I was very impressed with this movie. At 3 hours long, it's quite a commitment, but it never overstays its welcome. The action scenes are done very well. It's definitely one of the better WW2 films I've watched.
I just with they had done more marketing. My understanding is that this movie was largely intended for the domestic Finnish audience.
I think it worked better as over 4 hrs tv-series version (consisting of 5 episodes). Haven't seen the 2 hr version which was intended for foreign markets.
shareThe version I saw was 3 hours long.
shareTo my knowledge there's three versions or cuts:
1) 3hr version (intended for domestic market)
2) 2hr version (foreign markets)
3) 4+ hr version (miniseries for television)
There's a blu-ray release that has both 3hr and 2hr cuts. I bought it, but have never come around watching the short version. Miniseries version has also been released on blu-ray, I have that one also.
Well, then I'm happy to have seen the 3 hour version. Seems to be a nice sweet spot.
shareThis was a huge hit here in Finland. I love war movies and this is one of my favourites. They also released a 5 hour cut of the movie, I prefer it over the theatrical cut.
This definitely should have been marketed better outside of Finland because it's so well made. I think it's almost as good as Saving Private Ryan for example.
Yes, I definitely felt some Saving Private Ryan vibes.
shareDefinitely. This is one of my all time favorite WWII movies. I didn't notice much CGI so the actors and crew really worked their butts off to make this.
shareThis was a fantastic movie. Thank you for the recommendation. So well written and filmed. I knew very little about this aspect of the war and have no connection to Finland but certainly became engrossed in the characters and rooting for them. So many history and war movie buffs know nothing about this gem.
share