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Pretty Good

Excellent but underrated film

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I liked this movie. However I do not understand people who rank it as a masterpiece. This is an ordinary war movie. Not bad but nothing else. Hovewer it has really funny moments which will make you laugh, for instance Finnish soldier pierced by a dozen of bullets was not only still alive but was able to run and fight. Or a booby trap made of a black powder with such a primitive fuse that was obsolete I think in 16 century. Or a bunch of Finns who assaulted and kicked asses of an entire Russian battalion in a Rambo style. Sorry to say that but it was not very pleasant for me to look how my fellow countrymen were represented in this masterpiece. The stone age barbarians must have had better and cleaner cabins then "Russa". It was laughable for me but almost all my friends who watched this film felt a little bit offended. As a conclusion: I am glad that I watched it but saved my money and didn't buy DVD. Peace.

I thought that this would finally be THE Finnish war film, but I guess I was wrong... Well, this ain't that bad, it just takes a few wrong turns. The biggest problems being a certain lack of "honesty" for example: what's that running tall in the woods when you got a zillion bullets flying! In a situation like that you stay the F. down! Now that, of course is not that heroic and exciting to watch, but that's what happened for real. And the problem with all Finnish movies is a serious lack of talent from the director. Every time I'm watching a Finnish war or an action movie I get this feeling of a guy shivering in the director's chair thinking "what am I goinna do next? what am I gonna do next? I hope they don't ask me 'cause I'm on a major director's block here!" so he bails out using something he's seen in an AMERICAN movie! So in the middle of serious situations we get these hilarious out-of-its-place-scenes like soldiers running in the woods dodging bullets. Or in "Talvisota", a punchline after a russian POW commits suicide with a grenade, or a Finnish soldier getting shot, spurting blood, still firing a short burst and then dying. Tsk, tsk, looks like we're only good at making comedy-dramas for young adults ("levottomat", "minä ja Morrison", "nousukausi"...)"Rukajärven tie" delivers, but it's only "okay". And if you consider the material... would PLEASE a major Hollywood-studio pick the Winter War and the Continuation War for a movie?? The situation is a gem (although not back then...): the odds for russians were like a 1.000 to 1 and in Winter war it was FREEEZING cold, down to minus 40 C! And talk about being in between a tree and a hard shell - we HAD to choose either Adolf's or Stalin's side.Just one thing- make it talky, with the eXtra dry Finnish humour.

"Rukajärven Tie" is set in the opening stages of the "Continuation War." In 1941, the Finns sought to take advantage of the German invasion of the Soviet Union to seize back--with interest--the territory the Soviets had captured from Finland in the Winter War of 1939-40. The main protagonist is Eero Perkola, a subaltern commanding a platoon of Finnish bicycle infantry which is participating in the invasion. Once in Russia, Perkola is surprised to run into his fiancée, Kaarina, whom he thought to be safe in Helsinki, but who has joined the women's auxiliaries. Perkola requests his battalion commander to transfer the auxiliaries away from the front. The battalion commander agrees, but asks Perkola to take on a special mission in return; Perkola's platoon is to reconnoitre forward of a gap in the Finnish lines to ensure the Soviets are not preparing to counter-attack in that sector.This puts "Rukajärven Tie" into the "Lost Patrol" (as in the 1934 John ford film) category of war movies: a small unit making its way through hostile territory, harassed by groups of hostile fighters. Of course, this film is about Finns. It helps to have some knowledge of the historical situation to comprehend this film, but it's not vital. The soldiers do not see the war as some "crusade against godless communism," they're looking for payback, and while ideological differences within the unit are touched upon, the Russians (note: the Russians, not the Soviets) are clearly the common enemy, and the bitterness (in varying degrees) of the Finnish soldiers is clearly evident. War movies of this kind depend on suspense rather than spectacle, and this film has suspense in spades.The soundtrack contributes to the highly evocative atmosphere in the movie, from the excellent musical score to the buzzing of mosquitoes whenever the action takes place near any body of water. Otherwise, this film is an anorak wargamer's delight, featuring weapons very rarely seen in war movies (such as an SVT-40 Tokarev rifle in the hands of a Russian sergeant, and several Lahti-Saloranta M26 light machineguns), bicycle-mounted infantry (ubiquitous in many early 20th-century armies, but rarely seen in movies), and displaying the highly informal nature of the Finnish armed forces (the only salute in the film is a mark of respect, not of regulations). Incongruously, the platoon behaves amateurishly on occasion, e.g. bunching up while exposed to possible enemy machinegun fire, etc. but this is a minor distraction.This film has almost everything most people could ask for; sex, violence and though the plot is a little thin in places, there's lots of character development to make up for it. I loved it.

This movie has gathered huge crowds in Finland, but as an outsider with only a superficial grasp of Finnish history you loose a lot of the points.Focusing on a small Finnish bicycle unit as they penetrate into Russian held territory in 1941 the film has a lot of poetic moments and a high degree of tension in some scenes. Just seeing combat from a Finnish perspective is interesting for anyone brought up on mainstream American war tales, but there are problems...As said in another comment, there is a lack of realism in the unit tactics displayed and some fighting scenes are ridiculous (especially the last unnecessary heroic showdown). Given that the soldiers portrayed are veterans of the Winter War they do *not* act sensible.Well, that might be a minor point had it attempted a more thorough investigation of the motives of the soldiers and the inherent conflicts that must arise given the situation. Instead it centers on a banal lovestory as seen many times before in Northern European films. Mandatory nakedness, melancholia and a touch og golden light is the name of the game. Argh!For those of you that don't know, Finland was an ally of Germany at this point, though they probably had no other choice, and the fighting in this film is not heroically defensive, but offensive. Nationalist sentiment was high at this point and just a tiny bit racist, ala the German kind. Had it more explicitly discussed these topics and the views of the soldiers in the unit, it might be more interesting for a foreign audience and in the end more balanced.Instead it avoids discussing if there was a real need for the Continuation War and the huge drains it made on Finland. There are attempts at portraying conflicts among soldiers of different background, but no more.As it goes it's mainly a crowd pleaser for the Finnish audience, showing that war is hell, love triumphs and the Finns were heroic, after all (which they were, but was it worth the losses?).