Moscow Strikes Back
| Moscow Strikes Back | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by |
Leonid Varlamov Ilya Kopalin |
| Produced by | Central Studio of Newsreels |
| Starring | ordinary soldiers and officers, generals Georgy Zhukov, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Ivan Boldin, Ivan Konev and many others |
| Music by | V. Smirnov |
| Cinematography | Ivan Belyakov, Georgy Bobrov, Theodore Bunimovich, Pavel Kasatkin, Roman Karmen, Anatoly Krylov, Alexey Lebedev, Boris Makaseev, Boris Nebylitsky, Vasily Solovyov, Mikhail Shneiderov, Victor Shtatland, Boris Sher, Alexander Schekutev, Alexander Elbert, Vladimir Eshurin, Pavel Pavlov -Roslyakov |
| Distributed by | Central Studio of Newsreels |
| Release dates | February 23, 1942 |
| Running time | 55 minutes |
| Country | USSR |
| Language | Russian (subtitles) |
Moscow Strikes Back (Russian: Разгром немецких войск под Москвой, "The defeat of the German troops near Moscow") is a Soviet war documentary about the Battle of Moscow made in October 1941 – January 1942, directed by Leonid Varlamov and Ilya Kopalin.
the memories of the film's director Ilya Kopalin
It's been tough, but happy days. Severe, because we made a movie in a front-line city. Basement studio has turned into the apartment where we lived like in casern. At night, we discussed with the cameramen the job for the next day, and in the morning the machine operators took away the cameramen to the front to back in the evening with the footage. The shooting was very heavy. Thirty-degree frost. Freezing and clogged with snow mechanism of movie camera, numbed hands refused to act. There were times when in the car, wihich returned from the front, lay the body of our dead comrade and broken equipment. But the knowledge that the enemy pulls back from Moscow, that collapses the myth of the invincibility of the Nazi armies, gave us strength.
We knew that the film should be created as soon as possible, that the people should as soon as possible to see on the screen the offspring of the first victories of the army. And immediately walked out of the lab material on the editing table. Mounted during the day and at night, in the cold editing rooms without going to the shelter even when air-raid ... At the end of December 1941 mounting of the movie was over. In the great cold hall began dubbing studio. There was the most responsible exciting entry: "Fifth Symphony" by Tchaikovsky. Bright Russian melody, outcry, wailing chords. And on the screen were burned towns, gallows, corpses, and all the way of retreat of fascists revealed signs of violence and barbarism. We listened to music, watched the screen and cried. Cried the musicians, who played with difficulty by frozen hands. (please, correct my translation)
In USSR, the film was awarded the Stalin Prize.
It was one of four winners at the 15th Academy Awards for Best Documentary. It also won the National Board of Review award for best documentary in 1942 and New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best War Fact Film.
The English version cues was written by Albert Maltz and Elliot Paul, and the vocal narration was by Edward G. Robinson. Distributed by Artkino Pictures and Republic Pictures.
External links
Media related to Moscow Battle Parade at Wikimedia Commons
- Moscow Strikes Back at the Internet Movie Database
- Moscow Strikes Back is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
- (Russian) This film on the site of the Iskatel War Archeology Group
- Full film at YouTube.com: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,Part 4