Counter-Attack (1945)

Very Cool!!!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, East European sources began putting World War II stories on film. And, some movies that had been made since the 1970s were being released in the West. As a result, most people in the West for the first time saw the contributions Russia had made to help win the war. These films tell stories about the war on the Eastern Front, and the ravages of war on those countries and their people. But there were some movies made much earlier in Hollywood about Russia's fighting Germany. Americans living during World War II would have seen those films. They were produced to show Americans the heroic efforts of the Russians as allies in WW II, and to win public support for the U.S. programs to supply arms and weaponry to Russia. But, unlike other movies produced during the war years, the films on Russia's conflicts with the Germans were not shown as reruns in theaters or on TV beginning in the 1950s. No sooner had the war ended, when Joe Stalin began his power grab to control and enslave many eastern European countries and to oppress and murder his own people. Thus, the former ally in war was now an enemy in peace and a threat to western democracy. So, reruns of wartime propaganda films about the freedom-fighting Russians would conflict with the news of the day and the horrors reported on the Soviet oppression. The Cold War was on.But now the Cold War is more than two decades behind us. With modern technology we can transfer movies from film to DVDs. And, so older films too are now available. One of the best of those is "Counter-Attack," starring Paul Muni. The movie came out in 1945 and is based on a play that ran on Broadway in 1943. A very strong point of the film is that it doesn't portray German soldiers or Russians as buffoons or as ignorant. Indeed, the dialog of the Russians in the early scenes, and of Muni throughout the film, is of intelligent, discerning individuals. While the Germans are the enemy here, none of those individuals portrayed is seen as uneducated. They do come across as menacing and clever. The plot is excellent, and the directing and cinematography are exceptional. Muni plays his role perfectly, and several of the Germans are very good. This is a good propaganda film that put a WW II ally in good standing with Americans. If all Russians were like Muni and the rest of his special unit, we knew we had a competent, tough and capable ally. One worth fighting for and with. This movie is a welcome addition to my WW II film library.

Not much a "counter-attack" but a "stuck behind enemy lines" movie. I also saw this on Turner Classic Movies and that's probably the only place you'll ever see this movie as it has little main stream appeal. Think of this as a remake of "Sahara" without all the cool action, just the constant diatribe dialog. Released (according to IMDb) less then one month before the fall of Nazi Germany, this movie was clearly a propaganda war movie among all the rest to motivate the masses in America. Except I question who or even where this film would have been shown to. I guess like where most of the previous reviewers here live, it was shown in the North East (mainly New York City) and probably in Chicago. Since Communism was still a slightly mainstream political movement in America, I guess it was also made for those people in America to help support the war effort more. In only about one year things would dramatically change starting as soon as only a few months when Russia would not declare war on Japan until less then a month before the A bomb and total surrender so they could take part of the spoils. Then of course the Iron Curtain would go up and well, I'm sure surprised this film was even found in the vaults after all this time. One chilling scene if I can just point it out, is when the Leader says that a word does not exist anymore and that you cannot find it in the dictionary anymore, and Muni crosses out that word in his pocket dictionary. This would be reprised in the movie "Alphaville" where the society's leader erases words and the people can no longer use the word "love". It's hard for me to root for one s-bag group that is only slightly less s-bagish then the other group. Anyway, I like Muni and I liked Korda in some of their other works and I like war movies and had never seen this one, so I gave it a try. It's not out of line with anything else done at the time, it's just that there aren't many good war movies made during the war because they are all done for propaganda. 5 of 10, I see many others enjoy this but they are probably Travelers so take that into account.

***SPOILERS*** A bit drawn out and looking a lot more like a play, which the story originally was, then a movie Counter-Attack looks like it was filmed in almost total darkness. With just one or two scenes outside the factory basement, where most of the film takes place, where there was any sunlight at all. Leading an attack on German units across the river a team of Russian commandos are shot to pieces with only two of the group Alexie Kulkov and Lisa Elenko surviving. Trapped underground in a German occupied Russian factory the two Russians, who are the only ones with firearms, find themselves together with seven also trapped German soldier's! That leads to a standoff between the two combatants each trying to get information out of each other. With the hope if they survive or are rescued by their own men it would help in the battle shaping up outside between their two armies.It what later turns out to be a battle of wills the Russian private Kulkov and German officer Von Sturmer who play a deadly game of cat and mouse. Feeling out each others strengths and weaknesses as the fighting goes on outside. With both of them, Kulkov & Von Sturmer, having no idea who's side is not only winning but is in control of the devastated factory where both of them, with their fellow comrades, are trapped in.Not the usual war film that you would have expected with most of the fighting not taking place on screen or among the cast members. Instead concentrating on how fear of the unknown in who's outside, the Germans or Russians, to either save execute or imprison them as well. Lack of sleep also drives the men, and one woman, to the point of madness far more then exploding bombs artillery shells and bullets coming from the other side of the battle-line.What surprised me most about the movie is how it portrayed the German, who were the bad guys in the film, in putting them almost on an equal footing with the Russians, the films good guys, on moral issues. Like being more then ready to gun down each other if members of the opposing side is the first to come to their rescue. Because of the slow pace and darkness it's hard to follow what exactly is happening. There's a confusing scene with Lisa during an attempt by the captured Germans to overpower her. There's also Kulkov when the what little light there was in the cellar, from a flashlight, went out we find her badly injured and even dying from a knife wound. Yet later she seemed to have completely recovered without as as much as a scratch on her only to see her much later on at the very end of the movie being carried out on a stretcher! Again being on the brink of death from her knife wound by the Red Army troops and medics who broke into the cellar to rescue her and Kulkov!The movie was also a little hard to swallow in that one of the Germans soldiers Pvt. Stillman trapped with both Kulkov and Lisa was crazy enough to go over to their side. thinking that it would save his skin. This in the spring of 1942 when the Germans were well on their way, or so it looked at the time, of winning the war against the USSR. Also in regard of the Red Army's brutal treatment, the USSR in fact didn't sign the 1929 Geneva accords in the human treatment of POW's, of German prisoners it made you wounder why Pvt. Sillman would voluntarily give himself up in the first place! It made no sense, unless he just lost his mind, and was driven to become a traitor to his country and fellow German soldier's. With his family back home facing a stay in a German concentration camp and him being shot by the Gestapo or being sent to Siberia by the NKVD if either one got there, the cellar, first!

Seldom does a film capture the tone of the moment of significant historical events. This movie indeed does. One of the most dramatic events of World War Two was the counter attack by the Soviet troops against the Nazi invaders. The power of it all is beyond comparison to this very day. This film gives the audience a good account of the action, the drama, and the sense of just how far the Russians would go to drive the German army from its land. Paul Muni is extraordinary, and his acting gives meaning to the theme of this film that "there is no such word as impossible." In this movie, the heroic revenge of the Russians is exceeded only by the terror of it all.