Film: The Winter War
Release date: 21st February 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 122 mins
Director: Pekka Parikka
Starring: Taneli Mäkelä, Vesa Vierikko, Timo Torikka, Heikki Paavilainen, Antti Raivio
Genre: Drama/History/War
Studio: Scanbox
Format: DVD
Country: Finland
The Winter War, or Talvisota in Finnish, is a classic war film which has gained something of a cult following, and has just celebrated its 21st birthday. Originally based on a book of the same name by writer Antti Tuuri, it is about a real battle, little-known outside Finland, which was fought during the start of the Second World War.
The film opens in 1939, in the house of Martti (Taneli Makela) and Paavo Hakala, two brothers who have just been called up to join the army. Russia, for the moment leaving Hitler to his own devices in Western Europe, has turned its sights on Finland. Stalin is set on world-domination and decides to start by taking a great swathe of Finland for himself. The Finns, unsurprisingly, are refusing to concede to his demands.
At first, it seems like an empty threat, so the brothers’ conscription into the army takes them only to training camps to practise manoeuvres. Here, it doesn’t matter so much that the Finnish army is appallingly under-resourced, but it soon becomes apparent that Stalin is serious when word comes that a huge number of Russian soldiers are on their way to launch an attack. Martti, Paavo and their new comrades must say goodbye to their families and leave to defend their homeland.
What follows is a David and Goliath scenario: the small band of Finnish men, poorly-resourced, with limited training, and must crouch in trenches, taking pot-shots at the advancing Russians. Stalin has sent tens of thousands of soldiers, along with tanks, aeroplanes and bombs. The Finns have the wrong-sized artillery cartridges and second-hand guns. They have to resort to setting light to Molotov cocktails to attack the Russian tanks, and inevitably suffer casualties and deaths. However, the Finns have a fierce love for their homeland, which somehow keeps them fighting against this inexhaustible enemy.
Martti becomes our primary focus, a tireless solider who keeps up the fight even as his friends are cut to pieces by shrapnel, or start to lose the plot. Even when the situation seems utterly hopeless, Martti and his remaining comrades never give up…
With this film, director Pekka Parikka aimed to provide a realistic portrayal of the battle, and to give the real-life soldiers who fought in those Finnish trenches the recognition from the wider world that they deserve. It certainly offers a different viewpoint of the early days of World War II than most war films portraying this era. Parikka manages to show vividly the brutal nature of warfare; it is not glamorous or even well-prepared. In this film, as no doubt it was in reality, it is brutal, freezing, filthy and soul-destroying. However, Parikka does manage to instil a quiet sense of heroism amongst all the horror and desperation. It is a faithful representation of real events which is not romanticised in any way, which is what this story deserves.
However, after the first two hours, the point has been made. Up until this time, you can appreciate the aims of the film, and understand the stark differences between the Russian and Finnish armies. We have seen soldiers die miserably in the trenches, the cramped living conditions they put up with, and we have witnessed numerous attacks and counter-attacks, complete with comedy deaths from the Russians. The fact is war is bursts of dramatic action, when the soldiers are actually in life-or-death situations, interspersed with long periods of tedium where nothing much really happens. When the arrival of a cat into the trench camp is the most exciting event for a long time - for both the soldiers and the viewer - it becomes difficult to maintain concentration. The film becomes hard work, and it continues for more than an hour longer – the total running time is three-hours-and-fifteen minutes. This is even longer than it sounds when you consider that in the first half of the film, the scenes of trench warfare were interspersed with scenes of family life, soldiers returning home on leave, training, and so on. In the second half, we are firmly in the trenches, trapped in a hopeless cycle of Russian advance and Finnish resistance.
It requires a steely determination on the part of the viewer to see this film through to the end, which is somewhat anti-climactic when it finally comes. Parikka’s aims with this film are laudable, and he has given a very honest, realistic portrait of the battle for Finland. It is a story that deserved to be told because the events on this side of Europe during the Second World War period have been greatly overlooked in cinema before and since. It is gritty and conveys a grim bravery far removed from some glossy Hollywood interpretations of this genre, which is effective. However, Parikka has focussed on this, making it as authentic as possible, at the expense of everything else. The acting is occasionally a bit wooden but the main problem is that it is just far too long without any strong subplot to drive it past the first half. War film enthusiasts will appreciate this film for the attention to detail in creating a realistic representation of an oft-forgotten war, but for everyone else, it’s a rather gruelling experience which is difficult to stick with until the end.
The Winter War portrays a raw and heroic struggle which will appeal to die-hard fans of the genre but will leave most viewers out in the cold. KS
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