History Film / BattleOfMoscow

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Early on in the first film, Hitler is seen saying that Moscow is one of the priority targets for Operation Barbarossa, In fact, he never intended for it to be during the initial stages of planning, fearing that his army would suffer the same fate as Napoleon's when he invaded in 1812. Hitler would change his mind after the fall of Kiev, but by that time, winter was only a month away.

* {{Narrator}}: Creator/VyacheslavTikhonov, a big star in Soviet cinema of the era (most famously as Strelitz in [[Film/SeventeenMomentsOfSpring]]), provides narration, sometimes exposition and sometimes comments about the ultimate fates of characters in the film.

''Battle of Moscow'' (Битва за Москву) is a 1985 Soviet, German, Czechoslovak, and Vietnamese film by Yuri Ozerov about the successful heroic defense of Moscow from Nazi attack in the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Great Patriotic War]]. The film was released in two parts by the Soviet film studio Mosfilm, who also produced Sergei Bondarchuk's adaptation of ''[[War and Peace Film/WarAndPeace1966]]''. The films consist of:

''Battle of Moscow'' (Битва за Москву) is a 1985 Soviet, German, Czechoslovak, and Vietnamese film by Yuri Ozerov about the successful heroic defense of Moscow from Nazi attack in the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Great Patriotic War]]. The film was released in two parts, as seen below:

The films can be viewed free, on YouTube, via MosFilm's official channel:
* ''Aggression'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceRHLKJCWTM Part One]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fej6wUe0mEw Part Two]]
* ''Typhoon'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNxckympMp4 Part One]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBYy8n-DK8M Part Two]]

** The last part of the film also depicts "Panfilov's 28 guardsmen", the legendary story of a unit of 28 soldiers who were killed to the last man, but not before they took out some twenty German tanks. This story was first reported while the battle was still going on, and eventually became one of the most popular stories of the Great Patriotic War; there's a big monument where it supposedly happened. It was eventually revealed to be a complete fabrication.

* {{Narrator}}: Creator/VyacheslavTikhonov, a big star in Russian cinema of the era, provides narration, sometimes exposition and sometimes comments about the ultimate fates of characters in the film.

* TanksButNoTanks: T-34-85 and Panzer IV F2[=/=]G tanks appear prominently in the movie. Both weren't used until 1944 and 1942, respectively. Granted, finding enough pre-85 T-34 tanks wasn't easy.
* TankGoodness: Panzers versus T-34 tanks.

'''Film I: Aggression'''

'''Part 1'''

'''Part 2'''

'''Film II: Typhoon'''

'''Part 1'''

'''Part 2'''

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Many, many characters, as required for a BattleEpic that recounts Operation Barbarossa. The two dictators, their command staffs, partisans, spies, lots of characters.

%%* MoreDakka
%%* HollywoodHistory

%%* SceneryGorn
%%* SceneryPorn

%%* SkywardScream
%%* SnowMeansDeath

%%* WarIsHell

* CrowdSong
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiC_72bN1Mg Tanya, Tanyusha]]." It's a morale-boosting song about a soldier's special girl, sung by the Podolsk cadets as they march off to battle.
%%** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLEWl3i3e_4 Sacred War]]."

* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: The film states that the defenders of Brest held out for 29 days, which is a myth, although Major Gavrilov did in fact hide in the fortress for a month until he surrendered. In fact, Russian resistance at Brest ended after a week with the surrender of most of what was left of the garrison.

%%* BigDamnHeroes

%%* CrowdSong
%%** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiC_72bN1Mg Tanya, Tanyusha]]."

%%* FourStarBadass: Zhukov, Panfilov, Rokossovksy, Rakutin, Shaposhnikov....

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Stalin. No mention is made of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which was Stalin's green light to Hitler to start the war. There is a passing reference to the "original border" which fails to explain that the Russians had a new border because they had entered into an alliance with Hitler and absorbed eastern Poland and the Baltics--which wound up backfiring when the Germans attacked less than two years later, when the Soviets still hadn't had time to finish their fortifications. And his decision to attempt to hold Kiev is portrayed as a costly but necessary delaying tactic, when in fact it was simply a catastrophic blunder, leading to the worst Russian defeat of the war.

* NewMeat: The Podolsk cadets, boys in their late teens. Word comes that the Germans have broken through the front, taken Yukhnov, and are on the high road to Moscow. With absolutely no reserves available to meet the threat, the Soviets take the cadets of the Podolsk military school and send them straight into combat.

* HistoryRepeats: Everyone is struck with this thought when the Germans and Russians meet on the field of Borodino, where the French and Russians fought a huge battle in 1812. A German general says this very phrase to his men, mentioning how in 1812 they took Moscow, but ''not'' mentioning how that invasion ended in disaster anyway.