There is something too sedate about the emotions and acting in this film, which is something I've noticed in director Jacques Tourneur's later, more popular works as well. Here it feels even more out of place given the setting, which is a group of Russian partisans fighting the Nazis on the Eastern front. The scenes between Gregory Peck and Tamara Toumanova are one of the better parts of it (Peck was 28 in his first film and has quite a presence, and Toumanova practically whispers her lines breathlessly), but even they are marked by a lack of passion.
The film is clearly a war-time effort to boost morale, and it's nice to see Hollywood make a film with Soviet heroes, given the magnitude of that nation's sacrifice in WWII. It glamorizes bravery and self-sacrifice, and the feeling that we're all in it together (kids included) to defeat evil. In a nice touch, in one scene the partisans don't kill a Nazi they've captured despite German atrocities, because as one puts it "In this world of blood and misery there must be someplace, small and underground though it may be, where the laws of justice and humanity are preserved." To not hate the enemy so much that one becomes like them in emulating their practices is a powerful message, which unfortunately has sometimes been forgotten.
I loved the Russian literature bits, including a lengthy quote from Pushkin's 'Eugene Onegin' (which I quote below, in the translation used in the film), as well as a reference to Lermontov's 'A Hero of Our Time.' Even the enemy position is at Yasnaya Polyana, the site of Tolstoy's home, outside of Tula.
There are some nice scenes in the winter and in battle, but they're unfortunately offset at times with silliness, for example Toumanova taking the Soviet oath and talking with Peck, the two of them smiling, while under a Nazi tank attack. Cut to narrator telling us about how the hordes of Hitler are being turned back and towards the setting sun of their defeat, and, well, you probably get the picture.
Here's the Pushkin quote: Chapter 3, IX. 1-4 With what a tension she poured over a sentimental novel. She drank in with what intense enjoyment each sweet, seductive fantasy.
Then later, Toumanova quoting Tatyana's letter (after a line that the screenwriter must have added): Chapter 3, XXXI. 17-21 And now you have it in your power to punish me with your disdain. But if you find you have for me the smallest drop of sympathy, you will not leave me in such a way.
She skips forward to XXXIII. 36-39 Why did you ever come to call? For in this far forgotten spot, we never should have met at all. And all this pain, so burning hot, I might have missed.
And then to XXXI. 45-47 But no, there is no other man to whom I could have given my love. And I'm yours by heaven's plan determined in the courts above. My life so far has been a pledge for this sure meeting God would send.
The film is clearly a war-time effort to boost morale, and it's nice to see Hollywood make a film with Soviet heroes, given the magnitude of that nation's sacrifice in WWII. It glamorizes bravery and self-sacrifice, and the feeling that we're all in it together (kids included) to defeat evil. In a nice touch, in one scene the partisans don't kill a Nazi they've captured despite German atrocities, because as one puts it "In this world of blood and misery there must be someplace, small and underground though it may be, where the laws of justice and humanity are preserved." To not hate the enemy so much that one becomes like them in emulating their practices is a powerful message, which unfortunately has sometimes been forgotten.
I loved the Russian literature bits, including a lengthy quote from Pushkin's 'Eugene Onegin' (which I quote below, in the translation used in the film), as well as a reference to Lermontov's 'A Hero of Our Time.' Even the enemy position is at Yasnaya Polyana, the site of Tolstoy's home, outside of Tula.
There are some nice scenes in the winter and in battle, but they're unfortunately offset at times with silliness, for example Toumanova taking the Soviet oath and talking with Peck, the two of them smiling, while under a Nazi tank attack. Cut to narrator telling us about how the hordes of Hitler are being turned back and towards the setting sun of their defeat, and, well, you probably get the picture.
Here's the Pushkin quote: Chapter 3, IX. 1-4 With what a tension she poured over a sentimental novel. She drank in with what intense enjoyment each sweet, seductive fantasy.
Then later, Toumanova quoting Tatyana's letter (after a line that the screenwriter must have added): Chapter 3, XXXI. 17-21 And now you have it in your power to punish me with your disdain. But if you find you have for me the smallest drop of sympathy, you will not leave me in such a way.
She skips forward to XXXIII. 36-39 Why did you ever come to call? For in this far forgotten spot, we never should have met at all. And all this pain, so burning hot, I might have missed.
And then to XXXI. 45-47 But no, there is no other man to whom I could have given my love. And I'm yours by heaven's plan determined in the courts above. My life so far has been a pledge for this sure meeting God would send.