Posted: 10/27/2011

Attack on Leningrad

(2009)

by Ruben R. Rosario

Now available on Blu-Ray and DVD from Entertainment One.

Attack on Leningrad excels as a portrait of the horrors of the Siege of Leningrad during World War II, but fails on being the epic story that it wants to be. The film takes place during the 800+ day blockade in the city of Leningrad where we follow Kate Davis (Mira Sorvino) a reporter that gets stuck in the city after she’s presumed dead during a German raid. She is aided by Nina Tsvetkova (Olga Sutulova), a member of the militia and a genuine idealist amidst her chaotic surroundings. Kate’s boyfriend, Phillip Parker (Gabriel Byrne) learns of Kate being alive and tries to return to Leningrad before the Nazi’s fully take over to get her out.

The are plenty of problems with Attack on Leningrad, even if the film sheds some light on a subject that gets glazed over in terms of World War II material. The biggest one is the pacing of the film is very uneven. There are too many times where there are wasteful scenes with boring subplots that come before or after a great scene, that just bog down the entire films pace. The production value for the film is very good and the acting by the main cast is pretty exceptional, but none of these things can save the mediocre script and poor editing in Attack on Leningrad.

The video on the Blu-Ray version for Attack on Leningrad comes in a 1080p AVC encoded HD transfer, with an aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The film looks pretty good on Blu-Ray and displays many of the deep blues, black and grey tones that are prevalent throughout the entire feature. The CGI is pretty easy to spot on with a transfer like this but the film, visually, never suffers completely because of it. Easily, Attack on Leningrad’s visuals are some of the stronger points of the film and is one of the reasons why it’s not a complete failure.

The audio on the Blu-Ray is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that is a complete and utter mess. The mix is very uneven throughout the entirety of Attack on Leningrad. There are times where the dialog is buried under the loud explosions of bombs and gunfire or times when the music just overpowers everything in the mix, even though there are other elements that are happening as well. The use of the surrounds in the mix were done well during the big action sequences, but overall, the mix is one of the most uneven mixes I’ve ever heard.

Attack on Leningrad gets some credit for shedding some light on a World War II subject that never receives any attention, cinematically anyway. The problems of the films clunky edit and script make it come off as a poorer film than its subject matter. While it has a solid cast, including Armin Mueller-Stahl as the head Germain officer in charge of the blockade, some good production design and some emotional depth, none of these things can save Attack on Leningrad from it’s faults.

Ruben R. Rosario is a graduate from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Audio for Visual Media. He works as a freelance location sound mixer, boom operator, sound designer, and writer in his native Chicago. He’s an avid collector of films, comics, and anime.

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