""Winter War" movie, Russia versus Finland, its a good one." Topic

Hi everyone;
Last night I watched the movie "Winter War", which is about the Soviet invasion of Finland. A buddy let me borrow the VHS movie and last night was a great time to watch it, with a real blizzard blowing outside here.
The movie is in Finnish with english subtitles.
I had a hard time following the characters, but the combat action was excellent.
Real early war Russian tanks and what looked like Rata 1-16 fighters, plus some of the most realistic looking artillery explosions, hand to hand combat in trenches this movie had it all.
If you can get a chance to see this film, I recommend it.
Check it out.
Joe

I watched it with Warpspeed. You should have seen his reaction when the forest stood up shouted 'urrrah' and charged.

Winter war is a fun film. it has lots of action. I believe I saw it in about 2005ish. Really enjoyed it!

Just read a breif but harrowing account of some of the action in Finland during the Winter War -- in particular, the Karelian Isthmus and the Gulf of Viipuri:

An excerpt from "THe PHoney War" by Shachtmann"

"Finnish soldiers went literally mad from the endless strain of firing machine guns into hordes of approaching Russians. Finnish guns were used so much that they required reboring"

I had no idea the fighting was so intense in this campaign! Really makes me want to watch the movie and game this war 0 thanks for posting!!

It is a great film – I have it in my collection. It is very intense.

Winter War is one of my all time favorite war movies. Very brutal, extremely intense, and about as "real" as a film about combat can be. I've watched it countless times as I introduced it to yet another buddy who had never even heard of it.

I also didn't realize the intensity of the fighting in that 105 day war.
Another thing I picked up is how many times they talked about the "Civil War"…..I assumed they were talking about the Russian Civil War….did the Finns have a Civil War?…I'll have to check on that.

It's a great film.

The Finland broke away from Russia during the RCW and there was a similar civil war from Jan-May 1918 as the communists (both Finnish and Russian) attempted to continue the success of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Wyatt

The Finnish Civil War is still a bit of a national sore spot. This is very easily understood when you can still find some strong feelings in the US over ours.

Marshal Mannerhiem leading the "Whites" against the "Reds" was as revered as Washington is in the US for keeping Finland from becoming another Leninist state. There were apparently some very strong feelings one against the other after it was over, as can be expected, with some of the Reds fleeing to Russia and others being expelled there.

If you liked "The Winter War", find a copy of "The Unknown Solder" by Viano Linna. There is a very hard to find movie of the book out there, but the book is powerful.

It covers the continuation war following a machine gun company the whole way. It also gives you a look inside the relationships of officers and enlisted in the Finnish Army.

When I was in Finland as an exchange student my host family gave me my copy. After reading I think I have only loaned it out once to a friend I trusted.

If you liked "The Winter War", find a copy of "The Unknown Solder" by Viano Linna. There is a very hard to find movie of the book out there, but the book is powerful.

Actually, the author is called Väinö Linna, and there are two different movie versions out there: a black-and-white version from the 50's and a colour version from the 80's.

As for the book, I have heard the English translation being criticised quite a bit.

Excellent movie, I have NTSC copy!

bought mine today from Ebay. extended version with 70 extra minutes

hey Wyatt and Cerebus;
Thanks for the background info on the "Civil War" mentioned in the movie. The fact that it was talked about, even briefly, in the movie shows what a mark it left on their thinking.

Joep

I'm going to try to track this down if I can; coming from a strongly Scandinavian state, I had a good friend in high school whose family was Finnish, and they had nothing good to say about their Russian neighbors.

I got a copy of The Unknown Soldier when I was in Finland a couple of years ago. It's not a great translation but it's still worth reading.

On that trip I had a chance to visit the Military Museum and the nearby Army Museum. I was literally the only person there, which was awesome. I could spend as much time as I wanted looking at whatever struck my fancy.

If you like that movie you should also check some other good ones regarding the same conflict:

-Ambush
-Unknown soldier (1985) – as mentioned
-Framom Främsta Linjen
-Tali Ihantala

I would rate them in this order, Winter War being the best

pretty good movie. Got mine in the 90's.

'The Cuckoo' is also a good film; less of a battle film though.