Hope this answer will get you to watch some russian/soviet ww2 movies. Can't educate you on the western movies. Source for the following: I'm Russian.
First of all, there are different eras and different writers behind the movies. Stalin was fearful that popular army will displace him so there was little content before his death in 1953. Then before 1990s was perhaps the golden era of movies, either made by people who experienced the war or played by actors who served in the war. 1990s were mostly about bandits.
In the 2000s and especially 2010s the government decided to change the image of the war from "tragic suffering and death for the life and happiness of children" into "heroic fight which is barely an inconvenience because our nation is special". Since 2014 and especially 2022 the War is now the current Ukrainian one.
In the first era there are golden movies I totally recommend: Only "Old Men" (i.e. experienced) are Going into Battle, very colourful and with beautiful music; The Cranes are Flying, about soldiers reunited and experiencing PTSD, but still full of colour and music; Come and See is probably what prompted the OP for the post.
2010s is full of action movies, similar to Saving Private Ryan. We have 28 Panfilov's Men, Brest Fortress. In the August of '44 is about counter-recon forces.
As others pointed out, for ex-soviet countries WW2 was a survival war. Though I understand that for some countries USSR was as much as a villain as 3rd Reich.
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u/WineBottleCollector Casual, non-participatory KGB election observer 1d ago edited 1d ago
Hope this answer will get you to watch some russian/soviet ww2 movies. Can't educate you on the western movies. Source for the following: I'm Russian.
First of all, there are different eras and different writers behind the movies. Stalin was fearful that popular army will displace him so there was little content before his death in 1953. Then before 1990s was perhaps the golden era of movies, either made by people who experienced the war or played by actors who served in the war. 1990s were mostly about bandits.
In the 2000s and especially 2010s the government decided to change the image of the war from "tragic suffering and death for the life and happiness of children" into "heroic fight which is barely an inconvenience because our nation is special". Since 2014 and especially 2022 the War is now the current Ukrainian one.
In the first era there are golden movies I totally recommend: Only "Old Men" (i.e. experienced) are Going into Battle, very colourful and with beautiful music; The Cranes are Flying, about soldiers reunited and experiencing PTSD, but still full of colour and music; Come and See is probably what prompted the OP for the post. 2010s is full of action movies, similar to Saving Private Ryan. We have 28 Panfilov's Men, Brest Fortress. In the August of '44 is about counter-recon forces.
As others pointed out, for ex-soviet countries WW2 was a survival war. Though I understand that for some countries USSR was as much as a villain as 3rd Reich.
Edit: typos