Exodus [DVD]

Exodus or more accurately `Burnt by the Sun 2 - Exodus' is Nikita Mikhalkov's follow up to his Oscar winning 1994 `Burnt by the Sun'Burnt By The Sun [1994] [DVD]. He produces, writes and stars in this as he did in the first part. You do not need to have seen the first part to get this, but it will help to contextualise. Mikhalkov plays Col/general Sergei Kotov, he has been caught up in one of Stalin's' many purges and we find him here being held as an article 58 political prisoner, it is 1941 and so five years on from when he last saw his daughter. This is played by ..... yes his real daughter, who did so in the earlier film too - Nadezhda Mikhalkov (she should now be thirteen but is in fact twenty three). He is about to be transferred to a criminal status of article 129, when as luck would have it the Germans attack in CGI planes and destroy the entire camp except for Kotov and his intellectually challenged son.

The story flits between his story and that of his daughter, who is now a `pioneer' who refuses to denounce her father and is approached by Stalin's henchman and former friend Arsentyev (Oleg Menshikov - in both films) and told her father is still alive. She meanwhile is evacuated from the camp as the Germans advance. In the confusion she gets herself into a number of tight spots which would be plot spoilers if I told you, but you do start to think that even as a cat her nine lives must be quite near to being up at one point. She is now trying to be reunited with her father and he keeps wanting to get back to her, so the scene is sort of set.

Meanwhile father and son have teamed up with a penal battalion (not actually formed until 1942) and take on the full might of the Germans in a very excellent battle sequence with no CGI and real actors, tanks etc.

There is an attempt to be balanced, except where Stalin is concerned, we have soldiers converting to Christianity and Islam, there are some reasonably un cardboard cut out Germans, but it does not hang together well in places. I was reminded of `Come and see' Come and See [DVD]at one point where we have a barn burning incident, but without the raw emotion evinced in that earlier film.

This was panned in Russia and bombed at the box office, despite this being one of the biggest production budgets ever for a film (think Pearl Harbor). It has been criticised for the historical inaccuracies, the painfully obvious plot holes and the lack of any form of subtlety (much in evidence in the slow but brooding `Burnt by the Sun').It has also been criticised for having a version of the war too close to the 'official' version.

It is sprawling, it is not really epic and I am a bit concerned that nowhere on the packaging are we told about the first part. This may be an attempt to distance it from the previous work or sell it here as a war film. It does have battle scenes, there is a lot of gore and some of it is well done, but you do have to suspend belief a bit. If you can do that there is a good 146 minute film. That said I did quite enjoy it, the ending is awkward and we are told `End of Part One'. Well it should be part two and judging by how this was received in Russia and America, I thought part 3 would not be made, but it is already out in the US and is called 'The Citadel'. Nearly four stars but probably three and a half, but for the sake of rating this is just OK.

This film is in my opinion one of the greatest films to ever have come out of Russia. It certainly stands head and shoulders above some of the more well-publicised war movies we've recently produced in the west. It will leave you full of memories of scenes either tragic, moving, magical or gut-renching, and if you watch it in sections as I did, you'll find yourself longing just to find out what happens next. The camera work is incredible, the way certain scenes unfold is testament to the incredible creative vision of the filmmaker, the acting is so very convincing, the sense of menace in some scenes is spot on, and I look forward to watching the just-ordered sequel "The Citadel" in the next few weeks when it arrives. Whatever you do, go buy this now and watch it.

A beautiful, haunting, riveting film, that rapidly speeds up from "Burnt by the the Sun" into a whirling metallic maelstrom. Carries within it, elements of Dr. Zhivago, The Ascent and Come and See, but manages to meld them together in a gut wrenching visual nasty depiction of war. A full blood red technicolour horror, lucid portrayal of the German invasion and Soviet resistance.

Universally derided on its release in Russia, its impact is perhaps understandable, as this opens a festering wound; in dealing with politics, carnage and emotional pain.

The men are trapped in a series of vignettes of horror, as they battle with the world around them; the attack on the troop ship, burning people alive in a church, massacring gypsies, raping women, the dying solider wanting a woman, men freezing to death, all vividly splurged without the searing orchestrated strings of Spielberg.

Not the type of heroics Errol Flynn eased into the frame when he liberated Burma single handedly. Instead this digs into the frozen topsoil and then goes through the strata with an ice pick into the hard rock, to expose the worm ridden skulls. It is not a homage to "sacrifice" but an insight into a mind imprisonment; men entrapped by the fear of violence wafting from the screen, caught within a minute by minute tick tock, forever facing imminent death and watching the muscles twitch.

Religion appears as a secret code, when those who believe seek something beyond the sheer devastating carnage. Belief provides one point of redemption, as Islam/Christianity provides an alternative to paying homage to Dictators. The film has to hang onto some element of positivity, otherwise this gets bleaker and colder than a deep dark Russian tundric winter.

Returning to religion provides a meaning to life however it also leads to disaster, see the "30 Years War" for an equal devastation. Another point of redemption, the true kernel of the film are the human bonds forged, played out between the main characters, as they weave their tragic life stories within the scenery of history.

Beautifully acted, it carries on the father and daughter's story from "Burnt by the Sun" and takes the image of Uncle Joe, then rubs his pock marked face into the mire throughout the entirety. Although the man took Russia to victory, he crucified the country for his own glorification. If he had only known, the films they were going to make of him, 80 years later, when he began his purges/killing/tyrrany, perhaps he would have stopped and reflected. This film is a monument to the will of a people who endured Stalin and Hitler plus everything beyond and since.

Beautifully artistically shot, cast and directed, this is brimming with the most bitter humour, complete without buddy heroics delivering the war of "all against all."

The 1930's and 1940's were times when parents/grandparents lived and survived, this film brings home the full pressure those people faced, the complete antithesis to the paradise depicted in "Burnt by the Sun." An outstanding piece of film-making that makes any war effort produced by Britain and the USA (dirty dozen, where eagles dare" Colditz) just seem "boys own" when it stands next to this. Watch it, it towers as a monument reaching out to the psychological insights of Shakespeare when it meets its true match.