Review of The Winter War (1989)
Seen in 2017.
Somewhat poor Movision subtitles.
The gradual loss of a forest to Soviet artillery.
The cinematic presentation clearly demonstrates a deficit of the same in The Unknown Soldier (1955), but is inferior to that of Come and See (1985). The Winter War is good enough to carry its length, but rarely pitch perfect. A few scenes from the slow grind in the trenches could have been trimmed, and real Soviet tactics probably weren’t so foolish as to advance in dense formation without cover of the tanks. The gallows humour is kept to suitable level: funny, but rare and not invasively implausible.