MovieChat Forums > Tali-Ihantala 1944 (2007) Discussion > Few improvements would have made perfect...

Few improvements would have made perfect war movie

posted 16 years ago by jarvinenjp
10 replies | jump to latest

It is great movie but with few improvements it would have been perfect:

First we need a shot where infantry at foxholes sees Kuhlmay Stukas flying over and a visible morale boost it gave; "Finally our own planes!".

And maybe a cgi-shot from Stuka cockpit diving into tank formation below.

Casting of Pirkka-Pekka Petelius as general Airo was wrong. People all the time expects him to be funny but his role was dead serious, there was huge conflict in there. For foreigner this doesn't matter but for finnish people...

And the last shot. It was suppose to be through eyes of 2 finnish surviviors at the front line looking into valley. There was a close shot of dead russians. They should have made it zoom out to see big picture. Soldiers at that far cannot see so close. It was cheap solution to end the film. Looks like it was done in a hurry.

I gave it 9 stars out of 10.

[–] Shaolin_Apu 16 years ago

Certainly the the air attack part should have been included in the movie! But the only occasion where I saw some Stukas were in Battle of Britain (1969), apparently they used RC planes since there are no flyable Stukas left any longer.

I wouldn't be that harsh on condemning Petelius as Airo, the best General he would have portrayed had been Taavetti Laatikainen, but we also know Airo as a humorous and ordinary guy.

The zoom-outs are difficult to make since you would need very much of junk and extras to even consider such a solution. If the ending disappointed it was still better than the trunk ending in Mollberg's Tuntematon.

If you gave it 9/10 it still means a great movie. I think I gave it 8/10, it is better than Framom Främsta Linjen but not better than Talvisota.

The Apple Scruffs Corps, 05
Nobody knows patience better than me

[–] Aylmer 16 years ago

I got a few more:

1) some closer-up shots in the climax of the artillery destroying tanks and killing people, rather than just a long shot of explosions.

2) some memorable characters

3) some memorable dialog

4) more specifics with the maps as to where we are and why it's significant.

5) more planes at the end, some shots of the destruction they cause, and less stock footage

6) at least one shot where they interact with a Russian soldier / deserter / prisoner. We never really see the Russians up-close, just a distant swarm of enemies.

7) more interaction with the Germans than that brief scene with the pilots. Weren't about 1/3 the soldiers on the Lapland / Karelian front German anyway?

8) better, more memorable music

[–] Shaolin_Apu 16 years ago

7) more interaction with the Germans than that brief scene with the pilots. Weren't about 1/3 the soldiers on the Lapland / Karelian front German anyway?

But that's all what is was. Germans were useless and totally lost in the Karelian forests. Only their weapons were good. The only German units in Karelia in 1944 were the Kuhlmay planes, an Assault Gun Brigade (actually a battalion), and an Infantry Division that was located behind the Gulf of Viipuri.

Finns fought their own war and Germans their own.

And Karelia is as far from Lapland as Alaska is from Shanghai, it's a bit different perspective than that between the Northern and Southern part of Minnesota.

The Apple Scruffs Corps, 05
Moppin' it up moppin' it up, yeah

[–] jarvinenjp 16 years ago

And the only Germans that actually did any good were Kulhmey division.

[–] JankaJaakari 16 years ago

And as fighting force Germans in Lapland were even more useless. They were all the time relaying on finnish support troops of engineers and brifrg building units and in the end it was finnish troops (under german command) that did most of the "heavy lifting". Only thing the krauts managed to do was burn the Lapland when they were driven out.

[–] Shaolin_Apu 16 years ago

Except that the Krauts were never "driven" out, they withdrew by their schedule.

The Apple Scruffs Corps, 05
Moppin' it up moppin' it up, yeah

[–] JankaJaakari 16 years ago

Or they just happened to run out of matches and went to borrow some more from swedes. BTW in battles of Kemi and Tornio Krauts got their teeth seriously kicked in and they leg it whit their hides barely intact.

[–] Shaolin_Apu 16 years ago

That's the only place where Finns were operationally successful during the Lapland War. Germans were taken by surprise because of the landing from the sea.

The Apple Scruffs Corps, 05
Moppin' it up moppin' it up, yeah

[–] JankaJaakari 16 years ago

Also it was only place they send veteran troops from the front against the krauts after that it was fresh recruits with no experience. If Soviets would have allowed us to use those battle hardened troops more then the losses of krauts would have been many folds. There were fair share of soldiers whom lost their homes and farms when krauts torched Lapland villages and farms so there might have been pay back to dish out.

[–] Radalan 15 years ago

That's what bothered me with this movie, you never saw the big picture.
90% of the time it was close-ups, you never saw the !large scale of the battle!.
Artillery firing? Maybe take a shot of few cannons in the same shot instead of just one.