They Fought for Their Country (Oni srazhalis' za Rodinu, sometimes translated as "They Fought for Their Land/Motherland"), is a 1975 film from the Soviet Union directed by Sergei Bondarchuk.
July, 1942, southern Russia, Great Patriotic War. The Soviets are in headlong retreat, hoping to reach a city called Stalingrad where they can rest and re-form. The story focuses on one particular squadron, of a regiment that finds itself tasked with making repeated rear guard stands to slow down the Germans, while the rest of the Red Army retreats. The three soldiers who get the most attention are: Piotr, a cheerful Lothario who tends to look for local women to seduce whenever the unit stops for a rest; Ivan (played by Bondarchuk), who used to drive a combine on a farm; and Nikolay (Vyacheslav Tikhonov), who is still depressed about the ex-wife who left him on the first day of the war.
The film follows the unit as they make repeated stands in an effort to delay the Nazis from crossing the Don River. Scenes of broad comedy are mixed with scenes of harrowing combat.
Vasily Shukshin
, a well-known author and filmmaker who stars as Piotr, died suddenly of a heart attack at age 45 before production had finished, but there do not appear to be any story gaps or use of a Fake Shemp.
Tropes:
- And the Adventure Continues: The last scene shows the squad standing on a hilltop watching the rest of the army passing below. Someone comments that they're headed to Stalingrad. The regiment's hammer-and-sickle flag of the USSR is unfurled for the first time, and the movie ends.
- As You Know: Piotr tells a morose Nikolay to cheer up, which gives Nikolay a chance to explain to him and the audience what's been happening: "We've been on the march for five days. We'll soon reach the Don River and then Stalingrad. Germans smashed our regiment."
- Blade-of-Grass Cut: The first shot of the film is a closeup shot of purple flowers growing in dry, rocky soil. There are also closeups of wheat growing in a field, followed by Ivan musing about what a pity it is to abandon/destroy so much bounty.
- Blood from the Mouth: How the film demonstrates that Kochetygov, who has been shot during a German attack, is dead.
- Camp Cook: Lisichenko is the squadron's cook. When Piotr sees Lisichenko digging a foxhole in the front line with the rest of the men, Lisichenko says they can't be expected to hold out without him, then brags about the sheep and cabbage he was able to steal and will make into borscht after the battle is over.
- The Casanova: Piotr, who can't stop talking about women and looks for sex whenever the unit gets a rest. He has hopes of seducing an unseen nurse. He almost gets sex with a milkmaid before the men are suddenly pressed into combat. Towards the end he tries to seduce a stern-looking farm woman, with disastrous results.
- Last Breath Bullet: A Last Breath Molotov Cocktail from Kochetygov, who is shot as the Germans attack but succeeds in lighting and throwing his Molotov cocktail onto a German tank before he dies.
- Molotov Cocktail: A dying Kochetygov manages to light and throw a Molotov cocktail, which destroys a German tank.
- Old Soldier: Poprischenko, the grizzled veteran who at the funeral for the lieutenant tells the others that he's way older than any of them and that this is his fourth war. (The others presumably being World War I, the Russian Civil War, and the 1939-40 Winter War with Finland.)
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Literally with Nikolay at the end. When Nikolay makes his return to the regiment after having been taken to the hospital, he is revealed to now be deaf, after a German shell exploded by his foxhole. Not only that, he now talks with a terrible stammer, and his head and hands twitch uncontrollably. He breaks down crying once while telling Piotr what happened. Despite all that he came back to his Band of Brothers anyway.
- Shell-Shock Silence: After a German shell goes off right by Nikolay's foxhole, the next shot, with a dazed Nikolay trying to recover and fire his machine gun as the enemy approaches, plays out in silence. The ending reveals why: the shell blast rendered Nikolay deaf.
- Tank Goodness: The men often find themselves digging rifle pits and engaging in combat against German tanks. The first battle scene starts with an eerie shot of a whole line of German talks coming over a row of hills in front of the squad.
- Unusual Euphemism: Piotr is sent to get some milk from a local farm. He gets all handsy with the milkmaid, a heavyset woman named Glasha. She shoves him away and tells him to stop grabbing at her because they have to bring the milk to the rest of the soldiers. Then she looks straight at him and says with a very meaningful tone, "And butter you can have afterwards." Piotr never gets the chance to have his "butter" as the Germans show up.
- Video Credits: The opening credits play over a scene of the unit marching along, with the credit for each actor playing over a closeup of that actor as he marches.
