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 enlarge | Director: Pekka Parikka
Actors: Taneli Mäkelä, Vesa Vierikko, Timo Torikka, Heikki Paavilainen, Antti Raivio
Category: DVD
List Price: $45.00
Buy New: $26.96
You Save: $18.04 (40%)
New (9) Used (3) Collectible (1) from $26.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 26226
Format: Color, Subtitled, Ntsc
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 125
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 639802290793
EAN: 0639802290793
ASIN: B0000646UN
Release Date: December 31, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW - FACTORY SEALED - FULLY GUARANTEED - TOP TEN OF BEST WAR MOVIES - FINLAND'S FINEST HOUR - WAR/HISTORY/SWASHBUCKLING/AVIATION AND WESTERN FILMS ARE OUR SPECIALTY!!!
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| Customer Reviews:
 US DVD version cut by 70 minutes April 13, 2007
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
Be forwarned! The US version of this film is 70 minutes shorter than the original version of 195 minutes. You are missing a lot! The PAL version, as far as I know, is only available in the EU.
Superb! February 6, 2007
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is how war movies are supposed to be made. You feel tired by the end of this one because you almost feel like you were in those trenches with them. Outstanding movie making about a conflict which is often overlooked. Hollywood should take a lot of notes from this movie. Definitely belongs in the collection of any military history enthusiast.
 SISU examined and explained December 30, 2006
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Any work of art must address the three aspects of our psyche: Intellect, Appetites, Spirit. This movie, unlike many others, addresses the entire psyche, and does so by weaving these three aspects through the soundtrack, the dialogue and of course the visual representation. After the first viewing, the actual historical account is told and the psyche is no longer overburdened with the obvious. Later viewings allow for a much more meaningful experience. In this, I believe that the production staff have succeeded in their task.
Finland being the underdog, does successfully thwart the massive Russian attack. Not being the aggressor and losing the advantage of first attack, Finland must respond to this attack of its country. But it is not a superior technology, nor numbers that is responsible for this victory of sorts. It is the spirit of man that allows for this page of World War II history to come alive, and if there is anything good from war, it is the ability for men and women to show the eternal and noble virtues within in each of us.
I was not born in Finland, but my parents were, and did raise me with more of a European background than Canadian. With some grade school level Finnish fluency, I found the subtitles to be mildly off target, but then again, there might be some disagreement in my interpretation too. While I would agree with other reviewers that sometimes it is difficult to read all of the subtitles, I am reminded by the fact that this movie was produced a number of years ago. I think that the movie can hardly be held to critical review for technical issues that were resolved after its production.
There is a word in Finnish, SISU, which has no English counterpart or translation. This movie while a wonderful rendering of this historic event, does in passing allow the non-Finnish speaking person a chance to understand what Finns mean by it.
I would heartily suggest this movie for its edu-tainment purposes, but if a History teacher were looking for something to engage children, this movie could very well do so. Being off the beaten path, the teacher would not find students who have already seen the movie.
Brave Finns on the frontlines! December 2, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
One of the greatest, and most accurate war films made, yet little known by most English-speaking viewers. An army reserve unit is mobilized to man the fortified Mannerhiem Line, in the early days of World War II. The characters express all the usual concerns about the coming ordeal...and then it happens. The Soviet Union launches a massive armored onslaught against Finland. Despite Finland's lack of manpower, equipment, and supplies, they devasted wave after wave of Russian assaults. Finland had better-trained soldiers, repelling hundreds of thousands of expendable communist conscripts. In the years before, wisely foreseeing the inevitable conflict with the communist power to the east, Finland had a series of fortifications built in advance, and the Finns utilized these to maximum effect! This film portrays the frontline combat very well, but the entire war had various fascinating perspectives that should also be portrayed on film some day. To get a greater idea of the conflict, read the book, "A Frozen Hell" (which I have also reviewed).
The war is dreadful December 8, 2005
65 out of 66 found this review helpful
it is the business of the artist to follow it home to the heart of the individual fighters-not to talk in armies and nations and numbers-but to track it home. D.H. Lawrence
The Russo-Finnish War, known as "The Winter War", began on November 30, 1939 when the Red Army invaded Finland. The war began after the Finns refused demands from Stalin to move its borders 25 kilometers back from Leningrad. The basis for this demand was the fear on the part of Stalin and the Soviet High Command that Hitler could launch an invasion of the USSR directed at Leningrad using Finland as a base for its attack. The Winter War ended by means of a truce signed on March 12, 1940. During this brief three-month war a Finnish army consisting of 180,000 men, most of them reservists waged a defensive battle against an advancing Soviet army of about 450,000 men. Fighting from entrenched positions against full-frontal assaults resulted in the death of close to 23,000 Finnish soldiers. At the same time more than 126,000 Soviet soldiers were killed or missing and another 264,000 were wounded. This short war had a dramatic impact on the future course of the Second World War (the Winter War took place during the `phony war' period between the occupation of Poland and the commencement of Germany's invasion of France). The horrifying losses suffered by the Red Army were a reflection of the chaos caused by purges of the military that practically eliminated every professional officer from the Red Army. This vulnerability could only have encouraged Hitler in making his decision to invade the USSR in June 1941. Finnish film director Pekka Parikka's 1989 film "The Winter War" is an exceptionally well made movie about this little-known (at least to me) war. The film is not about armies fighting armies as much as it is about the individual fighters who, collectively, are called upon to wage war against an invading army.
Parikka's film follows the war through the eyes of a small platoon of reservists called up from their village to fight the war. It begins with their mobilization and their trip to the front lines through three months of brutal and bloody fighting. The film appears to be very accurate from a historic perspective. The reservists are shown being issued incomplete, if any, uniforms, and finding gear and supplies when and if they can. The Finns, lacking in anti-tank weaponry invented the Molotov Cocktail to use against Soviet mechanized divisions and the film shows these ad hoc weapons being used to great effect. Particularly well done are the scenes that show the impact of the war on the rather stoic inhabitants of the platoon's village.
The Winter War is a straight-forward narrative of the war and how it was fought. It has a particular emphasis on the ugly reality of war. It is not for the squeamish. The film is not an examination of the souls or characters of the people that fought the war. This is true even of the principal actors. The characters in the film are involved in fighting a war, they are not there to engage in discussions of the meaning of life. However, I thought the film was very well done and certainly worth watching. Those with an interest in war films generally or interested in well made films that cover corners of our history that is not overly familiar to them should find this a rewarding film to watch. I've seen plenty of movies about the D-Day landings, the Battle of the Bulge, and the like. This is the first film I've seen on the Russo-Finnish war.
A word about the price. This DVD contains no extra features and is not in letterbox format. Although it is an excellent movie I cannot advise anyone to buy it at the current list price of $45.00. I purchased a new copy through an Amazon marketplace vendor and paid 1/3 of the list price. At that price it is a 5-star film. At the list price I think the viewer may feel that he has paid a bit too much. That is ultimately why I rated this film 4 stars and not 5.
L. Fleisig
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