9TH COMPANY (2005)

FYODOR BONDARCHUK

War Action/Adventure 1980s True Stories Rob Recommends Violence Recommended

Cast

ALEKSEI CHADOV MIKHAIL YEVLANOV IVAN KOKORIN ARTYOM MIKHALKOV KONSTANTIN KRYUKOV ARTUR SMOLYANINOV MIKHAIL PORECHENKOV

Plot

A raw bunch of Soviet conscripts are drilled into shape on the training ground and dropped into the thick of it in Afghanistan. A big box office hit in Russia this may, like films about the American invasion of Vietnam, be politically naive, but as a war drama it pulls no punchs and, with the possible exception of a silly, poorly edited final battle scene, delivers the goods in superb fashion.