Awesome Movie

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Sluga Gosudarev (2007) is a historical film plenty of adventure , drama , passion , duels , extraordinary scenarios and breathtaking battles spectacularly filmed . It is an impressive flick set in Europe, 1709 , being based on a true story when Russia and Sweden are at war and most of the characters in the film were based on real people such as Louis XIV , Peter the Great and Charles XII . And there takes place the notorious battle of Poltova , the decisive victory of Peter I of Russia over the Swedish forces under Field Marshal Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld in one of the battles of the Great Northern War. It is widely believed to have been the beginning of Sweden's decline as a Great Power; the Russians took their place as the leading nation of north-eastern Europe. The picture deals with two French duelists are exiled by King Louis XIV of France: one to the side of King Charles XII of Sweden , the other to the side of Czar Peter the Great of Russia . Both of them become involved a loving conflict and factional disputes . Although separated by different allegiance and enemy , fate get them together.This historical drama packs intrigue , sword-crossing , spectacular battles and wonderful outdoors . It's a sweeping and historical epic including breathtaking fights . Acceptable acting from main and support cast, though none of the performances are really bad, but none are very good . Evocative and functional Musical Score . Gorgeous and luxurious Cinematography . Impressive Production Design showing breathtaking outdoors , luxurious palaces and rousing battles . This costumer epic drama was professionally directed by the Russian Oleg Ryaskov , though contains flaws and gaps , including some scenes with no much sense . The flick is inspired by historical events , the actual deeds were the following : Charles XII led early Swedish victories at Copenhagen and at the Battle of Narva in 1700 when he knocked both Denmark-Norway and Russia temporarily out of the war .During this time Peter I of Russia rebuilt his army into modern form, basing it primarily on infantry trained to use linear tactics and modern firearms properly. He then achieved a stunning propaganda victory when he established the city of Saint Petersburg . In the spring Charles resumed his advance, but his army had been reduced by about one-third due to starvation, frostbite and other effects of the weather. The wet weather had also seriously depleted the army's supplies of gunpowder; the cannon were also essentially out of action, due to a lack of usable ammunition. Charles's first action was to lay siege to the fort of Poltava on the Vorskla River in Ukraine.When the battle opened, Charles had about 14,000 men, while Peter commanded about 45,000. The battle began on 27 June 1709 with the Swedes advancing boldly against the Russian fortified lines just north of Poltava. At first, the battle started off in a traditional fashion, with the better trained Swedes pressing in on the Russians' redoubts, overrunning a few Russian defensive redoubts . The Swedish seemed to possess an advantage, but this was quickly nullified . The Swedish infantry, commanded by General Lewenhaupt, attempted to attack the Russians in their fortified camp just north of Poltava. But the Swedish advance soon faltered, partly because the infantry had been ordered to withdraw and reorganise.The Swedes were on the verge of a breakthrough and needed the cavalry unfortunately for the Swedes, it was disorganised . Several Swede regiments were surrounded in a classic Cannae-style battle as Bauer's Russian cavalry swarmed around the Swedish army and attacked the Swedish rear guard. Cruetz and the cavalry tried to buy the infantry time to get away; several units attacked the Russians head on despite them forming into squares. By this stage, the Swedes had no organised bodies of troops to oppose the Russian infantry or cavalry. Small groups of foot soldiers managed to break through and escape to the south while most of the rest were overwhelmed and ridden down. Seeing the defeat of his army from a stretcher in the rear, Charles ordered the army to retreat at 11:00 a.m. By noon, the battle was over as Russian cavalry had mopped up the stragglers on the battlefield and returned to their own lines. Charles then gathered the remainder of his troops and baggage train, and retreated to the south later that same day, abandoning the siege of Poltava. Lewenhaupt led the surviving Swedes and some of the Cossack forces to the Dnieper River, but was doggedly pursued by the Russian regular cavalry and 3,000 Kalmyks and forced to surrender three days later at Perevolochna, on 1 July.

Good movie, REALLY SUCKED as documentary Im from Sweden, don't get me wrong, this IS a nice movie. Really enjoyed the whole picture, really enjoyed the SwedesAreBad parts, because we actually did do BAD things at 1709. The invented story with the details about french observers, the black rider etc was nice 2, worked fine to make the movie 'going'. (Karl XII was by the way hurt in one foot by a bullet before battle, nice thing to make a movie main char do this in the movie) Just some clarification's about the battle, because it is tense, well-done and SUCKS as historical document… The whole redutt fight was a misunderstanding – Swedish orders was to run thru reduttes just before morning/sun-break – thru to the fields beyond. Unclear orders made 2000 out of 8000 infantries die at reduttes in vain and only captured some of them. (6000 ran thru as ordered) At main battle of Poltava-battle (after reduttes), 6000 Swedish infantry's attacked 18000 (!) likewise Russians. The Swedes had gunpowder for one shot only and no artillery at all. The Russian army used all the modern artillery they disposed. It was a slaughter, and approx 3000 or more Swedes were Dead Meat before able to make their first and only shot in this fight. Tsar Peter dwelled inside Russian camp whole battle (generals made all decisions) – and no glorious cavalry charge changed the tide of battle at Poltava. Notable: in fact cavalry at this time had lost most of its OFFENSIVE capabilities (example: 60 years earlier Swedish infantry slaughtered the royal Polish cavalry outside Warsaw with no cavalry support). Cavallery at this time was mostly used vs cavalry, vs flanks or vs fleeing runners. The first outcome of Poltava was obvious for the remains of Swedish infantry, documents state them hiding under dead friends, sniped to death from distance by Russians. The second outcome was political: Sweden forever erased from the list of super-dominating nations. Im happy for that part. For example: Bin Laden ignores us :) I see this screen strictly as adventure but pointless if You wanna know what really happened – and in fact rate this Adventure to 7/10. My 2 cents. /S

I was excited to finally see the Russian view on this historical event. But what did I get?The story is a shallow version of a well documented epoch. In this story, that takes place in the 18th century in a war weary Europe, the Polish and Russian countryside are overcrowded by busty beauties, brutal and horny soldier of Charles XII and two french noblemen caught in the middle of two armies. It's beautiful filmed but... thats it. Stereotyped and full of clichés. The swedes got their asses kicked, but not in this way.Now and then I thought I was watching a danish soft-core comedy from the 70s.

I just watched the movie and all i can say is "WOW!" This is a truly beautiful film. It has everything that i personally want from a good movie. Lots of fighting a action, hot girls, an interesting plot, lots of blood, humor, beautiful camera work, a big ass battle toward the end, and even some sex! I just love it. I heard it was good when i started watching it, but I was just astonished how unbelievably brilliant yet simple it was. I was excited throughout the whole thing.Oh my God, its so good. Everyone has to watch it! No, I take that back. Don't watch it, if you expect lots of romance, and stuff like that. Also don't if don't want to see any gore or brutality cause there's quite a lot of it there. I was surprised about it. Its not like I don't like it, we are all just so used to the good old PGs or PG-13s that Hollywood is throwing at us twice a month.Anyway, watch it, you will not regret it, I promise.