Brother

This was by far the best film we have watched so far. It really captured the lifestyles in Russia at that time which was really interesting to see portrayed on screen. The way Danila shows up and basically takes over St. Petersburg within a week. He is so calm cool and collected it leads me to believe that he was not just based at HQ when he was a in the army. Also all the homemade flash grenades and nail shot gun shells are quite impressive for someone who pushed papers around in the war.
Someone who intrigued me the most was "the German," Nemets. Even though Danny is the one who kind of gets his feet back on the ground yet Nemets turns into somewhat of a father figure to him towards Danny. He warns Danny of what people that lead his lifestyle end up like and at the end of the movie Danny takes his advice. He takes over St. Pete's...then headed to Moscow.

So moscow doesnt cry...they didnt show that

This is the perfect love triangle, where the hell are they going with this kind of movie that we (western film viewers) love to see. I enjoyed how the film had two parts to the film to with the 15 year jump to kind of through us off and see if we could piece it back together. It makes me think about what all the people i know are going to be like in 15 years

Mirror

I got so mad at this movie. I was trying so hard just to put it together, relate the scenes, and it was nearly impossible for me. What I actually did was wiki the movie and tried to make some sense of it. It said that it was loosely autobiographical and that he mixed childhood memories with his fathers poems then threw in som old news clips. Im sure if we studied the film more we could make some sense of it yet I feel it would take a very long time.

Ballad of a Soldier

This movie reminded me of Saving Private Ryan for some odd reason. Not that it was the best war movie ever like SPR or anything like that but the way the story line was. The progression of traveling during war and the conditions endured. What made this different from other epic war films like Saving Private Ryan or Thin Red Line was that there was very little glorification of the soldier as in other war films. The only part really was in the very beginning after he beat the tanks by himself, other than that there were no other fight scenes. Also, I am not sure if this accurate, but I do not think they show any soviet soldier casualties.
What I liked though is that Alyosha was someone that was able to relate to any soldier really. He is just a young man wanting to go home. It's not like there were American, German, Japanese, etc soldiers that wanted to do the same.
During his travel when he meets Shura it was obvious that they were meant to fall in love. But whats interesting is that in a time that is so restless and worrisome that there is a possibility to find love.

what?

Today felt like everything was forced. That they almost had to say glorious things now that they could use sound. Personally I think that Eisenstein's silent was better than this one.
What i did find relavent though is that Russia was portrayed as the best nation around and when this film came out it was definitely the mind set that the soviets were trying to drive into the minds of its citizens.

Burnt by the sun

So I found myself actually a little sad when Kotov, a communist, was taken away by Mitya, a KGB, member. It was weird how someone that we know by his title and his residence would not normally mix well with our beliefes. Yet he was shown as just a simple man who stood strong for his town and family. What's not to love about that.
What I would like to mention thought is the guy driving around looking for that one town that nobody has heard of. I think he is put in the movie to shoe hat in a contry that is though of as so structured and organized when it comes to an individual it is very obviuos that it is extremly easy to be lost and left behind. It is like he's the black sheep in society.
I do not think the russians wwould be prou when this movie was made that their country acted like this. I feel an international audience would find the movie much more entertaining. For so long there were so many secrets on what exactly went on inside the closed off country. Ans espescially at the end when it was revealed that this was based on a true story it really hit me hard at least that something like this could happen to someone who is jsut doing their job and then also take the family away as well too.
Also at the end when they say it was dedicated to all those who were burnt by the sun during the revolution. In the film I now realized that when the sun was around something bad was going to happen due to the communist government. It is also interesting that while at the beach or riverbank or whatever Kotov kind of forshadows that the military will be coming by when him and Nadya are on the boat when he tells Marusia to cathc some sun.

circus

Circus was not a particularly breathtaking film for me. Although I did enjoy the introduction to singing as a main theme to the movie. I feel it was in a weird way the only way they got a point across. It felt they were just rambling and just trying to tie songs together to make a story line.
It was interesing the way the russians portrayed an american in their film. I was expecting maybe a dumb selfish girl yet they actually praised her, even when they found out her secret about her prioir love life. Yet they use her accemptence as almost black mail to state that they are such a great nation to breath so free in a nation that loves all children
Its also very obviuos why Isham pointed out to us that Stalin enjoyed this movie. Mainly because there was 5 minutes "Stalin is God" time at the end of the movie, which totally killed it for me. Was the director really trying to kiss this much ass to the powerful leader. This to me is a good example why Stalins beliefes did not survive, the way to live was forced into the daily lives of his people.