stern military father, to a killing machine (who refused to leave the battlefield, even when seriously wounded)--with snatches of the frailties of emerging womanhood. It is a complex tale, one that should be watched at least twice to realize its full impact.

For someone who was born 14 years after the WW2 ended and who grew up in USSR watching hundreds of similar war flicks, this one just doesn't cut it. It isn't a movie even, it's a primitive cartoon, full of stick figure characters, and how can anyone sympathize with walking stick figures is beyond me. There are no people in this movie, not one, not even the lady Eleanor - played by the sole American on the cast. And certainly not the protagonist Lyuda, although I can see that she tried. I just can't imagine why would anyone make a movie like that in 2015. To me, it clearly belongs in the late 1950 - early 1960s era, back when better directors made better movies than this one - every year by a dozen.

Any student of history or even a passing interest in WW-2 will see this as an opium pipe dream to brainwash the Russian young. Long-winded, unrealistic "heroic machines" of the soviet state set an example for the gullible. The movie starts in 1937 but completely fails the slightest mention of the Molotov- Ribbentrop alliance between Stalin and Hitler, and tries to present a peaceful Russia suddenly dragged into war by German surprise aggression. Insulting to the terrible suffering of Russians before the war and the extraordinary sacrifices made by them during the war, and the engineered genocide of 7 million Ukrainians by Stalin in the early 1930s. A travesty.

After watching Enemy at the Gates and being keen to see another war movie with snipers, this one disappointed me a little. I've noticed someone thinks this one is better than Enemy at the Gates, but there were 3 points difference between them when rating, as a personal preference. So, don't expect too much from this movie. But otherwise, it has a strong emotional impact sometimes. Like every war movie, it shows you a little piece of what a war means, a little piece of the suffering associated with it through the loss, through the wounds both physically and psychologically, through the pain you see around, through the thoughts of being invaded and losing your freedom and to which the soviet woman replied: "I am ashamed to stay behind and do nothing!". Admirable position. A nice movie to watch, but still (I insist!), Enemy at the Gates is, by far, better!