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I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I vividly recall when watching the opening minutes of "Saving Private Ryan", the incredible feeling of being a part of the actual scenario of carnage rather than a mere viewer of an excellent war movie. One almost felt the need to duck the firepower, so realistic was the sight and sound of battle.A similar feeling was created by viewing this movie about the destruction of the Brest fortress, except here, the bombardment by the invading Germans was staggeringly relentless. The production values of this movie are indeed exceptional, and despite the usual whines from war buffs about the armaments used or the procedure of attack depicted (these pedants are such a pain!) the realism is captured as well as in any war film I have seen. Such is the detail of mangled and bloodied bodies, one almost needs a second viewing to appreciate the attention given to every scene.An extraordinary depiction of the futility of war and man's inhumanity to man.

Every nation has their sacred topics, for Russians, this is Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, and as a result, more than 27 000 000 people were killed, and thus it is almost not possible to touch this topic with almost a slighter hint of doubt or criticism. The war caused a huge array of war movies made in the former USSR, as well as modern Russia. Many were great, many were just banal, mediocre efforts. The Brest Fortress is a 2010 work, and it introduces many famous contemporary Russian actors, and the budget is very big. As a result, a very tragic, deep, heavy, dark and merciless film was made. It depicts first week of the war in June 1941, and it shows deeply tragic fates of Fortress defenders. Apart from obvious inaccuracies or goofs, there are huge and impressive battle scenes with many great moments. But the feeling of deja vu and seeing an old Soviet propaganda film does not leave us here. Well done, but with very obvious touches of pro-Soviet sentiments

In its way, this is as good as Enemy at the Gates, and I know there is criticism of that film in Russia, but it still helps people in the West understand the heroism and contribution of the peoples of the former Soviet Union in our Allied Victory over Nazism.It is far better than the film Stalingrad which seems all too sympathetic to the Germans.I design military history boardgames - wargames - and most of them are about the Russian Front in World War 2 ... the Great Patriotic War, as it is known to the Russians (and Belorussians and ....) (Most of my games are free to print off and play, on my webpages.) There are wargamers in Volgograd/Stalingrad, and one of them has told me that the 6 year old little brother of his grandmother was taken away by the Germans to be drained of his blood for transfusions - murdered - something I had once thought was exaggeration and/or propaganda. As Omer Bartov has described, even the non-SS German Army was a pack of monsters, in the East.The film is unsparing in portraying the hopelessness but heroism of the initially unprepared Brest Fortress garrison. And I hadn't realized their families had been murdered by the Nazis a couple years after they had been allowed to come out and surrender.I was astonished by the accurate German Mark III panzers/tanks. (Were these actual reconstructions?) I was surprised and impressed that the Jewish commissar Fomin was portrayed so positively, as antagonistic as Israel and its supporters have been toward the Russians and Belorussians.Everyone in the West should see this film to better understand what the Russians, Poles, and other Eastern peoples went through, during World War 2. The world is a much better place, when we are working with the peoples of the East as former allies and friends, instead of against them.Lou Coatney

That this film was commissioned to mark the anniversary of the events portrayed in it might not sound that promising. That it was commissioned by the Belarusian government, widely considered "the last dictatorship in Europe," mightn't either. And promising it wasn't, when I sat down to watch what I thought would be just another war flick. Boy, was I wrong...Say what you want about the Eastern front in WWII, but if there has ever been a battle for survival, that was it: in spite of their government, and in spite of having contributed themselves to starting the war (there is another excellent film, "Katyń," about that issue), Soviet citizens really did fight heroically for their land against an enemy who wanted them wiped off the face of the earth. Acts of heroism are countless, and there are many stories of dedication from that grim period that are almost incredible.Had this film approached more "general" (that is, political) issues, it might have not really been that great. Yes, the Soviet government was just as responsible for the colossal defeat in the Summer of '41 than the Germans (perhaps more, since they were supposed to defend their people). Yes, that land used to be, until 1939, Polish; but the film blissfully leaves those issues (which are hinted, if briefly, clearly enough at the beginning) aside and rather concentrates on the facts of that summer.The men and women who were abandoned to their doom took their fate with admirable conscience and great courage, and this, thankfully enough, is represented by the filmmakers with great respect and honesty: while a lesser director might have butchered the project with cheap sentimentality or a "that's what we'd all do" message -or with grotesque sanitizing and sanctification- director Aleksandr Kott chose to let the facts speak for themselves, and let people's decisions describe them.An important note on "Brest Fortress" (and a sign of great rigour and mastery) is that we, as audience, are not moved to say: "Yeah, that's what I would do if I were him." It is a quite relevant feature of modern war films, but think about it: do you really know what to do? What would you do if you had absolutely no hope of either you or your loved ones getting out of here alive? It really takes nerve to answer honestly to that question, and the film, both in its clear and profound screenplay and in its powerful images (the dirt, the violence and the hunger are portrayed as realistically and skillfully as ever), does make you say: "I don't know if I could muster such courage myself." It's quite an achievement for an artist.And it's quite a tribute to the dead.