Before anyone can judge this movie, PLEASE take the time to consider others comments.
Well I personally love the movie dearly. It is in my blood, literally. A few years back my mother and I were invited to see this film at the Finnish Embassy in Ottawa. My mother being a Finlander thought this would be an interesting movie. We both very much enjoyed it and were dually haunted by this film. When my mother went back to Finland the other year to visit relatives with her mother, they discovered the true significance of this movie. It turns out that this movie is actually about my mothers grandfather. So my great grandfather and really as I loved this movie, it is a real understatement to what happened to him during the war. His real name was Perkkola Savinainen and the movie hardly shows his real escapades, or even his friendship to the Fin President, Mannerhaim. Even after the war, of what happened to my family, having to escape into Sweden to escape from being shipped to Siberia. This movie is honestly I believe a very very excellent movie and I will never forget it. Liisa Savinainen Mountain
I wrote the above comment in 2006 and as I have recently read through some of the comments, which I had not done before, I noticed that many people questioned the story and it's liability. PLEASE read other comments before you judge this movie, for it is a true story, again based on my great grandfather. I would really appreciate anyone not dismissing the plausibility of the story. The real events of that war are beyond the tellings of a movie. If anyone would truly like to know how he died, was from given the wrong blood years later after the war. He had been shot through the head, then skied it was about 50 miles, then received the transfusion of the wrong type.
I do understand that this movie is one of events that people don't really believe and yes I do find it is an understatement. I have several pictures from his tasks during the war.
It must be remembered that in Finnish history, the suffered many wars between both Russia and Sweden, the Germans and others. The Finns didn't support the Nazis but if your country is forced to defend themselves, and there was scarce any money for weapons.. The Germans did abuse the Finns, as many were sent to Italy. The numbers the Finns faced against the Russians sometimes were 20-1 and not in the Finns favour. War truly is a hard thing, and this movie tried to show something that had happened that many didn't know of.
Perhaps other readers may understand that it was not necessarily the wish of my family to have everything played over for us again. My grandfather and great uncle were in his platoon that were featured in the movie, though the names and relations were changed, I was able to watch them fight and suffer just like I was actually there.
