RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Seraherrera The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

WakenPayne I agree in saying it's nothing on the original.One thing I will compliment this movie on is one thing it's criticized for - the fact it was hand-held camera. There is almost no shaky movements within the whole movie - for a fact there is only one shot out of the whole movie that really bothered me.This movie also seems like it is a movie too reliant on showing realistic war violence (a previous reviewer from the Finnish army actually said it's realistic war violence) rather than telling a story - which the original tried to do.For recreations of some of the scenes in this there are sometimes when the reenactments of the original were just the same others when it was worse and there was only one scene out of the whole thing that I thought was reenacted better than the original - The scene where the medic truck was bombed - because of the previous scene where you see wounded soldiers cry out in pain and then you see it being bombed by Russians, Mollberg only made that scene better executed than the one made 30 years prior.In this movie they don't humanize the Russians like in Talvisota but this time they don't really portray the Finns as good kind-hearted saints, there is a bit in the movie where a Finn shoots a Russian soldier taken prisoner.Overall: Decent remake - so that means it's a better remake than most.

Petri Pelkonen Edvin Laine did it first and brought Väinö Linna's Tuntematon Sotilas to the big screen.The year was 1955.Tuntematon Sotilas (1985) is directed by Rauni Mollberg.Linna's novel is a classic, which I read last year.And so is the first version of the novel.They show it on every Independence Day (Dec 6) here in Finland.This year, that marked the 94th anniversary of our country, made no exception.I didn't watch it this year, but instead I borrowed this new version from the library.The cast consists of some known names, and there are also a lot of amateur actors.The more known names are Risto Tuorila (Koskela), Pirkka-Pekka Petelius (Hietanen), Paavo Liski (Rokka), Pertti Koivula (Lahtinen), Kari Väänänen (Lammio), Veikko Tiitinen (Kaarna), Risto Salmi (Korpela) and Yrjö Parjanne (Colonel).This doesn't get too close to the original.The 1980's war between Finland and Russia differs pretty much from the 1950's version of it.The battle scenes look good, but what I missed was the humor of the first movie.There's some, but it's not very funny.Even though it's war, it doesn't have to be so serious.Often, in horrendous situations, such as war, humor is the way to cope with it.The original is a classic, this is just a decent war movie.

figaro8 I'm writing this 19 years after I saw Mollberg's Unknown Soldier in Helsinki's Bristol Theatre. However, seeing the original 1955 film somewhat recently, and being comparative to the Väinö Linna historical novel, it raised memories of that 1985 rendition. Mollberg certainly made a far superior film as far as cinematography and aesthetic realism is concerned. He used a familiar technique of confusion in combat by utilizing the cameraman on foot, and running. Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan had these effects in 1998, but I'm not insinuating that Rauni Mollberg invented it. Perhaps Elem Klimov in "Come and See" (Soviet Union, 1985) had these stylistic effects. That USSR film, in my opinion, is the most anti-war film ever made. As far as Finnish war films, I would recommend "Talvisota" (Winter War)(1989), and "Täällä Pohjantähdenalla" (Here Under the North Star)(1968), with a sequel in 1971 titled "Akseli ja Elina". These last three are indicative of the tragedy of the Finnish Civil War, and WW2, and how they affected not only a family, but various social classes of society in Finland. This phenomenon of class hatred exists today in Finland.Rauni Mollberg's 1985 version of the Unknown Soldier also included this biased left-wing attitude towards the soldiers, but especially officers of the Russo-Finnish wars. Essentially, in the theatre and film world of 1970's and 1980's Finland, one had to be the figurative "Communist." Fortunately that has changed since, at least a bit.Having rambled, "Unknown Soldier" (1985) and the aforementioned film reviews, really only interest certain film historians, as well as historians of Soviet-Finnish politics. I hope that I gave you some insight.Respectfully, Timppa

kuikka This film is based on Väinö Linna's novel "Unknown soldier", but the style of the movie differs dramatically from the style of the book. Linna tells his story with bitter black humour and he has war heroes, Koskela & Rokka for example. Mollberg's version has neither heroes nor humour. Instead his movie is starred by blood and terror. Linna awakens, Mollberg silences.In the genre of war movies Mollberg's work is right on top, it has both artistic and realistic merits, for instance The bridge over the River Kwai lacks the latter. The way Mollberg shows his characters is, however, little too straightforward; Everyone is described thru one mental quality, Lehto is always cynical etc. The mythic silence that surrounds Koskela grows to the astronomical. On the other hand Mollberg succeeds in filming the fear and anger.The greatest finnish film ever made.