Paradox Soldiers

It is quite often the case that you see a film without knowing a great deal about it as there is only a small synopsis, a couple of quotes and maybe a mention of the main actors names. Sometimes this works out well as you go to the cinema not expecting very much and are completely sideswiped by a brilliant film or it could work out very badly as you end up watching a film that bears almost no resemblance to your expectations. In the case of Paradox Soldiers, the press release didn't mention that this was a sequel to a Russian film that hasn't been distributed in the UK!

This film revolves around the ferocious fighting at Brody in the Ukraine over eight days between July 14 and 22, 1944. Whilst most of the attention and knowledge of the fighting in this period will probably involve the German siege of Stalingrad, there was a huge battle that did much to influence the outcome of the war and the differing attitudes towards the Nazis and Ukrainians fighting against the Russians (as part of the Galician SS). As part of the drive to rid the Soviet Union of the Nazi army, Russian commander Marshall Konev took his huge army and, using a 'divide and conquer' strategy, encircled 45,000 German troops, cutting them into small sections which Konev hoped would lead to an easy victory. It didn't. Whereas some German units succumbed to the frequent and prolonged assaults by the Russian forces, others attempted to break through the Soviet wall. One of the few groups that succeeded was the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division, part of the Galician SS.

Anyway, on to Paradox Soldiers or, to give it its original name, My iz budushchego 2 which begins with people from across Russia and former Soviet states descending on a field in the Ukraine for a re-enactment of one of the most bloody and important campaigns of World War II. Two of these men are friends from the University of Lvov with one, Sergey, being a professor who specialises in the battles on the Eastern Front whilst his friend, Oleg Vasiliev, is a scholar and treasure hunter (referred to in the film as a 'Seeker') who has come along to see what he can find on the battlefield.

These two men encounter another couple of guys from Moscow and tensions immediately flare between them, trading insults before trading blows. It took me a while to figure out exactly why there was so much interest in a photograph from World War II of a nurse but it becomes clear that the Ukrainians had been back to 1942 before with one of them becoming romantically linked with a nurse, Nina, who he believed was killed in an explosion. Looking closely at the photograph, he notices that part of her uniform wasn't issued until 1943 which means that she can't have died in the trenches a year earlier.


Just as the re-enactment is getting under way, the four men find themselves in 1944 and are immediately in trouble because the two Muscovites aren't wearing the correct uniforms. It is now up to Sergey to use his knowledge of the campaign to talk his way out of trouble and try and convince members of the counter intelligence unit that the Germans will not come from the area in which they are expected, but from somewhere else so the Russians need to realign their defences and move their guns. He gets off to a rocky start by trying to convince his captors of what is going on that day and he is who he claims to be but is unfortunately rumbled when one of the Russian soldiers casually moves over to the calendar and corrects it by tearing off three days!

Just as this disparate group should be bonding together, they find their allegiances tearing them apart as Ukrainians naturally bond with the partisans who sided with the Germans and killed Communists whereas the Russians are staunchly behind the army and find their own socialist politics coming to the fore. If this weren't enough, Sergey locates Nina, now pregnant with a Russian general's child, and tries to get her out of harm's way and to a quiet farmhouse in the country.

Although it took a bit of figuring out to realise who was who and what the back story was involving Sergey and Nina, this turned out to be an extremely watchable and fascinating film. It helps that I love time travel movies, with one of my favourite childhood films being (don't laugh) Biggles as I thought the idea of someone from the beginning of the 20th century arriving in the 1980s and trying to fit in was brilliant, as was the scene when he goes back in time flying helicopter over the World War I trenches.


Whilst not a great film, Paradox Soldiers is certainly one that keeps you occupied and involved for the running time as you wonder when the protagonists will be taken back to the present day, if they live long enough to go forwards in time, and what it will be like given that they have interfered with the past, changing the whole space-time continuum. I knew it wouldn't be like Treehouse of Horror V in The Simpsons in which Homer accidentally turns a toaster into a time machine and constantly finds himself back amongst the dinosaurs where he tries his best not to change anything but ends up making the future a very different place, especially when it comes to donuts!

This is a fairly well written and directed film with decent performances by the entire cast and with exceptional battle scenes with great attention to detail in order to recreate 1944 on what I imagine was a very limited budget. Oddly, it seems as if this was banned in the Ukraine and the only reason that comes to mind is the film's depiction of the Galician SS which, the opening section remind you, was comprised of Ukrainian volunteers.


The Disc

The Picture
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the film looks extremely good with excellent detail, colours and contrast levels and, although there are several instances of aliasing, the general impression is of one that has been extremely well shot and transferred to DVD.

When it comes to the scenes in 1944, it looks as if there has been a great deal of research as the wardrobe, make-up and other elements of the art department have done a superb job recreating the look and feel of World War II. As for the battle scenes, they aren't quite up there with the likes of Saving Private Ryan or any other multi-million dollar films or TV series but they are still extremely well photographed with tanks, flamethrowers and automatic weapons being used throughout.


The Sound
This is the sort of film that would benefit immensely from a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track so it is slightly peculiar that the only soundtrack is a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo Russian one. The definition is excellent and the dialogue is crystal clear. You do lose out of it when it comes to the combat sequences as it really would benefit from the added bass and directional sound that a 5.1 track would provide but, if you set your amplifier to Pro Logic II, the simulated rear channel helps to immerse you in events.

I don't speak more than half a dozen words of Russian so I really couldn't tell you how faithful the burnt in subtitles are to the dialogue but they are easy to read against the background and are generally free from grammatical and typographical errors.


Final Thoughts
Paradox Soldiers is a very watchable and just above average war film with the sort of premise that I could imagine working extremely well in an episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits but actually works very well in something that is twice that length without any periods where it drags or you just want it to move along.

It is well worth watching although it is a shame that the disc is completely vanilla with the main menu only giving you the options to play the movie or select a scene. If you like science fiction and adventure films then perhaps a rental is the way to go before committing to buy.