Rating: 
Summary: Great Guy's Movie!
Review: I give this film 5 stars not so much for its storyline or plot (which is virtually non-existant) but for its attempt to show a little known conflict. The combat scenes in this movie are intense. The waves of Soviet infantrymen throwing themselves upon the Mannerheim line gives the viewer a good idea what it must have been like for the Finns. The production value of this film is superb. Those are authentic Soviet T-26 light tanks, and early Yak Fighters. Again, don't look at this movie if you want to see a human interest story or standard plot. The intent of this work is docu-drama. The film accurately shows what the Finns did to resist the Soviet onslaught of 1939-40. There is not much character development here, pretty much all the Finns look like another, but what you see is a gritty determination of a small nation to defend itself against Stalin's tyranny. In the end of course the Finns had to make unfortunate concessions, but few modern wars show a more inspiring image of a small determined people fighting for their survival. This film is worth looking at for its marvalous combat scenes, equippment, and sheer grit. This is certainly a guys movie par excellenece. If you are inspired by it you should read the fine recent history of the conflcit entitled "A Frozen Hell"
Rating:
Summary: Great Guy's Movie!
Review: I give this film 5 stars not so much for its storyline or plot (which is virtually non-existant) but for its attempt to show a little known conflict. The combat scenes in this movie are intense. The waves of Soviet infantrymen throwing themselves upon the Mannerheim line gives the viewer a good idea what it must have been like for the Finns. The production value of this film is superb. Those are authentic Soviet T-26 light tanks, and early Yak Fighters. Again, don't look at this movie if you want to see a human interest story or standard plot. The intent of this work is docu-drama. The film accurately shows what the Finns did to resist the Soviet onslaught of 1939-40. There is not much character development here, pretty much all the Finns look like another, but what you see is a gritty determination of a small nation to defend itself against Stalin's tyranny. In the end of course the Finns had to make unfortunate concessions, but few modern wars show a more inspiring image of a small determined people fighting for their survival. This film is worth looking at for its marvalous combat scenes, equippment, and sheer grit. This is certainly a guys movie par excellenece. If you are inspired by it you should read the fine recent history of the conflcit entitled "A Frozen Hell"
Rating:
Summary: SIMPLY THE BEST WAR FILM EVER, BAR NONE!
Review: I saw this at a film festival years ago, expecting little, and was just awed by it's unembellished view of war. I've since seen it again on video and this has only reinforced the fact that in the years since, having seen many, many other documentaries and war films, this still remains the best. Superb characterisation, pace, and tight directing. Never short of action; it doesn't ever become maudlin, boring, or jingoistic. The Actors are regular people, just like the soldiers who fought in this War; and the desperation and determination of tiny Finland holding back Russia is palpable and made utterly and frighteningly credible.
Many have tried to make the "definitive" war movie, but none have succeeded like this Director with this Film! Peckinpah comes close with "Cross Of Iron". Purely and simply a benchmark for War films, and a Masterpiece of filmmaking.
Rating:
Summary: Original Film Was Oscar Worthy, DVD Is Cut In Half
Review: I wanted badly to purchase this DVD. However, the DVD running time is only 125 minutes. The film, when released, ran 3 hours and 16 minutes!!! That translates to 196 minutes. I am not surprised that this DVD has collected some very negative reviews here. It is missing an hour of content!!! I am now off on a search for an uncut version. I still have a Los Angeles Times review of this film from December 8, 1989 (when it arrived as Finland's official Oscar submission) written by Kevin Thomas who marvels at "a classic war picture, at once intimate and epic, majestic and numbing."
Rating: 
Summary: Only for the most forgiving viewer
Review: I've seen many, many war movies over the years, and as much as I was looking forward to this one, The Winter War turned out to be one of the worst war films I've ever seen. This film does have two important things going for it: it's one of the only movies about this conflict that you're likely to see, and it features extensive and graphic big-budget combat scenes. The movie pulls no punches about the nastiness of war. Unfortunately, this film has so many huge problems that it can only be recommended to extremely forgiving viewers with a particular interest in this conflict. First of all, the story is remarkably flimsy; it's really just a very loose framework on which to hang a bunch of numbingly repetitive battle scenes. Some grognards (fanatical war buffs, basically) rave about this movie because of its battle scenes. Sure, they're graphic and have lots of explosions, but when they're so poorly written, directed, and edited, who cares? Don't expect to find anything as masterly filmed or emotionally intense as the openings of Saving Private Ryan or Enemy at the Gates, for example. Meanwhile, characters, themes, and plot twists are never fleshed out or are simply nonexistent. Just as bad, the directing and editing are literally some of the worst I've ever seen in a feature film: jerky or downright incoherent cuts between shots and scenes are more the norm than the exception. These affect not merely the combat scenes, but the whole film. The Winter War looks downright amateurish much of the time. (Other reviewers claim that much material has been deleted for this DVD release, and it sure looks that way!) Also, the acting is merely acceptable here, which makes it that much harder to care about any of the characters and whether they live or die. On top of that, the subtitles are poorly handled: they're littered with grammatical and spelling errors. Finally, the DVD transfer looks like it came from some third-generation video tape. If you're looking for a modern, realistic WWII film on DVD, you'd do far better with the Band of Brothers miniseries, Saving Private Ryan, Das Boot, The Thin Red Line, Stalingrad, or Enemy at the Gates, for example. Those all feature far better writing, acting, direction, editing, and/or cinematography. Those are films that both grognards and film buffs can enjoy. For those who just want to gawk at some early-war Soviet tanks and trench warfare, The Winter War might be of interest, but that sure doesn't make it a good film. Hopefully the film will be released properly some day, so we can judge the real thing instead of this mess of a movie.
Rating:
Summary: Commenting on Previous Review
Review: Indeed! When the Soviet juggernaut attacked tiny Finland, democracy itself was under attack. And the United States and Britain stood by and pledged "moral support"! Shame, shame on us and all the reason to obtain this little known film and watch it with our heads hung low. Just a correction though. Finnish males between the ages of 17 and 25 are required to serve 6-11 months. Nobody is actually required to keep guns and the gun control laws in Finland are relatively strict. But if guns were ever needed in the hands of law-abiding citizens, that was the time. See this movie!
Rating:
Summary: The Best War Movie after Tuntematon Sotilas
Review: It's simply a very realistic movie. Portraying war and individual emotions to the extent that you feel it to the bone. Showing the Finns mentality that they would not give an inch and even would die to rescue their horse from being left behind to be eaten by the Russians. No Holywood stunts or un-realistic effects that plague most if not all movies originated in the USA.
There is only one war movie I like better and that is the black & white movie Tuntematon Sotilas (Unknown Soldier) and perhaps the color recast that was released a few years ago.
Rating: 
Summary: Rough Little Diamond
Review: Never been to war; don't want to go to war but for some reason I don't mind watching war. This is a truly good look at the horror of battle.
Set in 1939 an out manned and out gunned Finland is facing invasion by its big bully neighbor the Soviet Union. Perhaps this is one of the appeals. The common struggling man on the farm takes up arms to defend country and a way of life. I was sucked in to the determination and fear that the characters were feeling.
Pekka Parikka's portrayal of battle was brutal and very believable. Man against man, man against tank, hand to hand, in trenches, artillery bursts, strafing from the air, this movie has it all.
And beyond the action we see a relative calm sadness at home. We see the families broken, returning wounded, and the funerals.
Very nice film for a war voyeur. Well done.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Story, Lousy VHS Tape and unfortunately DVD
Review: The story of Finland's resistance and stalemate against Russia is a true story and the film does justice to the story. Unfortunately, the quality of the VHS tape is terrible - fuzzy, grainy,distorted. Like the poor quality you would get from a multiple generation copied home video that was the final copy of all the generational copies made (copy of a copy of a copy, etc.). What is really unfortunate is the DVD is equally bad, apparently just a DVD copy of the already bad VHS tape. The Belle & Blade Studios who market the VHS/DVD did a real dis-service to everyone who buys the product. The action scenes and story line is above average and at times can be truly gut-wrenching. The sub-titles are frequently in rather bad or garbled English (the film is in Finnish)and were obviously translated by a person who had poor command of the English language. The sub-titles cannot be disabled as they are part of the film. I just wish the VHS/DVD copy was better in quality - I can put up with the sub-titles.
Rating:
Summary: Good Story, Lousy VHS Tape and unfortunately DVD
Review: The story of Finland's resistance and stalemate against Russia is a true story and the film does justice to the story. Unfortunately, the quality of the VHS tape is terrible - fuzzy, grainy,distorted. Like the poor quality you would get from a multiple generation copied home video that was the final copy of all the generational copies made (copy of a copy of a copy, etc.). What is really unfortunate is the DVD is equally bad, apparently just a DVD copy of the already bad VHS tape. The Belle & Blade Studios who market the VHS/DVD did a real dis-service to everyone who buys the product. The action scenes and story line is above average and at times can be truly gut-wrenching. The sub-titles are frequently in rather bad or garbled English (the film is in Finnish)and were obviously translated by a person who had poor command of the English language. The sub-titles cannot be disabled as they are part of the film. I just wish the VHS/DVD copy was better in quality - I can put up with the sub-titles.
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