Goryachiy sneg (1972) User Reviews

Bloodshed on Mishkova River

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 5 June 2010]

In November, 1942, near the Volga, Stanlingrad is under siege of Commander Friederich Paulus and his 330,000 men. The Russian high command unleashes an operation to protect the Mishkova River to avoid that about four hundred tanks join Paulus' army. The Soviet artillery soldiers protect their position with their lives in a bloodshed with few survivors.

"Goryachiy Sneg" a.k.a. "Burning Snow" is a is a Soviet war movie based on one of the bloodiest battles ever. The screenplay is irregular with good battle scenes but a little confused regarding the motivations of the characters specially the leaders of the operation. The romance between Lt. Nikolai Kuznetsov and Nurse Tanya is kind of silly and only a diversion in the lead story. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Neve Ardente" ("Ardent Snow")

Decent Soviet Era War Film

[gordonl56 · 8/10 · 26 May 2015]

Goryachiy sneg (The Hot Snow) 1972

This Soviet era war film tells the tale of the Red Army's defence against the German attempt to relieve the encircled Army at Stalingrad.

The film follows the men of an anti-tank gun battery that is right in the center of the action. We have the standard stock Russian characters, the stoic General, the father like Political Commissar, the thoughtful peasant and the brash new officer. Throw in a female medic and several others and we are set.

Needless to say, being a Soviet film the "save the motherland' speeches are laid on thick and heavy. But these are to be expected and are dropped once the action starts. One thing Soviet film makers had, was, access to plenty of Red Army units and equipment to use as extras. The period detail is pretty good, with a fair sprinkling of decent looking mock-ups of various German armoured vehicles. (The use of hordes of Tiger tanks though is historically wrong. The first Tiger units were at this time just working up in Germany, and had not been committed to the front yet)

Anyways, nitpicking aside, the battle scenes are quite well done, with plenty of oomph and fine pyrotechnics on display. The anti-tank guns are shown firing full load shells with plenty of recoil involved. One seldom sees that in films. The Russians of course manage to slow the German assault enough that the Red Army can arrive to retrieve the situation. The Germans are driven back.

The survivors of the battery are all given medals and vodka for their valiant defence of the position.

This one is worth a look if you are war film buff. One of the things on the plus side is that, unlike some Soviet war epics, it only has a 105 minute runtime.

Soviet Flag Waver

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 27 October 2012]

It's an unfortunate fate of history that people in the West think of the Second World War being won souly by the combined efforts of Britain and America . It says a lot about Western ignorance when the British Prime Minister David Cameron once stated that " We [ The UK ] were Junior partners in the [ Angol-American ] alliance in 1940 " when in fact the USA were still neutral at this point in the Second World War . In reality it was the Soviet Union who made the biggest contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany inflicting over 80% of all German casualties while suffering 30 million war dead . This is something that has been unfortunately forgotten . Perhaps it's down to the fact that it's not so much the victors who rewrite history but patriotic Hollywood producers

HOT SNOW very much resembles a Hollywood production . It's a flag waver but instead of the stars and stripes it's waving a red flag celebrating the Red Army . Nothing wrong with that and it does show the hellish conditions the Soviet fighting man had to endure , not only from the weather and the fascist invaders but also their own side . Unfortunately it does somewhat sugar coat the sometimes brutal methods dished out by the political commissars . For example a tank commander faces summary court martial then for no explanation the commissar changes his mind and allows the commander to redeem himself in battle . Despite its flaws ENEMY AT THE GATES is a much better film for showing the pressure the Soviet army was under from its own side

Despite its simplicity and its lack of character development the battle scenes of HOT SNOW are certainly impressive as artillery crews try to stem a German spearhead thrust in to Stalingrad . In some ways you feel the director has been heavily influenced by the battle scenes of Masaki Kobayashi's THE HUMAN CONDITION as the Tiger tanks cut their way through the Soviet lines . As a testimony of the fighting spirit of the Soviet Union it succeeds in its function but you're left feeling that its only function

WW2 Epic movie

[rinkevich-32652 · 23 November 2020]

A good epic film about young artillerymen, who got into the heat of battle.

Good, but not great Soviet War movie

[Aylmer · 7/10 · 6 August 2007]

These Soviet war epics tend to get awfully frustrating after a while. While the filmmakers have huge, almost limitless resources at their disposal, like lots of vintage tanks, equipment, Red Army personnel, and government cooperation (providing it's propaganda) - narratively, they fail to adhere to basic practices. Usually a good movie does not play all its good cards at once, but these Russian war films tend to run out of steam before the climax even comes, which ends up being either glossed over or over-shadowed by bigger and better battles earlier in the film! This film is a little more patriotic than Sergei Bondarchuk's "They Fought for their Motherland" (1975), which was set a few months prior to this film in essentially the same theater of war. The big difference is this one is set in the winter and follows a much larger division of younger Anti-tankers, these ones armed with artillery instead of just PTRD rifles. While there's more action and less emphasis on mid-battle philosophizing and humanizing, and some laughable attempts to make the Political Commissars look heroic, trust and beloved by their units, this one is surprisingly short and straight-forward.

The Germans attempt the near-hopeless 'Operation Winter Storm' to break out the beleaguered Sixth Army at Stalingrad. Somehow, we're asked to sympathize with the relatively well-armed Russians who are pre-ordained to win no matter what, especially since their resistance was nullified by Zhukov's 'Operation Little Saturn' which hit the German / Italian flanks and forced them to break off the attack (see the movie ATTACK AND RETREAT) which pretty much ended any hope of German victory. The soldiers pretty much just do their job as instructed besides a young lieutenant who goes through a lot of romantic angst with his girlfriend assigned to his command. A few of the main characters are killed by the anonymous Germans, who are never clearly seen save for a P.O.W.

The German tanks however, with fine mock-ups of Panzer IV's, STUG III's, and even a few Tigers, are well-done and numerous, but where's the air suppport?

Stalingrad from the Russian point of view

[searchanddestroy-1 · 7/10 · 6 October 2022]

Useless to say that this movie won't bring exactly the same show, same elements, same kind of directing that you had with German movies, even those made long years after the end of the war. Even three decades later, propaganda proceeds for Soviet industry, as in 1942. Even now, in the 2020's. I admit that the Russians fought with priceless heroism in Stalingrad, and not only, as the Nazis too, Russians have the right to emphasize on this crourage, bravery, sacrifice. They have the right and the burden to pay homage to their elders, as any country who were involved in a war. But, I persist and sign, I did not have the same feeling watching this that I had in Joesph Weismeier's STALINGRAD, the German point of view, or Frank Wisbar's HUNDE, WOLT IHR EWIG LEBEN, which did not show Russians - the enemy - as evil or idiots opponents. But this film is not the worst ever about Stalingrad battler from the Russian point of view. It is gritty, poignant, but only predictable. What else could we expect?

Burning snow on Stalingrad

[Dada_Tonya · 10/10 · 24 February 2003]

Hi !

This film title means "Burning snow" and this is a story of Soviet artillery soldiers who broke German tank divisions' rescue operation for besieged German army in Stalingrad, on account of their own lives.

This is a rare purely combat-focused Soviet film where Stalin and top red army generals are never appeared. Even the commanding red army general on the spot is not named.

In such a sense, this film is a bit closer to American war film which always focused on ordinary individual soldiers. Also camera work on this film is excellent and piling up the scenes to the climax of battle.

Also actor Boris Tokarev showed his excellent play on his roll of Lieutenant Kuznezov and he symbolized feeling of sadness of war without such words from his mouth.

I believe that Boris Tokarev was one of the most favourite soviet actor specially by young females during 1970s.

The battle of Stalingrad from the Russian point of view

[gennadylevitsky · 9/10 · 31 August 2016]

To all those folks who know about battle of Stalingrad from the Beevor's books and movie "Enemy at the Gates" this movie is must. The person who wrote the screenplay himself was artillery officer and participated in the same exact battle this movie depicts. Therefore it very likely that despite of the several shortcomings (like participation of Tiger tanks in the battle) and a little bit of propaganda (like appearance of the political commissar who, unlike stern and often unfair general, always acts humanly) the movie shows the battle the way he saw it himself. As a side note: some primitive people don't understand what the word "propaganda" means and how it works and therefore claim that every Soviet movie is a lie. I am sorry for you.

"Days of Our Lives" in a Russian WW2 movie

[OzMovieWatcher · 4/10 · 28 July 2020]

The acting is so poor. It seemed like there was some Soap Opera backing the war plot. Many scenes were obviously done in a sound stage. While the battle scenes appear very authentic, the acting was a let down as was the authenticity of those nice tidy c;lean uniforms worn in heavy warfare. However, several times I could see the supposed metal armor of the field guns flex when a Russian soldier would lean on it or take hold of it. Obviously plywood. When the guns fired, there was no recoil. Apart from that, battle scenes appeared authentic. The sounds of battle were repetitive and obviously the same acoustic recording played over and over. Explosive sounds were not in sync with the explosions seen.

This movie had a lot more potential and is at the lower end of Russian war movies.

Searchanddestroy-1 and Aylmer and Theo Robertson and OzMovieWatcher, you are completely wrong because you don't know anything at all

[ishashyil · 8/10 · 9 April 2023]

Searchanddestroy-1 and Aylmer and Theo Robertson and OzMovieWatcher, you are completely wrong because you don't know anything at all, firstly, the detachments in the film is good for its time and despite problems with sound during gun recoil and plywood of some tanks, the film is very the battle scenes are well staged, the sound, editing and decoration, the fact that the film shows heroically detachments, there is nothing wrong with that, they often participated in battles and showed themselves worthy there, although the film embellishes them from a pro-Soviet position, but evenly also, some enemy at the gate, on the contrary, falsely demonizes them, presenting an anti-Soviet position, and although the film really has little dramaturgy compared to other Soviet films, it is still present, although the film itself probably was not intended so, it is also incorrect to compare it with the film Stalingrad, it came out in 93 after the collapse of the USSR, and even after that you can remember some kind of enemy at the gates of 2002 and how Soviet soldiers are falsely shown there, and Frank Wisbar's HUNDE, WOLT IHR EWIG LEBEN, of course, is not so anti-Soviet like a doctor from Stalingrad in 1958, but in general, in terms of showing the enemy, he is no different from a Goryachiy sneg and finally, empathy is possible and necessary, since they did not have any superiority, both qualitative and quantitative, and there was no actual small saturn operation at the beginning of the German counteroffensive , the action of which takes place in the film, initially at the beginning of 1943 a large-scale operation Saturn was planned, but due to the start of the German counteroffensive it had to be canceled and then it was redone into Operation Small Saturn and was started after the events of the film and in general the story should not be based on films study.