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Fire And Ice - The Winter War Of Finland And Russia (2005)
R0 - America - MastersWork Media Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (28th May 2006). |
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The Film
 One history question for every military buff would be: What are the names of all the capitals of European countries that fought in World War II, but didn´t get occupied during or after? Well, London in Great Britain, Moscow in the Soviet Union, and... Helsinki in Finland. Everyone knows that Great Britain and the Soviet Union (eventually as Allies) fought many bitter battles against the Nazi Germany, but a small country next to its huge neighbour, Finland, fought also fiercely against the Soviet Union during the period of November 30, 1939 - March 12, 1940 in the war that is generally know as the “Winter War” (or “Russo-Finnish War”). Just before WWII broke out, the Soviet Union and Germany signed a “mutual non-aggression pact”, which was called “Molotov-Ribbentrop”. This basically meant that Germany could start their attack on Poland - eventually starting WWII - and not really worry about the interference from the Soviet Union, which due to the secret clause of the pact took Eastern Poland in the process. The pact also meant that the Soviet Union could now make its move towards the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and Finland was also among the countries that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin wanted under his rule. He also feared that Germany would eventually attack the Soviet Union through Finland (strategic town of Leningrad - now St. Petersburg - was not far away from the original Finnish border). One by one the political pressure and general fear of the Soviet invasion made all the Baltic countries sign a treaty with the Soviet Union, but later on they all would still be occupied and face the terror from Stalin. Finland was next in line in 1939, but this time Stalin had a different answer for his demands: “No”. Russia then staged the “Finnish artillery attack”-incident near their border, which gave them a reason to attack Finland and start the war. On November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union - with an overwhelming force of 23 divisions and 450,000 men - crossed the Finnish border and quickly reached the first defensive line of the Finns; “Mannerheim Line” (after the Commander-in-Chief of the Finland´s forces; Carl Gustaf Mannerheim). Reaching the first defensive line could´ve been easy, but from that on nothing was. Against all the odds, Finland fought on. In the “Winter War”, the Soviet troops were facing a Finnish army of 180,000 men strong, not even half of what Russians had. In the war lasting 105 days, the Soviet Union lost approx. 127,000 men, Finns approx. 23,000 men, and the quick and easy victory that the Soviet Union had in mind turned into a bloody battle against the tough defensive forces. Finns took the full advantage of the terrain, extremely cold conditions, and superior tactics of their mobile ski troops and effective use of the little artillery they had (Stalin´s “my soldiers are expendable” attitude didn´t help to keep the casualties any lower). Eventually Finland lost the war, but it was never occupied by the Soviet troops, always keeping its independence and freedom. The peace treaty was signed in March 12, 1940 in Moscow. It was harsh, but still better than the other option; the Soviet occupation and have the same fate as the Baltic states. Eventually Finland had to give approx. 10% of their territory (12% of Finland's population lost their homes) to the Soviets, which caused many sad stories when quick evacuation was the only option. The hostilities between Finland and Russia continued in the more controversial “Continuation War” during June 1941- September 1944, and in the last stages of that war, on Soviet demand, Finland also fought “The Lapland War” against Germany between September 1944 - April 1945. Those however, are other stories. American documentary director/writer/producer Ben Strout wanted to make a documentary of this partly forgotten war, when he read and studied its events. He was convinced that this story was worth telling also to a larger audience, and also to Americans, who probably aren´t always that interested in the conflicts or wars that don´t involve their soldiers. Production started rolling in 2003, and “Fire and Ice - The Winter War of Finland and Russia” was a co-production by “MasterWork Media” and “WFYI TV 20”-channel, and most of the funding was from private US sources. The production took the crew (which included both American and Finnish) two times to Finland (in spring 2004, and in winter 2005), and one time to Russia. The documentary was completed in summer 2005, and eventually two versions were released; a 56-minute “TV-version” for the TV-channels, and a 79-minute original “Director´s Cut” - which is included on this DVD. The production was shot in HD-Cam, in 1.78:1. It won "Best Documentary" at the 2006 Minneapolis - St. Paul International Film Festival. In the documentary, director Strout has successfully combined the elements of interviews (from the veterans of the war, historians, and also people from the “homefront”), historical facts (in a form of narration, maps and even animations), and dramatised events (recreations of winter battle scenes in Finland). Original newsreel material is also included, and selected beautiful shots of Finnish nature were a nice touch. “Fire and Ice” gives plenty of good, basic information of the war, and also reveals some aspects that are not that known, probably not to the Finnish people either. At least the interview-segments from John F. "Jack" Hasey, who along with some other Americans formed a voluntary “ambulance unit” that operated in “The Winter War”, is an interesting addition to the documentary, and is building a small bridge between the home country of director Strout and Finland. He also takes time to focus on the Finnish homefront of the war, and especially to “The Lotta Svärd”-organization, which included women doing their part for the war effort. A quick look is obviously taken to some of the biggest battles of the war, which involved e.g. “Battle of Suomussalmi”, and its infamous “road of Raate”, where basically the whole Soviet 44th Division was isolated into smaller groups, and destroyed one by one in this freezing “cauldron battle”. It also takes a peek to the Russian side, e.g. in Karelian Isthmus, which was part of Finland before the war, and still has a special meaning for the older generation of Finns. Generally the production values are in a high level, which means that the cinematography and editing are professionally done, and dramatised segments are also fairly solid work (the documentary also borrows some footage from the biggest Finnish war movie made so far, surprisingly named “Winter War AKA Talvisota (1989)”). The people that lived through the war both at home and at the battlefronts are open and witty personalities based on their interviews, giving plenty of information and their recollections, even a few humorous ones. Being a somewhat outsider to these events has helped Strout to overcome some of the “overly-sentimental” aspects of the war, which sometimes raise their head when Finns are making similar documentaries (you could say that “The Winter War” has some similarities to Finns what e.g. “D-Day” has to French people, “Battle Of Britain” to British people, and “9/11” to Americans). The documentary still touches the viewer in the “right degree”, which is obviously very important with a historical documentary like this one. War is always hell, but there are times when it´s unavoidable. We need to learn more about the reasons and the facts of that dark era of civilization, WWII, and documentaries are always a good way to start. It´s has to be said though, that “Fire and Ice”-documentary is still merely an overview of the war and its events, and from the military point of view it doesn´t go that deep into the different battles and various strategic events that took place during those months. I would recommend to see this documentary first, and then read more detailed information from the different books and online-sources, since alone this doesn´t tell enough. Fortunately the documentary also covers some events before the actual war, and also reveals something from the Soviet side. There are also a few stories in the documentary that didn´t necessarily fit in the general mood. At least I was mildly amused when the old lady talked about the big knives that Finns used in the battle, and of course the “myth” about the frozen bodies (apparently Finnish ski troops were so quick, that a group of Soviet soldiers died where they were - with their throats cut) made me smile. Finns used some inventive tactics during the war, taking the full advantage of cold weather and snow, but they weren´t invisible - nor invincible - men after all. They were just soldiers that did what had to be done - the old phrase of WWII that works in this case also. Now, when Finns and Russians are again friends (have been more or less for over 60 years now - despite the difficult political climate after the war), it´s still good to learn what went on with those bitter and often cold months between 1939-1940. “Fire and Ice - The Winter War of Finland and Russia” sheds some light about the war that was relatively small in scale when it compares to the whole “World War II” battlefront (to that time basically the whole of Europe was in flames, not just Finland), but what is a synonym for “democracy” and “freedom” in Finland. It will be always remembered, no matter how many generations will pass in that country. I personally respect all the veterans of WWII that fought to save our world from Hitler and other lunatics, but still those Finnish veterans of “The Winter War” are the ones that I respect the most. Living in a free country like Finland is my privilege, but I won´t forget those who made it possible.
Video
The documentary is presented in Anamorphic 1.78:1, and looks very good. It´s detailed and crisp, with relatively strong black levels. There are probably glimpses of edge enhancement and the colours are not as strong as they would be in film, but this is still a quite exceptional transfer and shows the advantages of HD cam over DV cam (it´s still downconverted to DVD resolution, but probably shown in “full HD” on some TV-channels). "Single Layer"-disc is coded "R0", and runs 79:45 minutes (NTSC).
Audio
The disc includes two audio tracks, English Dolby Digital 5.1, and English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (with Surround encoding). The tracks are slightly differently mixed, and both have their own advantages. With 5.1-track the audio is spread in the rear channels - also narration and interviews, while in the 2.0-track those elements stay mainly in the front center channel. I personally don´t like when elements like dialogue or narration are spread to the rear channels just for the sake of surround, but then again the documentary has plenty of elements that benefit the 5.1-mix, including a great music score and effects like explosions and other sounds of battle. Still, the 5.1-track sounded a bit rushed and some people might prefer the 2.0-track, also due to the fact that it´s handling Surround-activity rather well on its own. There are “burned-in” subtitles for the Finnish and Russian speaking parts (no voiceovers), but there are no subtitles for the English speaking sections.
Extras
The disc doesn´t include any extras and for some reason even the basic Menu is missing. This is not the end of the world, but a proper Menu would be wise to include for the later (possible) prints of the DVD, and it wouldn´t be a huge task to include some text based extras, since there are plenty of good information (in English) included in the web site that is listed below.
Overall
“Fire and Ice” is a documentary that finds the essence of the “Winter War”, and offers a good way to learn a minor piece of history during the early months of WW2. It´s not a definitive documentary of the war, and it lacks information about the actual battles and more isolated events, but for the newcomers it´s a good way to get a glimpse of what Finns called “the Spirit of the Winter War”. UPDATE: I also received the PAL-version of the documentary, distributed in Finland and Europe through "Karelia Klubi" ([url>http://www.kareliaklubi.com/), where it´s also available for those who want to buy it. It has to be said at the start that it has a running time of 79:50 minutes (PAL), which is roughly the same as the NTSC-time, so this is not a proper NTSC-to-PAL –conversion, and it seemed a bit softer - not much though. There are also some differences with the audio and subtitles. Even though the receiver indicates that the audio is 5.0, it´s actually 2.0 Stereo, and now it has also several subtitles, which can be selected from the language menu: English, Finnish, Swedish, German, French and Russian. Note that the English language parts on the documentary don´t include English subtitles, nor do the Finnish language parts include Finnish subtitles. Like the US-release, this is also coded “R0”. This alternate release gives a good option for many people to enjoy the documentary, since several (optional) subtitles are included. For more info and how to order this DVD, please visit the homepage of the project HERE. This site also gives plenty of good information about the war itself, all in English.
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