We’ve seen these faces before -- gathering in a rain swept railway station, holding their sweethearts for what could be the last time. We’ve seen each character in The 9th Company (9 Rota) in previous war movies – the badass who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, the naïve artist, the jokester, the scrounger, the brutal drill sergeant, and the burned out company commander.
Once the 9th Company starts however, each character seems uniquely Russian. This is probably because the director, Fyodor Bondarchuk, is the son of the world-famous Sergey Bondarchuk, who directed War and Peace (Voyna i mir) in 1968 -- a Soviet spectacle that dwarfed anything Hollywood has ever attempted. War and Peace required 50,000 extras to depict the destruction of Napoleon’s Grand Army.
To depict the fighting in Afghanistan in 1988-89, the then 37-year-old Bondarchuk's first feature film used thousands of Ukrainian Army extras, and millions of dollars worth of Soviet-built military hardware, including rocket launchers, attack helicopters, jets, tanks, and armored personnel carriers. The film was shot mostly in the mountainous regions of the Crimea in Ukraine and in Uzbekistan.
saying "goodbye"
Bondarchuk not only directed and co-produced the 9th Company, he also stars as Hohol, the platoon commander from Ukraine who wants to drink himself into a stupor when he returns from this campaign to forget the horrors of Afghanistan. When they arrive for training in Uzbekistan, the soldiers endure constant beatings from their disturbed training commander Dygalo, and they also fight with each other. The ethnic tensions between the soldiers from the Caucuses republics and the Ukrainians who call them “churka” or “chorny” (n-ggers) will also be an eye opener to Americans not familiar with how multinational the Soviet Union was before its collapse.
Dygalo
American audiences will find this film more disturbing than anything they’ve seen in We Were Soldiers, or Black Hawk Down. This is not due to the gore so much as the film’s gritty realism -- the actors, all children of the Soviet Union who grew up in the 1980s, look more like real soldiers with crooked and stained teeth. Audiences who have seen Night Watch will recognize Alexei Chadov, who plays Vorobley (Sparrow), a soldier loyal to his girlfriend back home who refuses to join his comrades in debauchery.
The 9th Company’s production values are first rate, and brighter than the gloomy shades of Night Watch. Bondarchuk blew up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of real Soviet-issued Ukrainian army equipment rather than using extensive CGI effects. The producers also constructed an actual village that took four months to build, then destroyed it using nine tons of explosives.
An intelligence officer briefing the platoon before they depart for Afghanistan warns that “Islam is not just another religion, it is a different world.”
A U.S.-made Stinger missile brings down a Soviet transport plane, killing all the passengers and crew
When the soldiers debark at their air base in Afghanistan, the transport plane that just dropped them off gets hit on takeoff by a U.S.-built Stinger missile and crashes in a huge fireball. The final battle for an isolated mountain outpost features Afghan and Arab fighters screaming “Allahu Akbar!” while plunging knives into Russian soldiers - all foreshadowing what was to come for Americans in Afghanistan and Russians in Chechnya. One of the Soviet troopers fighting the Afghans is from Grozny, a city no one in the platoon has ever heard of, and another soldier with Mongolian features is from Turkmenistan.
Fortunately, the 9th Company is mostly apolitical – any preachiness would have ruined the film’s authenticity. The soldiers listen to Gorbachev deliver a radio address to the Soviet Union on New Year’s Eve 1989 while getting drunk, with only the Ukrainian really interested in what he is saying. One soldier returning home at the end reflects on all the things they didn’t know would happen in 1989 – how Soviet soldiers would be discarded like trash, and how the country they bled and died for would soon cease to exist.
While Tom Hanks is producing Charlie Wilson’s War, a movie based on the book about the Texas Congressman who armed Afghan guerillas in the 1980s, thus far there has been no studio distribution for the 9th Company in the English-speaking world. The version I watched only works on Russian DVD players and had no subtitles, so I relied on my colleague Yuri Mamchur to translate the dialogue. The picture cost more than twice as much to make as Night Watch ($9 million dollars). The digital editing and audio mastering was completed in London. The film grossed $20 million dollars in the first three weeks after its September 2005 theatrical debut, and has earned $2.5 million dollars in DVD sales since its November 2005 video release.
In addition to financial success, the 9th Company has won critical acclaim in Russia. One reviewer remarked that when the audience left the theaters, they left in silence, lighting cigarettes and remembering all the familiar faces they’d seen on the screen. The storyline is based on true events, and this is the first time Russians or anyone else has seen the 1980s Afghan war portrayed on the screen from the Soviet point of view, bringing together the human and geopolitical tragedy of that doomed campaign. Bondarchuk has succeeded in making a drama that speaks to the pain of a forgotten generation of soldiers and their families.
Comments
Maybe Yuri could do a screening for a group!
Posted by: April Duke | March 16, 2006 2:37 PM
first russian movie that doesn't waste the whole time, talking in one room, this 1 has an actual plot unlike most russian movies.
Posted by: X Man | April 9, 2006 11:25 AM
i would love to see this film, does anybody know where i can acquire a copy of this in either us ntsc or uk pal formats , i would gladdly pay for this historicly correct masterpeice. ive heard nothign but good praise for this thus far, i can not beleive the movie publishers have not broken into the american market with this one thus far. its obserred to not make a movie of this calibre available in the united states. well anyway anyone with a copy available please e mail me at
river_ave_productions@yahoo.com
thank you...jason
Posted by: g i joski | April 15, 2006 3:27 AM
look on ebay.. thats where I got my copy
Posted by: Alexander | May 2, 2006 4:55 PM
i am from malaysia, i have seen this movie in the internet but i didnt understand anything about it because the movie language is russian and no subtaitle... i hope this movie could be sold in malaysia and be translated in english...
Posted by: neza | May 10, 2006 9:34 PM
I just returned from the Ukraine to the US and bought the licensed version of the 9th Rota. It's listed as PAL but it played fine in my NTSC DVD player. Interesting... It only costed 35 Grivnas, seven US dollars.
Posted by: Thomas Caetano | June 1, 2006 6:38 PM
The best from Eastern Europe
to come out in a long time.
Gritty, realistic and all in all well done. Me and my Pa saw "War and Peace" in the early 70's, we came in late, the movie already started and came out without finishing it. Though it was great, Sergei Bondarchuk"s son outdone his father or rather gave the best tribute by doing this film "The 9th
company". Congratulations,
Fedor !!!
Posted by: Paengsys | August 20, 2006 8:23 PM
hey guys this a deal movie you can get/download from www.torrentspy.com
i am thinking to translate this movie to english by myself using powerful programs i will post when it's done
Posted by: DAVIDTASHKENT | September 17, 2006 10:48 AM
This is amazing film,tis is a story about our past and present,i hope that we wont forget it for our future
Posted by: Yana | October 2, 2006 12:37 PM
well film is ok actually, i would hardly call it amazing
Posted by: Nx | October 30, 2006 9:54 AM
Филм је стварно перфектан. Потпуно описује један део историје за који се мало тога знало. Он потврђује да се руска кинематографија може носити са западном тј. са холивудском кинематографијом у потпуности.
Posted by: Ilijev Petar | November 8, 2006 2:21 AM
X man...what the f--- are you talking about.
I disliked this movie because it was innaccurate, plotless...and a blattant [sic] Platoon copy.
Platoonsky, is a fabulous attempt to make Hollywood look east but nevertheless it is rarely as strong as "Over Here" (1986).
Great movie, average film.
Posted by: besnik | November 24, 2006 4:40 PM
I don't know what you are talking about! This movie is absolutely awesome and has alot of accuracy (personal experience). You can now purchase it from amazon.com
Posted by: charles | January 29, 2007 9:34 AM
It does bring some of the unpleasent history of the time but worth watching.
Posted by: Khalid | February 15, 2007 9:19 AM
Best war film ever!
i have been for 1 year in Afghanistan. This film got me to cry! Soldiers of this film are like in the real life. We also drinked vodka secretly. That was the best way to cope with the stress and to forget the bad memories. Friendship between men is told like it is there...
And the mountains, which are present all the time in the film, remind me of my military service in Kabul.
And the battle scenes have reality. bad persons have thein nice and vulnerable side. In US films bad staff sergeants are only cruel and mad, not having any human side.
This film don't say that Russians were in Afghanistan without a cause. I think, this is the right way to aprroach Afghanistan war.
What I saw in Kabul, Russians did a lot for Afghan school system and for the womens rights. Communism was not that bad!!!
Posted by: Paul ex-ISAF peacekeeper of Afghanistan | March 2, 2007 12:38 PM
This movie was really something. VDV (Russian Airborne Forces) can really dig in and hold ground and fight with real tenacity. I saw the movie about a year ago in the Ukraine and was influenced by it ever since. The photography is really stunning. Went out on the town in the UA and bought a copy, took it back with me, forgot it at ex-girlfriends and now I am going to get another!!!! One Question about authenticity, why didn't the VDV troops in the movie have barbed wire and MRUD mines (like a claymore) around their position? The Muj walked right up to them whereas some wire would have slowed them down some. I would have thought they would have had wire and mines.
Posted by: JML | March 3, 2007 4:37 PM
there are ENGLISH subtitles available on the internet. just search google 'english subtitle company 9'. You will then find a subtitle file which is very small and quick to download... then, you can find websites that explain how to attach the subtitles with the movie file using FREE software.
Posted by: bombakloed | March 15, 2007 11:49 AM
Did you traslated the film in italian?
Posted by: Anonymous | May 6, 2007 9:30 AM
I think, it's just a film and in reality is a little bet different.
Posted by: No name | May 22, 2007 12:07 AM
The storyline got twisted beyond any resemblance of the reality that it was supposed to be based on, but the basic ingredients that formed the daily reality of Russian dog-faces ending up in Afghanistan is fairly accurate. The movie was impressive, certainly when you understand Russian, because the translation is not very good.
Posted by: LUPERCUS | May 24, 2007 12:49 PM
A lot of the military aspects look good e.g. authentic late war uniforms and equipment. The documentary Afghantsi is well worth watching in conjunction with this film as it gives some credence to the types of soldier depicted in the film and its high level of authenticity. Maybe the gritty dialogue gets a bit lost in translation and the music is at times (to my taste) melodramatic but it is a solid well crafted war movie.
Posted by: David O'Brien | June 16, 2007 10:22 AM
no entiendo ingles pero me gusta lo que se ve
Posted by: ariel pedraza | June 30, 2007 3:33 PM
In regard to the comment by JML "why didn't the VDV troops in the movie have barbed wire and MRUD mines (like a claymore) around their position? The Muj walked right up to them whereas some wire would have slowed them down some. I would have thought they would have had wire and mines." Well durring the Korean War when the Marines under Chesty Puller and the 1st Marines essentially did the same maneuver but instead of retreating home they retreated from the Chosin Reservoir to Hungnam Port. Along the route they had small units to hold the high ground and either warn of enemy attack preperations or to counterattack, in the case of the 9th Company it appears that the Afghans wanted to kill a few Russians before they left the country. When an invaider leaves you don't delay him, you even mark the route out so that he don't get lost. At least thats the impression I got if you are referring to the battle at the end when they are leaving the country. Putting barbed wire and laying out claymores? not when you're going to be traveling the ridges provideing security for the elements traveling though the valley but this is just the opinion of a rifleman marine... I could be wrong.
Posted by: Benny | July 9, 2007 2:05 PM
First Russian film I`ve seen and it was excellent. I would say this is one of the best films i`ve seen and rivals Das Boot as my favourite war movie.
Posted by: William Glendinning Belfast, UK | April 5, 2008 11:26 AM