I watched the film having in mind well known facts how Stalin and his commanders treated people and soldiers in particular. What seems unbelievable to reviewers, i.e. the option granted to the kids by the government: "go on to get killed or we shall kill you", was in fact a common practice in the Soviet Army (and in the political system as the whole) KGB troops that followed soldiers on the battle field during hopeless attacks, only to kill each soldier who would try to withdraw, go slower than ordered, dodge the bullets etc. (and soldiers were aware of that!) was a regular scenario of many, then famous, battles for which Stalin's generals were decorated with kilograms of medals! In this film the difference lies only in that the "choice" was given to kids rather than to men who were forced to serve in the army, after all. Of course, I am talking about the core of the situation portrayed in the film and not arguing that whole plot from start to end is in each detail totally believable.I am surprised to find so many reviewers who firmly state that the Soviets could not use children in this way. From the military point of view it is not necessarily unbelievable: just study the history of antifascist underground armies in Poland and elsewhere, where kids (with their innocent look and presumable lack of skills) occurred clever enough to vitally help many sabotage actions, and you'll find how naive some presumptions presented here may occur.I am perplexed to read that the Stalin's regime was not that bad as it may seem based on this movie. Gulags, KGB secret actions, great starvation of the 30s that took 30 mln lives only to silent and eliminate a population of people who were resisting the regime and were not submissive enough to allow Stalin to get them deprived of their own land (farms) and many more facts are unknown, have been forgotten or are we witnessing a kind of common amnesia? A concept much more believable to me would be that the whole advertising noise about the movie was well scheduled only to invoke a "reverse reaction", i.e. "public" claim in Russia and particularly in the free world that "Stalin was not that bad". Too twisted or too clever? No, oppressive regimes have always been more clever than systems based on civilized standards. I hope we'll not be forced to try and experience whether this statement is true or not.As a former tutor in a correction house for juvenile criminals I find the movie psychologically very believable. I liked that the film showed a human dimension of people in a totally inhuman world. Professional features of the movie did not, in my opinion, give raise to any serious criticism and I found some scenes done perfectly. It's definitely not a movie for people whose perception was shaped and is embedded in today's Hollywood standards. Thanks for your attention and patience (if any) to read my review until the last dot.

On the box Bastards (its English title) was billed as the Russian Battle Royal. Actually this is closer to the Dirty Dozen with kids. The premise of the story, which is at least based in some truth, is that during the Second World War the Soviets took the kids they arrested with Capital crimes and gave them a choice be shot or atone with blood, ie. take on suicide missions (something the Soviets really gave their criminals). They are brought to a mountain top training facility where they are trained by military men, some of whom are in equally dire circumstances. The film follows some of the boys and some of the trainers. Its an often nasty look at the cost of war, and of the soviets. Its clear that the boys are not afraid of anything, at least until faced with death because of some things they've done. The fear is used to some extent by their trainers who execute anyone who doesn't do what they are suppose to or in one case kill another boy they owe money to. The film mostly concerns the training but in the late stages we watch as several boys are sent out on a mission and their trainers, who now view the boys as sons, wait to see if they will return. This is a good little film. The film for the most part is all about the characters and thats where the film scores. The kids are the right amount of cocky and fearful.The adults are nicely tough, loving and bewildered. Its a good mix. The action when it happens is good. If there is a flaw its that the film is too breezy at 97 minutes which left me wanting to see more of many scenes at the training camp. That said the film is worth a look.

In the process of watching this "war drama" you feel like vomiting - so bad is the movie. Boring, embarrassing, dull, made by people with a total absence of talent. Moreover, the movie is totally embarrassing for our country and our people. Millions of soviet people died during the WWII, and now those, who survived and won can do absolutely nothing to a fact, that they, their battle comrades, the whole nation - all is mixed with sh*t. Why do we make such movies? Is there nothing about the war to be filmed? There are lots of stories to be told, lots of heroes to be shown. Why inventing a story, that has never happened? Damn this movie!!

Recently I have noticed that the Russians began to make very good movies – and Svolochi is for sure one of them. The action is really moving – while the viewer has a choice - to sympathize with the young criminals who seemed doomed to die or to look at them from a different perspective. Some of the boys were caught for committing crimes such as murders and they were given a chance between death and training in a military preparing them for risky missions behind the enemy lines. The movie does not do very good on the realistic scale but still seeing it is worth it as it has some quite emotional moments and the acting was pretty decent.