I have to try to blame the long, dark winter that's been going on for way too long for my fatigue and apathy of lately. Did someone ever tell you that winter sucks?
But...
The snow has been melting away during the last couple of days and it's getting lighter and lighter all the time. And I even spotted the first snowdrops of the season last weekend so I'm sure my spirits will return together with the much longed for spring!
Anyway.
This week's choice on DVD: Sluga Gosudarev/The Sovereign's Servant (the Swedish title was "The Battle of Poltava" Call it whatever you want).
1709. At the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV, two men are being sent into exile after a duel that displeases the king quite much. One is sent to king Karl XII of Sweden, the other to Czar Peter I of Russia, surely to be caught and killed in the next upcoming battle. Meanwhile, a haunting and mysterious Black Rider is making brave officers soiling themselves with fear as he's running around the countryside killing couriers and stealing intelligence. WHO IS HE?
I must admit it: this could be the first Russian movie I've ever seen in my whole life. I'm not 100% sure but I think so. So that was one of the refreshing views this film offered me: I LOVE to hear Russian (although it always make me regret that I dropped out of that Russian language class back in -03).
One other refreshing view was that, well, since this film is from a Russian POV, the Swedes were the Bad Guys here, burning innocent villages, raping young maidens and pillaging orphanages as they slowly marched to the battleground.
Don't get me wrong here - I do know that all those things happened, as they have always done in times of war, when man gets the opportunity to show his very worst-natured side. It's just that those things rarely are being mentioned in the history books - unless it's about The Other Side! So, yes, I would say it was refreshing (if you could use that word about murders of innocent civilians, but I hope you get my point...)
I rarely watch battle-type movies but I liked this one, without loving it.
The photage was very good, the battle scenes were impressive and we got us some supspense now and then. Much of the violence was realistic without being unnecessary gory. And fencing scenes, too!
There were historical inaccuracies here and there, but remember: you should watch this film as one of those old Hollywood swashbuckling movies, rather than a semi-documentary historical film. That will definitely help it, and make the experience more enjoyable for you.
Not a movie I'll remember as long as I live, but well worth watching when there's nothing better to do.
3/5
"We promise! We're not girls! The convent is in that direction!"
"A mental disorder. I haz one!"
Swedes. Being unwelcome tourists everywhere since the Thirty Years' War
were in ur base, s00n 2 be killed by ur d00dz LOL
"Drat! I need more cannon fodder... Er, I mean: Brave Young Men!Ahh..! Screw this! I'm going to Turkey. They have dolma. And gorgeous boys."
dis battl. not goin so grate ackshully :(Today, 2009, it's exactly 300 years since the battle of Poltava. Where the Swedes got their butts kicked so badly that their king had to run off to Turkey to lick his wounds. For five years. They had dolma. And dark-eyed young boys (he was eventually thrown out though).
It is also 200 years since the war where Sweden lost the territory of Finland (yep, it was the Russians that kicked butt that time as well). The Swedish king, Gustav IV Adolf, didn't get happy days in the Turkish sun, though. He lost his kingdom and his crown and was to wander around Europe as the sad colonel Gustafsson for the rest of his life.
The moral? Sweden should never fare war in a year ending with -09!
No comments:
Post a Comment