1942: Unknown Battle (2019) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by sillycatmom ★★★★½

  If you like Scary WORLD WAR 2 movies and the Russian Soldiers doing what they do best… you will really like this one. It’s dubbed so it’s got that, but it’s way out there. It’s all snowy too. Fight scenes are brutal. And probably cost less than $25,000 to make , But I watched this cuckoo film. It is no amazing screenplay but its free on TUBI. If you see a lot of soldiers fighting and uniforms are filthy and stained red it’s Russian army. If the uniforms are clean and pressed it’s the other guys!

• Review by G a y a n ★★★★★

  Most Russian World War II movies are great, This is also such a masterpiece, Very adventurous, If you are a fan of Second World War movies, recommend you to watch this.

• Review by Sally ★★

  Ну... Постер красивый , ладно

• Review by Nick Zieminski ★★½

  Solid Red Army actioner highlights conflict among the men and the grunt work in preparing for a firefight. Its decent budget means a high degree of spectacle.

  An intense scene near the end has a Russian stabbing a Nazi over and over, surrounded by burning crosses. It keeps cutting to the crosses. Stab. Cross. Stab. Cross. I don't know how to interpret it - it's a Putin-era movie, after all - but it's visceral filmmaking.

• Review by Tarod 🎬 🍿 ★★★

  Película bélica de principio a fin sobre una de las peores batallas de la II Guerra Mundial, no esta nada mal a nivel de producción aunque después de leer por encima lo que fué esa batalla (una escabachina) creo que se ha quedado corta y a nivel actoral me ha parecido algo amateur, pero a pesar de sus defectos es una buena peli de guerra.

  ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⎮⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

• Review by Luis_989 ★★

  45/100

  Unknown Battle has few things it does well, and these have more to do with its action sequences than with its storytelling.
  It's a real shame because what falls short here is not a desire for greater ambition but a lack of budget and a solid directorial hand.

  The actors are clearly nothing special and I don't really blame them, the script even without getting into the revisionist terrain of real history is merely the excuse of the situation that it provides as a narrative resource, but the rest outside of the shootings is bland and irregular.

  It is nothing catastrophic or disastrous, but it's an anodyne spectacle that does not provoke anything. Not even a feasible emotion.

• Review by jewlenat ★★★★½

  הבהרה חשובה לפני החפירה : אני לא רוסי אני פרסי

  אז בגדול זה סרט שראיתי לפני שנים באיזה אתר מלטזי שהשד יודע מאיפה גיליתי אותו, הייתי אז בקטע של סרטי מלחמה זרים משום מה אני גם לא יודע למה ויצא לי לראות כמה וכמה סרטי מלחמה רוסים (וכן זה לא כולל את "צא וראה" ואני יראה אותו בהזדמנות), ודבר משותף לכולם: איך לא, הם פטריוטים אחושרמוטה.

  כיאה למדינה הדמוקרטית ביותר במזרח אירופה, רוב סרטי המלחמה מפארים את ברית המועצות ואת גיבוריה המסורים והנאמנים, שמלווים במוזיקה בומבסטית וטונות של סלואו מושן (יותר מההודים אפילו), שבדכ מסתיימים באופן טרגי אך הירואי שגורם לקים ג'ונג און לבכות ולאונן בבכי עד שהוא נרדם.

  אבל זה לא המצב עם רז'ב (זה השם של הסרט ברוסית).…

• Review by DNM ★★½

  A strangely, proudly old-fashioned huge-scale patriotic (for Russians) World War II epic featuring a grand battle and – for the most part - naturalist and unsentimental normal-guys-turned-warriors-around-the-canned-sausage scenes. Bloody, loud and at times weirdly distanced and unconvincing; at other times immersive and thrilling. 80 years after the fact, apparently, Russian loathing for Nazi krauts remains undiminished, and why shouldn't it?

  Amusing how WWII movie tropes prove international and timeless; the zek crook = the fast-talking Brooklyn hustler; the tough LT = Aldo Ray and looks and sounds like him, too; the brutal, wise Colonel = Robert Ryan/Henry Fonda and so on.

  Plus a final shot guaranteed to pass muster with Putin, as it proclaims a tattered, invincible Russkie army -…

• Review by jordanbelfort ★★½

  Ich mag ja solche „Gruppe von Soldaten kämpft auf verlorenem Posten gegen eine Übermacht“-Filme und Unknown Battle macht inszenatorisch auch vieles richtig. Insbesondere die Action, der Lichteinsatz und die Kameraarbeit können hier überzeugen. Leider ist der Film nur mäßig spannend, denn auch wenn aufgrund der recht kurzen Laufzeit nahezu nie Langeweile aufkommt, kommt ebenso wenig ein Übermaß an Spannung auf. Auch die Charaktere sind recht austauschbar und belanglos, was letzten Endes dazu führt, dass der Film nur okay ist. Für mich dennoch eine gute Erfahrung, da es ja leider kaum Filme dieser Art aus sowjetischer Sicht gibt.

• Review by The_Fox ★★★

  The meat grinder of Rhzev

  One of the many “unknown battles” in which innocent, good and bad people died horrible deaths, were mutilated, shell-shocked, mentally destroyed… Madness.

  It is realistically made, with lots of blood and gore. Even some German actors playing Germans. Some aspects feel Russian through and through, like some of the philosophical discussions, add to that the Russian style music…

  It does not have the same emotional accessibility like “Private Ryan”, at least for the “Western” audience, but as for the battle frenzy, it is a tough experience. And even within this bloodbath, there are political assholes who are ready to kill for their ideology. This political officer ranks among my favourite “wish he got killed” movie characters.

  It is not more brutal than “Private Ryan”, but the latter was rated “16” while this one is “18”. Can’t explain.

• Review by Kaspar ★★★★

  Pretty Brutal

• Review by JAMR ★★★★

  Cine ruso belico, de lo mejor de los últimos tiempos en este genero.