T-34 (film)

T-34 (Russian: Т-34) is a 2019 Russian war film directed by Aleksey Sidorov. The title references the T-34, a World War II-era Soviet medium tank used during the invasion of the Soviet Union. The film narrates the life of Nikolai Ivushkin, a tank commander who gets captured by the Nazis. Three years later, he begins to plan his ultimate escape, alongside his newly-recruited tank crew.[3][4] It stars Alexander Petrov as Nikolay Ivushkin, with Viktor Dobronravov, Irina Starshenbaum, Anton Bogdanov, Yuriy Borisov, Semyon Treskunov and Artyom Bystrov.[5][6][7]

T-34
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAleksey Sidorov
Produced by
  • Ruben Dishdishyan
  • Anton Zlatopolskiy
  • Len Blavatnik
  • Nelly Yaralova
  • Nikita Mikhalkov
  • Leonid Vereshchagin
  • Yuliya Ivanova
  • Nikolay Larionov
Written byAleksey Sidorov
Starring
Music by
  • Vadim Maevskiy
  • Aleksandr Turkunov
  • Ivan Burlyaev
  • Dmitriy Noskov
CinematographyMikhail Milashin
Edited by
  • Dmitry Korabelnikov
Production
company
Mars Media Entertainment
Amedia
Burnish Creative
Welldone Production
Distributed byCentral Partnership
Release date
  • January 1, 2019 (2019-01-01) (Russia)
Running time
139 minutes
CountryRussia
LanguageRussian
Budget₽600 million
(US$10,000,000)
Box office₽2 billion[1]
(US$32,496,903)[2]

T-34 was released in Russia by Central Partnership on January 1, 2019 and for hire converted into IMAX format. The film was released to generally positive reviews,[8] with critics praising the production quality and visual effects.[9][10] It was successful commercially, grossing 2.2 billion rubles (about $32 million), against a production budget of 600 million rubles, after a week in cinemas. It is in second place on Russia's biggest blockbusters list with over 8.5 million viewers and 2 billion rubles, and is currently the second-highest grossing Russian film of all time, behind Going Vertical

Plot

In December 1941, just outside Moscow, Junior Lieutenant Nikolay Ivushkin (Alexander Petrov) is driving a ramshackle truck and trailer with a young Red Army private beside him. A German Panzer III tank pops over a hill and blocks their way. They maneuver skillfully and escape unscathed. Nikolay takes command of a damaged T-34 tank whose commander was killed. He and his new crew try to delay the Germans' advance. They withstand withering fire. Their T-34 survives many hits as they take out many German Panzers. By the end of the battle, most of the Russian defenders have been killed. With half his own tank crew dead, Lieutenant Ivushkin and driver Stepan Vasilyonok are captured.

Three years later, Standartenführer Klaus Jäger (Vinzenz Kiefer) — who was the German tank commander Ivushkin fought back in 1941 — is sent to a concentration camp by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler to pick out a Soviet POW tank crew that will be used for training the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. Jäger recognizes that Nikolay is one of the POWs. Jäger wants to use Nikolay so that his novice German tankers can face a real up-to-date T-34 tank handled by a veteran Russian crew. The Nazi gets the camp interpreter, Anya (Irina Starshenbaum), to convince Nikolay to accept the idea. Nikolay agrees reluctantly after Jäger threatens to kill Anya.

Nikolay picks out three other tankers from ranks of the POWs – driver Vasilyonok, loader Serafim Ionov, and gunner Demyan Volchok -- to crew a T-34/85 that the Germans just captured. At first the men resist, thinking Nikolay is a traitor and collaborator. The Germans first order the Soviet tankers to clear out the rotting and burned bodies from the captured T-34. As they remove the bodies, they unexpectedly find 4 armor-piercing and 2 high-explosive shells. They ask permission to bury their comrades. They hide the ammunition on the bodies of the dead. The Russians bury them — and the live shells — under a pile of rocks on the edge of the new tank training range. As the men repair the captured T-34, Nikolay develops a bond with Anya. Later the Soviet POW crew is allowed outside the POW camp into the tank training area. They go directly back to the rock pile and uncover the six live projectiles.

Back at the camp, Standartenführer Jäger gives a presentation to officers of the German high command, extolling the virtues of his upcoming realistic training exercise. Not trusting the Soviet tankers, the Germans lay land mines all around the edges of the training grounds to prevent their escape. They also limit the fuel put in the T-34. Anya sneaks into Jäger's office and steals maps so that the Soviet tankers can escape to Czechoslovakia. She then walks out of the POW camp, using a pass, and waits at a bus stop with some German women.

The training exercise begins. The Germans watch as their novice tanks advance on the supposedly "unarmed" T-34/85. The Soviets set a fire to make a thick smoke screen to mask their movements. The Russians destroy the first German tank. They quickly move nearer to the German officers' high observation tower and fire a high-explosive round. This kills most of the Nazis present. Jäger and general Heinz Guderian narrowly escape. The T-34 boldly breaks out of the camp's main gate, avoiding the German minefield. On the way out, they drive their tank over many Nazi generals' staff cars. The Russians rejoice. The tankers then pick up Anya at the bus stop outside the camp. They realize they are deep inside German-held territory and plot a course to bring them back to the Red Army's lines. In the first town they come to, Nikolay and his hungry crew find badly needed fuel, new clothing, and fresh food. They burn their ragged prisoner clothes as they drive out of town. The Germans scramble to figure out how to locate and recapture the T-34.

Before dawn, knowing that the Germans will be hunting them, Nikolay puts Anya out of their tank and tells her to make her way east on foot through the forests. The Soviets drive on towards the mountain pass into Czechoslovakia.

Jäger meanwhile takes to the sky in a Fieseler Storch to find Nikolay's T-34. He then takes command of four German Panther tanks and sets up an ambush in a small town.

Still in the dark, the T-34 enters the town and stumbles into the platoon of German tanks. Nikolay, through cunning, disposes of one Nazi tank. He then sends out Volchok, armed only with a grenade, to take over one of the other Panzers. Driver Vasilyonok crashes their T-34 through building walls before unexpectedly colliding with one of the other Panzers. The Russians manually turn their damaged turret and get a shot off just as the Germans are about to fire. Unfortunately Jäger has arrived on the scene and he lines up his Panther to destroy Nikolay. However, Volchok manages to fire a shell out of the German tank he just captured. Jäger's tank is damaged, but he quickly disposes of the captured Panzer, badly wounding Volchok.

Both Jäger and Nikolay emerge from the cupolas of their tanks. Jäger throws down his glove, inviting Nikolay to a duel. Nikolay asks for 5 minutes to pick up his wounded comrade. Both tanks then move outside the town and face off over a narrow bridge with high arches. Jäger fires one shot at the front of the T-34. The German's shell does not penetrate because spare tracks add to the thickness of frontal armor. Jäger begins lining up a second shot at the T-34's tracks. Nikolay aims for the weakest spot on the Panther: the driver's vision port. Both shots hit their intended targets, and driver Vasilyonok rams the German tank hard, pushing it to the edge of the bridge. The Panther is left hanging dangerously, and Jäger crawls out an escape hatch just as Nikolay clambers out of his T-34. Jäger shouts for Nikolay to shoot him, but Nikolay offers his foe mercy. Jäger extends his hand asking to help him to get out of the falling German tank. The two officers clasp hands. Nikolay pulls Jäger helping him to escape. But then Jäger pulls Nikolay back. Nikolay is puzzled. Jäger is still fighting and his cunning smile confirmed that. He wants to take Nikolay together with him. Then his smile changes to hopelessness. Jäger as a good soldier fought Nikolay till the very last second and now the fight is over and he can't win anymore. But he prefers death than surrender. Jäger shakes Nikolay's hand in respect, and then lets go. Seconds later, Nikolay watches the German plunge to his death as his tank falls into the deep gorge below.

The crew reunites with Anya, whom Nikolay had told the night before to meet them in a large meadow outside the town.

Cast
  • Alexander Petrov as Nikolay Ivushkin, junior lieutenant
  • Vinzenz Kiefer as SS-Standartenführer Klaus Jäger
  • Viktor Dobronravov as Stepan Vasilyonok
  • Irina Starshenbaum as Anya Yartseva, translator
  • Yuriy Borisov as Serafim Ionov, tankman-artillery
  • Anton Bogdanov as Demyan Volchok, tankman-machine gunner
  • Pyotr Skvortsov as Lykov
  • Semyon Treskunov as Vasiliy Teterya
  • Guram Bablishvili as Gabuliya, tarshina, commander of the infantry
  • Danila Rassomakhin as Vasechkin
  • Artyom Bystrov as Korin, captain
  • Joshua Grothe as Thielicke
  • Mike Davies as Generalinspekteur der Panzertruppe Heinz Guderian
  • Igor Khripunov as Lapikov
  • Robinson Reichel as Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler
  • Yaroslav Shtefanov as Makeev, machine-gunner
  • Anton Shurtsov as Chief of Staff
  • Aleksandra Torgushnikova as Vasilyonok's Wife
  • Danil Tyabin as Radio Operator
  • Christoph Urban as Schlozer
  • Aleksey Ushakov as Telephonist
  • Vladimir Vinogradov as Refueller
  • Polina Volkova as Daughter of the Mistress
  • Alexandr Zaporozhets as Petya

Production

Development

On September 10, 2015, it was announced that the Mars Media film company would start production of the high-budget war action drama T-34.[11][12] Later, producer Leonard Blavatnik, an investor, owner of Amedia and Warner Music Studios, joined the project and chose this film from a large number of proposals, which was also due to personal motives (victory in the Great Patriotic War is part of family history, producer’s grandfather is a front-line soldier), and other reasons - the best young artists, a first-class film crew and the successful experience of a partner, Mars Media, and personally Ruben Dishdishyan.[13][14]

Filming

The shooting process of T-34 started on 23 February and continued for 61 days. Some scenes were shot in Moscow, Kaluga and Moscow regions, others in the Czech Republic, Prague, Kačina (library), Loket (Sokolov District), Rudolfinum and Terezin. For the picture, more than 25 scale sceneries were built, among them a Russian village and a prisoner of war camp. Five military-historical consultants took part in the making of the film.

Pre-production

In the film, several real T-34 tanks were remade and updated for the film. The film also showed several Nazi and Soviet cars, such as SD.KFZ. 251. The Panther tank with Zimmerit paste were made from T-55 tanks distinguishable from the five large wheels.

Production designer Konstantin Pagutin spent a whole month building an entire village in a field near the village of Starlkowka, Kluj County, although the houses were destroyed at the beginning of the film, each one was designed in its own particular style, including hand-picked decorations and props.

Release

The film was scheduled to be released on December 27, 2018 in cinemas, but instead the picture was released on January 1, 2019, five days later than the planned date, distributors such as the Central Partnership and for rental converted to IMAX format.

Marketing

T-34 premiered at Comic-Con Russia 2018, the most attended Russian festival of pop culture, which took place in Moscow from 4 to 7 in October and once again beat attendance records, was held by the Central Partnership company.[15]

Reception

Box office

On the first day of release, the Russian box office amounted to 111,335,337 rubles.

Critical response

The film received mixed, mixed ratings. According to the aggregator “Criticism” - 5.5 / 10 (based on 26 reviews).

Some publications after the publication of the trailer[16] and the premiere of the film wrote about the similarity of the story with the plot of the Soviet war film The Lark (1965 film), noting that T-34 cannot be considered a remake of The Lark: both the and the method of presentation, and the general outline of the narrative, and the ending of these two paintings are very different.[17]

According to film critic Anton Dolin (ru), the authors made a high-budget military blockbuster, almost clearing it of the propaganda and ideological component: «The film about the Great Patriotic War successfully managed without patriotic propaganda». The creators do not pretend that the T-34 is a picture of real events, at its core it is «a pure fantasy adapted for teenagers». The critic notes the schematic plot and the weak study of the characters' characters. «This is exemplary fearlessness, this programmatic heroism is a little embarrassing. At first, you don’t understand what. And then you remember what T-34 is building up its genealogy: for Soviet films about the war. In the best of them, the adversaries were not the Germans, as here, but the war as such. In Fate of a Man, Ivan's Childhood, The Cranes Are Flying, Ballad of a Soldier, and Trial on the Road, for all the differences, there was one conceptual similarity: they showed how a person retains his humanity through the desire for peace and memory about him. The space T-34 is arranged fundamentally different. It is given to a total never-ending war in which comforting simplicity reigns: there are ours, there are enemies, and enemies must be beaten to a victorious end. Without pain and bitterness, with excitement and frenzy of the players of the computer championship».

Browser "Novaya Gazeta" Larisa Malyukova reflects on the role of tanks in modern Russian cinema. Sidorov took into account the shortcomings of the «tank» films of 2018 Tankers (film) and Tanks (ru): «In his picture, the propaganda itch was partly tamed by uncomplicated adventures and vigorous battles, seasoned with humor, and reddened by love bliss». Like Dolin, Malyukova compares the film with Soviet films on a military theme: «In those films, the Faulkner idea was beating with a living pulse: one cannot come from a war as a winner. They were aware of the global catastrophe, which was for our people the Second World War. In the latest domestic cinema war, one cannot find the author's point of view. Instead of resorting to myth, mythologization of history. Instead of the anti-war spirit - the motto is “We can repeat it!”, A call to achievement. Instead of a brutal clever enemy - solid idiots. The romanticization of war, the feeling of the ease of victory covers the screen».[18]

The critic Valery Kichin (ru) writes in Rossiyskaya Gazeta that one cannot form an idea of what the Great Patriotic War is in reality: «According to the plot, this is a legend like Bumbarash or The Elusive Avengers, in style - a script for a computer game called T-34. That is, spectacles are primarily spectacular and gambling». The dashing adventurous plot, the conditional situation of the action, the peculiar beauty even in the process of destruction - «yes, this is a movie about the feat of arms of the very folk hero who, as you know, rides, rides, doesn't whistle, but doesn’t let him go. And the authors, undoubtedly, were inspired by the style of the battle quest: they use game techniques that are well-known to the modern viewer, and the wonderful feeling that the characters have several lives in stock accompanies the entire film. And the actors here are not so much playing as playing: at the moments of the most implausible plot somersaults, a sly spark of cheerful excitement slips in their eyes. This sincerity removes all claims: people who went through a real front removed military classics, now people with combat experience in the quest have come, they have different skills and ideas about the war».[19]

Evgeny Bazhenov, a video blogger and columnist for Russian YouTube films, (known by his pseudonym BadComedian) criticized the film in its video review. According to the observer, the film is historically unreliable and justifies Nazism, concentration camps in the film are shown harmless, and SS Klaus is shown as almost a positive character, which rather offends the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War than perpetuates it. ( on YouTube)

See also

References
  1. Box Office, Russian Cinema Fund
  2. "T-34 (2018)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  3. "Т-34, 2019" [T-34 (2019)] (in Russian). Kinoafisha.Info.
  4. "T-34". VokrugTV.
  5. "Фильм "Т-34" занял второе место по сборам в истории российского проката" [The film T-34 took second place in the fees in the history of Russian hire] (in Russian). RIA Novosti. January 29, 2019.
  6. "«Т-34» ворвался в исторический прокатный топ" ["Т-34" burst into historic rolling top] (in Russian). Gazeta.Ru. January 29, 2019.
  7. Surepin, Sergey (January 28, 2019). ""Т-34" стал вторым после "Движения вверх" по сборам в истории российского кино" ["Т-34" became the second after the "Going Vertical" in the fees in the history of Russian cinema] (in Russian). Life (news agency, Russia).
  8. "Т-34". KinoPoisk.
  9. "T-34". Kritikanstvo.
  10. "T-34". MegaCritic.
  11. "Рубен Дишдишян спродюсирует высокобюджетную военную экшн-драму «Т-34»" [Ruben Dishdishyan will produce the T-34 high-budget war action drama] (in Russian). ProfiCinema. September 11, 2015.
  12. "Режиссер фильма «Бой с тенью» снимет военную драму «Т-34»" [The director of the film Shadowboxing will remove the military drama T-34]. THR Russia (in Russian). September 10, 2015.
  13. "Леонард Блаватник и голливудский продюсер и режиссёр Бретт Рэтнер выступили в Российском павильоне в Канне" [Leonard Blavatnik and Hollywood producer and director Brett Ratner performed at the Russian pavilion in Cannes] (in Russian). Moskovskij Komsomolets. May 25, 2017.
  14. Robert, Mitchell (May 19, 2017). "Cannes: Roskino Unveils New Russian Epic Furious (2017 film), War Film T-34". Variety.
  15. "«Т-34» приедет на Comic Con Russia 2018" [T-34 will arrive at Comic-Con Russia 2018]. THR Russia (in Russian). September 26, 2018.
  16. Aldokhin, Denis (May 31, 2016). "Танк Т-34 нарушил законы физики в трейлере российского патриотического фильма" [The T-34 tank violated the laws of physics in the trailer for the Russian patriotic film]. Tut.By (in Russian).
  17. Gordeeva, Aleksandra (December 31, 2018). "Гладиаторские бои на танках: в прокат выходит приключенческий фильм «Т-34»" [Gladiator fights on tanks: the adventure film T-34 is released]. RT (in Russian).
  18. Malyukova, Larisa (January 11, 2019). "Главный герой Нового года — танк" [The main character of the New Year is a tank]. Novaya Gazeta (in Russian).
  19. Kichin, Valery (December 25, 2018). "Неуловимые мстители" [Elusive Avengers]. Rossiyskaya Gazeta (in Russian).
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