'9th Company' is something of an underground hit. It somehow sneaked onto our DVD rental stores shelves, and seemingly - by the power of word of mouth recommendation alone - is almost always out when you try to rent it. There are not a lot of foreign language films you can say that about.

The film is a Russian equivalent to the US made 'Full Metal Jacket' - and takes place in 'Russia's Vietnam' - Afghanistan. it follows the story of a group of young Soviet guys who volunteer to go to Afghanistan (for one reason or another)...

Like 'Full Metal Jacket' they are bullied and beaten into soldiers by a mean and slightly deranged Sergeant Major through 'boot camp', before heading off to the Afghan mountains. It's in the boot camp that these seemingly juxtaposed set of men form a bond, as they cease being a group of individuals and become a tight fighting unit.

While I do make the connection between this movie and those about America's involvement in Vietnam, there was one strange event in the film that - if true - served to distinguish the two conflicts.

Having graduated from boot camp the Soviet soldiers are given the choice whether they wish to go on to serve in Afghanistan or be transported elsewhere in the Soviet Union to do their military service. The film makers may or may not be trying to make some sort of nationalistic propaganda here, as - predictively - none of the soldiers chose to shirk their duty!

The action scenes are good (in the second half of the movie) - and mainly take the form of the Soviet soldiers of 9th Company, guarding convoys which are constantly being ambushed by the Mujahadeen. There are plenty of incidents which echo the issues that the US soldiers had in Vietnam, and I'm sure are prophetic for our troop in Afghanistan today.

The action culminates with a huge - and spectacular battle - but I won't give away what happens! (We are told in the end titles that this battle was based on real events, please refer to the Wikipedia entry to explore this claim further.)

Suffice to say that this movie should be on your 'Top 10' list of great war movies, though I would still say that Full Metal Jacket is better and more complete war movie.

[Regarding the subtitles: To be honest, it's an action movie, and at times the subtitles are almost superfluous, as it's obvious what's going on. My youngest daughter who hates subtitles watched it and was engrossed.]

Note for airsofters: Best of all about this film is that there is loads of reference material for your Soviet/Russian loadouts - and on how the Russian's liked to wear their kit. In particular, the AK74 Para features greatly, and there are lots of nice touches which show how this weapon was 'dressed' (with field modifications).

Overall, I would give the movie 8 out of 10

It can be had in Blockbuster video store for rent.

Related links:- 

> 9th Company - official movie website
> Wikipedia entry for '9th Company' movie (includes 'spoilers')
> Internet Movie Database entry '9th Rota' (Russian title)