The Command

The Command is drowning in an obviously endlessly cut post-production hell where there's no time for practically anything, so the character roles are either melodramatic, expositional, or agents of righteous popular anger, without giving us a chance to lick anything real out of any of them. The sequences with the clucking wives in particular sound almost funny in their attempt to somehow smuggle female characters into the overall story, who in all three scenes gradually don't find out what happened to their husbands. But according to the film's stills from scenes that aren't in the film at all (see gallery), far more importance was probably attached to their relationship with each other and their subsequent desperate inability to act. One thing is rather unique about The Command, though. Namely, that we're watching heroes who find themselves in a situation familiar from many other films that we're used to seeing them overcome in the name of a happy ending and our reward for the suspense. The scenes from inside the submarine have exactly the same character and development as all other scenes of this type, except that we know from the beginning that it's not going to end well and everyone is going to die. Yet we experience the same situations, great sacrifices, and unimpressive heroics that, if it had ended well, would have underscored their importance in preserving the characters of the protagonists. Of course, the feeling of holding your breath in the underwater sequences with the hero trying to pull an unconscious friend above the surface, even though you know they have only a few hours to live anyway, doesn't really inspire suspense so much as it teaches a lesson about the power of self-preservation in the face of an imminent and complete end. Self-preservation that no one will ever know about, but which gives meaning to existence until its last moment. (04/16/2019)

A European drama about supra-multinational theme. It is true that if it was filmed by the Russians or if the actors were speaking Russian the movie would get a new dimension and it would definitely add some authenticity. On the other hand, I would be afraid that the story might end up as one big demagogy so eventually Thomas Vinterberg is for me the ideal choice. Not only he filmed the movie in a quite good way, the movie even featured some of the best European actors and therefore it was worth watching. That’s good enough for me. It doesn’t make you feel as suffocated as Das boot might and the number of explosions and special effects is lesser than if this film had been filmed by the Americans. On the other hand, there is a greater emphasis on relationships and the story line of Léa Seydoux is literally amazing. Not to mention what happened in the submarine. (09/16/2019)

I remember the TV coverage of the disaster and the film captures it faithfully, including the injection of a sedative to one of the distraught mothers. Anyway, one thing is clear from the film: if something similar happened to any of the NATO armies that the local Putin trolls spit on as much as they can, their leadership might break ranks to save these boys. But the Russian military leadership has a different yardstick, the ‘there’s plenty of us’ rule. In Russia, human life has never been worth anything, ever since the Battle of Stalingrad, when they deployed young unarmed boys to the front lines with firing squads at their backs. As Papa Stalin used to say: “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.” Russia, a land of unlimited possibilities... (06/02/2019)

We haven’t had this good of a submarine film since K-19. It's 100% impressive depressing drama... Especially when it gives the sailors and their families little hope that everything can turn out good after all. And you wish for it with them. However, probably every viewer knows how the events really played out, and that's why those scenes are so strong. Admittedly, I didn't expect much from The Command, but I ended up sitting in the movie theatre and not moving, filled with tension and feeling pretty miserable during the end credits. It is shot great (the directing and camera use the claustrophobic environment to the maximum and, for example, the quest for oxygen is unforgettable), Alexander Desplat's music did not disappoint and for me, the unknown actors - Colin Firth or Max von Sydow - give very believable performances. (01/18/2019)

The sailor characters could have been further developed other than through clichéd family ties to their wives and children, but the admirals on the surface richly compensate for that with their varied motivations and political backgrounds. Colin Firth is as well suited to the captain character as Tom Hanks. Not to mention the communist Soviet admiral played by Max von Sidow, who turns in a goosebump-inducing performance. The casting in general is very well done here; I hadn’t realised until now how much Schoenaerts and Seydoux have “Russian faces”. But what I appreciate most about Kursk is its thematic balance and complexity. To the same extent that Kursk is about the tragedy of men under water, it is also about the political conflict above the surface and the absurdity of the Soviets’ approach to the event. It’s about a rotten system that betrayed its own people because of false ideas. The second Chernobyl in 14 years. The film gains its key value from the skirting of the story through a young boy, the son of one of the submariners, and his understanding of the situation and his reaction to it. (01/06/2021)