n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

I saw this movie right after the war. I was than 14 and it made a great impression on me especially because the German invasion of our village was not so brutal as shown here. Nevertheless I always remembered the the story even after 60 years (!). As I see it now and after having read a lot about WWII the story seems to be biased by portraying only Germans as heartless killers and war loving people. Wars happen and bring about atrocities from both sides. But wars can bring about much compassion from both the attackers as the attacked. From this viewpoint the rating by the Commission is correct. All nations have committed crimes against humanity in the past yet those perpetrated by the 'own' people are considered less fearful. The movie is wrong in that Germany considered the Ukraine as a possible ally. Rather, the Russians themselves were seen as enemies owing to the immense sufferings (hunger and millions of deaths owing to the famine caused by the forced collectivization of agriculture by the communists. So the brutal attack can have happened in Russia when the invasion started on 06/22/1941. This is not a plea for the Nazi atrocities committed during the War but just a reminder that a nation should beware of using armed forces against other nations. And if so, show compassion to the losers, who mostly did only their duty.

The Plot.In a peaceful Ukrainian village, the school year is just ending in June 1941. Five young friends set out for a walking trip to Kiev, but their travels are brutally interrupted when they are suddenly attacked by German planes, in the first wave of the Nazi assault on the Soviet Union. When the village itself is attacked and occupied, most of the men flee to the hills to form a guerrilla unit. The others resist the Nazis as well as possible, but soon the village is placed under the command of a Nazi doctor who begins using the town's children as a source of constant blood transfusions for wounded German soldiers. Meanwhile, the small group of young persons tries desperately to take a supply of firearms to the guerrillas.WW2 propaganda with lots of heavy hitters in front AND behind the camera. But it doesn't gel. It's slow and heavy on an American message even though this is supposed to be the Ukraine. (AND BTW, why are they all speaking American?)There is an inordinate amount of filler and rear screen projection. ZZZzzz.I found myself bored beyond belief and wound up waiting for Von Stroheim. Keep waiting. He shows up nearly an hour into this movie and by then, you'll be bailing.

So says Anne Baxter as a Russian peasant girl fighting the Germans in this 1943 war drama. The sentiment is nice, and while the propaganda at that time was necessary, time has proved this line to be false. Like dozens of other war dramas made at the same time, it made a promise that was impossible to keep. In this small Russian village, it appears everybody is content, gets along, and lives their life without major strife. But with the Germans looming in the background, already have invaded other sections of Russia, their days of a peaceful life are numbered. After a horrific sky attack, the peasants get together and plot their response to the carnage.Poor doctor's wife Ann Harding is the first to feel the affect of the Nazi's cruelty. When she is questioned about her husband Walter Huston's whereabouts, she refuses to divulge the information and is brutally beaten to the point of incapacitation. The young people (including Baxter, Jane Withers and Farley Granger) take to the woods, and in the case of pilot Dana Andrews, he takes to the sky where they plot attacks on advancing German troops. They all have the same goal, to preserve their way of life and not fall prey to the Nazi's terrorism. All of the battles are excellently filmed, and some of the scenes are quite horrific.The most evil figures in the film are not the soldiers or German officers, but two Nazi doctors (Erich Von Stroheim and Martin Kosleck) who use the peasants for their blood to cure wounded German soldiers. As these vampire doctors do their thing, we learn that they have two different motives for their actions. Von Stroheim, who would wear officer stripes as German General Rommel in several films, hates the Nazi way of life but for the purpose of self-preservation and his own agenda. Kosleck, a veteran of roles documenting Nazi evil, truly believes in the Nazi agenda. This makes Von Stroheim the more dangerous of the two. I also wonder if using Russian blood would make the German soldiers not be considered 100% Arian, thus defeating the Nazi agenda. If so, then this film has a flawed detail that they greatly overlooked.Overall, this film is an episodic look at what these peasant lives are like. It's a film pretty much without plot, and definitely without a traditional conclusion. It's a series of various attacks between the Russians and the Germans without real exploration as to each of these characters are. The actors really don't have much to do. Some are in for maybe a few minutes, or a few seconds here and there. The peasants are dressed appropriately in country clothes and babushkas, all seem realistic in their setting with one exception. Jane Withers seems too all-American with her bobby soxer mentality and seems like she would be more comfortable in poodle skirts and saddle shoes rather than peasant couture. For a better film on the German invasion of normal people who must become instant defenders of their homeland, see "Edge of Darkness" with Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan and Walter Huston again playing the town doctor.

Lewis Milestone directed this ham-handed propaganda piece and it shows. He was a good director, fond of using cross-tracking shots during battle scenes. It was written by Lillian Hellman and that shows too. She was never one for subtlety, either in portraying the good (Ukrainian peasants) or the evil (the Nazis). The musical score is by Aaron Copland, but I wouldn't have known it because it's one long calcified cliché. I'd have guessed it was by a FAMOUS composer.For the first 35 minutes, we see nothing but an expression of what might be called "the happy peasant meme." The men of the little village -- the Air Force officer Dana Andrews, the young farmer Farley Granger, the avuncular doctor Walter Huston, and the somewhat traumatized old Walter Brennan -- are seen working happily in the fields. The women -- mostly Anne Baxter and Jane Withers -- are colorfully dressed while picking flowers and rolling the dough.But, above all, for the first 35 minutes, we see dancing and hear singing as Copland's music rolls on and on. If you ever want to see Dana Andrews playing the balalaika and singing lyrics like "today, we work, and tonight we play, for tomorrow we work, and sing another day," this is the place -- the only place -- you will ever see and hear it, and thank God for small favors. These happy peasants are ubiquitous in these kinds of movies. They work, sing, dance, joke, love, eat big meals, and don't mind a drink or two.Enter the Germans. They invade Russia, occupy the village, and win the hearts and minds of the people by strafing and bombing them, and by bleeding their children to death to add to the blood supply for wounded Nazi soldiers. Erich von Stroheim is a doctor (!) who dribbles humanisms while breaking arms and legs. "Zometimes vee heff to do sings vee doan't necessarily appwove of." In Act III, the men and women of the village, although ill-armed, decide the time has come to fight back. They form a guerrilla band led by Dean Jagger with a full head of hair.And I'm compelled to say that Lewis Milestone ("All Quiet on the Western Front," "A Walk in the Sun") handles the combat scenes quite well. They could almost be called subdued in the context of battle scenes of the period -- and now. The first violent scene is especially impressive. A column of happy Russians plodding along in their horse-drawn carts are strafed and bombed by Stukas.The formulaic way of handling such a scene is this: a dozen Stukas come down and smother the column in bullets and bombs all at once, perhaps unexpectedly. But not here. Andrews has the peaceful column stopped because he hears something. What he hears are a multitude of airplanes. He orders everyone out of the carts and into the roadside ditch but many passengers scoff. Then a single bomb explodes a mile away. Andrews rushes along the column, shouting and tugging. Another bomb, much closer. With agonizing slowness the civilians clamber down from their perches and tumble ditchward. The next two or three bombs are on target. It's a beautifully directed scene.The later battles are less imaginative but still effective, akin to a similar scene in the Errol Flynn vehicle, "Edge of Darkness." Hellman's story is pitiless. The Germans, even those who believe themselves to be less evil than the rest, are executed while unarmed.In the end, if the combat scenes are well handled, the first half hour is so silly that one major flaw cancels out the undeniable virtue and we're left with a film that, on balance, is routine.