Fnurban #38: The Reality of Combat Today?

Almost the end of another month, and only two posts here - that needs to be rectified. But a bunch of real life has been happening, hence not so much hobby activity, and not so much to write about. This does not seem to have discouraged the 'bots' whose views of this blog have surged recently - where I typically had 2,000 views per month, in the past 30 days there have been 47,000. Of those, over 90% were from the USA - who knows why?   I gather this has been happening to many other bloggers too, of course - my various ramblings are not uniquely interesting to the AI learning models. Not sure what on earth they can learn from this blog! 

Anyway, as a break from the marchpast of vintage Minifgs 7YW / AWI figures, a quick one about a recent film release which I think should be of interest.

2000 Meters to Andriivka is a documentary portaying the current war in Ukraine,  made during the 2023  Ukrainian 'counter-offensive'.  Distributed by Dogwoof Releasing (a pretty reliable indicator of quality), it was made by Ukranian photojournalist Mstyslav Chernov, who had previously gained attention for his 20 Days in Mariupol, about the Russian attack on that city. 

This film concentrates on the men of the Ukranian army's 3rd Assault Brigade as they try to capture the village of Andriivka, This 'strategic position' is a small road junction settlement - the '2000 Meters' of the title being a narrow corridor of woodland which stretches out from  Ukranian lines to the village. The country around is open land, but inaccessible to the troops because heavily mined by the Russians. There is extensive use of bodycam footage made by the soldiers themselves, as well as filming by the 'embedded' journalists, The introduction is a quite terrifying set of rapidly-moving sequences of high-intensity combats in other locations - you get the participants view of 'suicide drones' crashing into nearby positions ( in which the viewers comrades are hit ) , being inside an APC which breaks down and has to be evacuated under heavy fire, etc.  Then we join the 3rd Assualt Brigade ( in fact only a small sub-unit,  perhaps a platoon )  on their mission at Andriivka, as they gradually traverse that 2000 meters of ground towards their target, and again the ( fantastically high-quality)  bodycam images tell most of the story. 

 

This is essentially a small-unit infantry assault, and the filming method places the viewer completely inside the action, Wierdly it reminded me of the view one gets in 'first-person shoot-em-up' video games, seeing the soldier's personal weapon and the terrain for just a short distance ahead -  but of course this is no game, and the enemy don't obligingly stand up and charge towards the shooter, as in those games. Mostly the defending Russians were invisible to my eye, even as the Ukranian protagonist emptied a magazine in their direction.  The Russian defenders are concealed in dug-outs and foxholes, which have to be cleared one by one,  in a style which has clearly not changed in over 100 years, and would presumably be familiar to Tommy Atkins in the trenches of 1917. Plaster the entrance with suppressive fire, lob in a grenade or two, shout for them to come out with their hands up.   At times this is happening and being filmed from a range of only a few yards, including a sequence in which a Russian does indeed come out,  but does so  lobbing his own grenade.  I found it completely involving, and absolutely terrifying. 

 

But of course this is the 21st Century,  and there is the strangest juxtaposition of 1917 and 2023 - not so far behind the attacking soldiers is the brigade's command post, which frankly looks like the control room of a TV studio, as the commanders look at a bank of multiple monitor screens showing the views from their  reconnaisance drones flying above  the battle. This really does look like a video game, but again is all too real - and bizarrely they can clearly see individual Russians evacuating dugouts and retreating, only yards from the assualt troops - cue frantic shouts over the radio  'they are getting away - get them, get them!'. Everyone is clearly linked by radio at all times, everyone is referred to by call-signs (the enemy is assumed to be listening in, presumably) - a luxury that Tommy Atkins never had. As an aside, I noted that the Ukrainians rarely refer to their enemy as Russians  -  the most common descriptor used is 'motherf***ers'.  

Of course it's a truism that war is 99% boredom and 1% panic, or some variation on that, and there are several sequences filmed as the men wait for something to happen, keeping in cover in trenches and dugouts,  just talking about what they did before the war, how they came to be here, etc. Inevitably, it seems, more than once a voiceover then tells us that the man speaking was killed a few months later. One man is pictured preparing to take part in an assault on the next Russian position, then seemingly minutes later filmed lying dead on the battlefield. The village, over which all this fighting occurs and for which many lives are lost , is reduced to piles of rubble. War - what is it good for? You know the rest of the line. 

I found this both totally engrossing and involving, and unbearably tense and difficult to watch. Of course it must have been reviewed and approved for release by the Ukraine government, so it might be painted as propaganda  ( I hear you, Reg.. )  and perhaps any such work has a propaganda element. But although it inevitably generates sympathy for the (Ukrainian) troops shown fighting and dying, it doesn't by any means  come  across as trying to glorify them. It seemed much more to be just saying 'this is what it's like to be there'. I suspect ( though I can of course never know) that this is the most accurate portrayal of combat that I will ever see. I'm not sure 'enjoy' is the appropriate word, but I am very glad to have seen it. I don't watch any of the standard Hollywood 'Action Thriller' movies where Tom Cruise et al run around manically  between huge explosions that don't seem to harm anyone, but maybe some of the fans of those films should look at this. Maybe I needed to see it, too, in order to get a very strong reminder of what our 'games' are very superficially representing. Lots to think about. 

Perhaps unsurpisingly this film didn't get a hugely wide cinema release (I had to go to the ICA in London, haven't been there for years!), but it may still be around on a few art-house or repetory screens, and of course these days I assume it will be available on streaming services. I presume a DVD and/or Blu-Ray will be available to buy in time, from the Dogwoof site shop at least.   

A couple of related links :(1)   The official Dogwoof website for the film gives you the trailer, if you're interested,  and (2)  Peter Bradshaw's review from The Guardian .. 

Next time, back to the Minifigs vintage figures, I hope. Meanwhile keep well, everyone.