Kalashnikov (2020) User Reviews

well worth a view

[ops-52535 · 7/10 · 2 August 2020]

Its a russian production, and its russian patriotism and agenda, so swallow that pill and hide it in your bile gland, and take part in this neatly made story about mr.khalashnikov, born and raised in kazakhstan, with bloodline to turkmenistan, famous through history for his inventions, mostly weaponry, with semi and full automatic rifles and machineguns giving him most fame.

its also a lovestory, very cliched, and its a humble comedy to those who can take a russian joke for what it is. the cast and especially the main male does a great apperance, but the the whole cast delivers. if you like old locomotives and historic railways, this is like winning the lottery, so great production management and hoice of location.

its a fair biographical drama, with the ideological humps in the road for us living under the nato umprella the last 70 years, ive never held an ak-47, and will probably not, but they say it works like a tank, sturdy and polite. so if you will have a primetime candy then the grumpy old man recommends

A fascinating insight into the world of weapons design....

[s3276169 · 8/10 · 22 October 2020]

I'm going to start by addressing some of the comments from reviewers who claim Hugo Schmeiser, a German weapons expert, designed the AK47. A few facts. Schmeiser was not overly co-operative with the Soviets. Moreover, they did not appear to think a great deal of his work. He received a pay cut and was effectively demoted to lesser roles. Functionally, the weapons he designed and the AK-47 designed by Kalashnikov are vastly different, too.

Comments also seem to suggest Kalashnikov had no talent. If so how did he rise through the ranks from obscurity with little education, in an empire as vast as the Soviet Union? Why are not one but many of his weapons designs so famous? If he had no inherent talent how is it his son Victor also designed well known military weapons, most notably the PP-19 Bizon, also still in use today? Hardly likely, if there was no talent to be inherited. Surely?

So lets move on to the film. Its a fascinating insight into the world of weapons design through the life of Soviet weapons designer Mikhail Kalashnikov. Its well acted, directed and has a certain passion I had not expected to find in a film about arms manufacture.

Its clear the reasons Kalashnikov strove to develop weapons were driven by a need to protect his country, not profit from death. A point much emphasised in this film. Indeed, Kalashnikov himself wrote of his "spiritual pain" in latter life when he saw how his famous creation, the AK-47, was used around the world.

What's particularly remarkable about Kalashnikov is the fact this inventor, in his early years, started off with a very basic education. He rose to prominence through hard work and the merit of his designs. A fact that is made clear in the film as he competed, with often better educated, weapons designers.

In terms of the story, some creative license has been taken. Especially in terms of his private life. He married in 1921 but this film suggests he was married a lot later.

Putting this aside, this film is well crafted, engrossing and utterly fascinating. This coming from a reviewer who is, by nature, a pacifist and opposed to war.

8/10 from me.

Quite mediocre. Beautiful, but non-engaging

[rainfollower-95-646324 · 6/10 · 13 April 2020]

On one hand, this is a technically good piece of filming. Costumes, vehicles, decorations, sounds, small details of the everyday life look very true. The overall picture is simple, but beautiful. A pleasure for an eye.

On the other hand, the story is very shallow, flat and non-engaging: just 5 years of Mikhail Kalashnikov's life condensed into an hour and a half. And also, quite... let's call it 'pleasant'. Saying that, I mean there's no conflict in the story, no struggle, no tension, no unexpected turn. The road to AK-47 just unwinds before us, smooth and wide, and dotted with signposts. Just like Mikhail Kalashnikov himself! Who as a character looks just an-all-round-good guy. Quite pleasant to glance at, but there's nothing much to examine and explore.

You can't really call this a biopic, because there's no real biography in it, no personality - only large milestones. Instead of diving deep into the tangled thicket of man's life the story just flies by at speed, barely touching treetops. And it is not the story of Kalashnikov's invention, too, because you can't really trace the path of the thought on its way from the idea to the final triumph. Not a drama, certainly, because there's no drama. And not a struggle, again; rather a chain of fortunate events. If Bilbo's journey of "There and Back" was of this kind, I think the book would start right at the Lonely Mountain. And the dragon would give up.

The most fitting words would probably be "a formality". A well-built panegyric formality. A layer of gilding upon the relic, that makes it glittery, but smoothes out its real features.

Watching this you will lose nothing, I think, except 90 minutes of your life. On the other hand, you will probably gain nothing, too (except maybe picking up some names).

Pretty cool if you can stand the Americanized dubbing.

[MongoLloyd · 7/10 · 20 February 2021]

I was really looking forward to watching this but every time a character spoke in that cheesy Americanized dialect, it just sucked the life out of it. The production value is amazing and casting is very good and of course the true epic journey of creating the AK 47 is pretty epic. Not sure why they didn't at least use Russian accented English voice actors and keep to the original as-written dialog. I would suggest watching the original Russian language version.

The Selfless Hero of the Motherland

[Jaybeyii · 7/10 · 19 April 2022]

I'm sympathetic to the notion that a society must create a mythos. We in the US have invented cinematic portraits of Washington, Lincoln, Edison, and other greats that are so whitewashed that when realistic views are presented that they're considered revisionist!

However, the old Soviet style glorified heroes are so airbrushed as to be caricatures: Handsome, selflessly devoted to duty, darkly introspective. In short, models for inspiration rather than illumination.

Worth a watch

[121mcv · 7/10 · 2 February 2022]

While the dubbing is an unfortunate aspect for none English speaking films I do prefer the move to be dubbed. An interesting story about the most famous gun in world ... the acting is just above average (6/10) the the script cinematography and plot is above average.

Entertaining and worth a watch

[bjackson-739-450552 · 7/10 · 17 February 2021]

I just saw the English dubbed version of this film and the voice actors did a pretty good job. Don't know how accurate this was compared to the real history, but it sure was entertaining and kept my interest right to the very end. Propaganda, so what? You'd be hard pressed to find any fictional movie, docudrama, documentary, or fact based movie of similar genre that doesn't have propaganda. Hell, the Americans are experts on it and I wish us Canadians were better at it.

A good movie worth watching, but has a serous tecno-political omission

[scottgs-68764 · 8/10 · 19 March 2023]

A good movie well worth watching, executed in a very much American-Hollywood style, rather than the typical Russian dry-I'm-going-to-die-before-the-plot-is-ever-revealed style. But, there are faults.

Glaringly, there is a serious historical omission, or flaw, in this movie. In traditional Soviet fashion, it is presented that Kalashnikov invents the AK-47 out of thin air. Yet nothing could be further from the truth - even by Kalashnikov's own admission.

Kalashinikov was an excellent engineer, in the very purest sense, but clearly, and without doubt, his design is in form an exacting copy of the German (Schmeisser designed) StG-44 assault rifle. Perhaps we should say Kalashnikov was "inspired" by the StG-44, but the movie doesn't even go there. In other words, the AK-47 does exactly the same thing as the StG-44, it fills exactly that same evolved need that all modern Assault Rifle do, albeit in a better, cheaper to produce, easier to maintain, and more reliable technical form.

Having said this, the AK's actual design, the mechanics of how it functions and how it's made, is clearly not the same as the German StG. This is where Kalashnikov's genius comes into play. He designed his own action, admittedly (quoted by Kalashnikov himself) and loosely based on the American M1 Garand rifle action - which is a robust and simple gas-actuated rotating bolt design, unlike the Schmeisser StG-44, and then Kalashnikov combined it with his own, genuinely simple yet robust design qualities.

A second point worth note, is that just like Schmeisser's StG, Kalashnikov's original goal was for an inexpensive stamped-steel body. And so, Kalashnikov's original design, and indeed the original AK-47 prototypes, are reported as stamped sheet metal steel. However at the time, it is recorded that manufacturing techniques available were reputedly not able to achieve this in production with the needed quality, and thus the original AK47 reverted to a traditional (heavy and expensive) milled-steel body, until years later, when the "modernized" Avtomat Kalashnikova (AKM) was introduced - which ultimately became the AK we all know and love.

This last point is the segue into my second criticism about the movie. The actual AK rifles shown did not always appear historically correct. Later production AKM's seemed to be presented as the initial prototypes in a little bit of a mish-mash of correctness.

Bottom line, it is a good movie - entertaining, and mostly accurate, however unfortunately diluted by the obvious historical inaccurate and stereotypical Russo-Soviet mindset that the Soviets invented everything good in the world. So like everything Russian, you have to take the good with the bad, and those pathological lies so endemic to Russian culture.

Engrossing.. could have been better..

[samabc-31952 · 6/10 · 29 March 2022]

It is been more than seven decades but Avtomat Kalashnikov has stayed as the most popular and widely used in its category. With 200 million assault rifles produced in the 20th century AK 47 became the most recognized weapon. It is an Assault rifle meaning it has Intermediate cartridge and detachable magazine and can be adjusted for semi automatic fully automatic and burst mode.. Every year on an average quarter of a million people die because of the wounds inflicted by AK-47... This is an Interesting insight on how the most infamous weapon came into existence ..it is a story of the perseverance and the passion of a young Soviet man during WWII - Alexander Kalashinkov and his invention AK-47 (the 1947 version). Good cinematography, convincing performances and engrossing story .. however, it fails to capture the war times ..also, the chemistry between the lead characters seems insipid..

Propaganda

[Dancing_Avocado · 1/10 · 1 August 2020]

Did you know that Hugo Schmeisser (the inventor of STG44 and some other wapons) worked at Izhevsk after war? He was one of the captured engineers. Reality is that Kalashnikov didn't know anything about weapon industry. And AK-47 is improved STG44. That's the reality.

Movie is trying to add more propaganda and it would be fine if they wouldn't add it as historical accurate movie. Overall movie is not that bad and you can actually enjoy it. Actors play pretty well and atmosphere is shown very realistic. On the other hand I would add some more action into the movie. Some pressure from the government. They could do way more about the story to make it more entertaining overall.

Not the typical Russian propaganda film

[anhidric · 8/10 · 24 May 2020]

Truth is that I imagined finding myself in front of the thousand times seen pro-Russian propaganda film, full of unrealistic scenes and horrible CGIs. But quite the opposite, it is a solid biopic, without great pretenses, well acted, with costumes and vehicles faithful to the time and with little or no propaganda on it (It is striking that the only negative character in the film is an NKVD soldier). I hope that as it becomes known, its rating will rise.

Well shot and executed

[kosmasp · 6/10 · 21 June 2022]

Ok I had to do that pun - and maybe I don't even mean what I write exactly how you think I do. That being said, watching a movie where the Russians are the good guys and it makes sense nowadays may feel a bit weird to some people. But you can't choose and pick when someone has or will watch this.

And yes you may wonder if or rather when there will be movies about the war/conflict with Ukraine (I am putting it as mildly as I can) and how you would feel about that. What I am trying to say, while talking about current events: try to watch this as a standalone. As something nothing to with the current president of Russia and their current actions, politically and otherwise. Otherwise it won't make sense to watch it at all.

A mediocre fairytale

[dbvdjs · 1/10 · 8 October 2020]

This is another below average creation of soviet portraying fictional events and showing soviet state as something good to remember.

The truth is that after the end of WWII Soviet Union moved thousands of manufacturing and research facilities over along with staff that had little choice whether to cooperate. This brings us to the fact that Hugo Schmeiser, an engineer, is actually responsible for the design and production of AK47. However, stating the truth would make many people uncomfortable and therefore soviets created a fairytale of self-made 28 year old genius that had created a top notch extra sophisticated automatic weapon straight out of the blue. Anyway, if you're into Russian movies and drool over Soviet times I suggest you to look elsewhere. You'd be much better off watching flics by Eldar Ryazanov.

Old fashioned entertainment

[A_Different_Drummer · 7/10 · 17 February 2021]

It is not merely that the time period is the 1940s but the linear nature of the story brings back memories of Andy Hardy and even the feel of 1940s film making. The dubbing is distracting. The actor playing the main role looks like a Jude Law clone, which is also distracting. And very politically incorrect of course. But very entertaining. Recommended.

Interesting Historical Insight

[mb-33087 · 7/10 · 9 August 2021]

Good movie providing an interesting historical insight in how the AK-47 came about. Pity that it did not cover some of his other works but then the movie's intent was focussed on the AK-47, I guess. Worth watching.

Too simple movie, but fulfills the basics and is engaging.

[JurijFedorov · 7/10 · 27 June 2022]

Very simple movie. An uneducated machine gun inventor who dropped out of 7th grade develops his new weapons while competing against other Soviet designs. He has to use the teams he is given as this is USSR so you can't really set up your own company. Initially we see him getting injured in a tank in WW2. He is sent home, but instead he leaves the train and gets his own bench in a big plant. The workers there help him develop his gun in their free time. He then goes to Kazakhstan to work further on it and later to Moscow to work in a more professional setting and compete vs. Other gun designs. He loses as it's just a slab of metal. But the woman picked to draw his weapon becomes his girlfriend. I don't know how much of this is true, but it seems real. He keeps competing and designs another machine gun and then finishes the AK in 1947 and it aces all the tests becoming the weapon of the country.

The movie is just this. A simple A to B story. Man makes machine gun, man meets girl. But does it have to be much more? It feels like a sports movie really. A guy trains, develops his inner talent, and becomes the winner. The formula works really well. You want to see what happens to him and what he will do. I think especially for guys this works. It's basically the male equivalent of a romance. We keep watching and enjoying this stuff. Plus this is about an inventor which is cool. And then about a machine gun and it's a historical movie. It basically has more than enough things going for it to be enjoyable to the average gun nerd or history nerd. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I do recommend it, but it's not essential as such.

There are some glaring issues with it. It's simple with simple acting, simple plots, and simple scenes. It never tries to be more. That's the issue. The dialogue is on the nose. They constantly repeat that he has to compete vs. Other guns a certain day. Or that he has lost the competition. We can figure all of this out via the scenes. They don't need to constantly spell it out like we are stupid. Often scenes are also just appearing out of nowhere. We see him lose a competition then sit in a doctor's office in the next scene. The events don't always lead into one another. It's a movie made out of scenes not a character moving from A to B. So Mikhail Kalashnikov is reactive. Very shy, short, thin. He moves with everyone around him. The forward momentum of the plot moves us along, but he really should have been more interesting. Often he's a Charlie Chaplin without the comedy. Walks weird, acts autistic, never speaks out of turn. It feels weird. It's like he's too shy to move in the world. Furthermore the dialogue about the weapon design is simplistic. Hell, we don't even see the other guns. The script clearly was written by people who don't know anything about guns. When he improves the design he just says stuff like "I made it simpler". When he has to direct a worker he points to a document and says "improve this thing". It's not technical dialogue. Not a single word refers to anything technical. So we have a lot of design scenes that are only visual. You really miss more explanations or at least they could have shown the designs. What works and doesn't? How did he make the AK? It's like it's some super secret they can't reveal in the movie. We just see him design something and either stuff works or it doesn't. Very weird movie. You can easily make a smash hit by making a similar movie about some other invention and then have real life dialogue not movie fakeness. That would be amazing. Just slow improvements of some weapon one part at a time all explained. The camera work is great. Calm and steady! The movie looks great.

I really enjoyed Flash of Genius (2008) about a new windshield wiper and how the inventor tried to sell the design and then sued Ford for copying his design. I don't know if they did or not. But it's Hollywood so they did. Anyhow he won the lawsuit and got filthy rich as you get from suing such a giant company. Cute movie with a lot of emotional appeal in capitalistic USA. Crying, laughing, complaining. Kalashnikov (2020) is all clean. All scenes are clean, we don't see any mud, most people are upstanding citizens, the leaders are nice, Stalin's posters are seen everywhere. Even the battlefields and field hospitals are clean and cozy. It looks like stuff you'd see on patriotic propaganda posters not real life. No one steals anything. Everyone is eager to work for his country and die for the country too. Everyone only works for the collective. They cleaned up USSR and Stalin a hell lot here. Hell, the only living space we see is a house in Moscow where his girlfriend lives. A big wooden house. We don't even see a single apartment. Even his native village looks like something out of a fairy tale. Everything looks so wonderful. Did random drawing artists live in houses alone near Moscow? And how did people get by? They do mention rations and the collective taking his parent's farm. But besides these small mentions we never see much of it. We don't see any criminality or anyone complaining about the system. We don't even once see anyone get a paycheck or worry about wages. Everyone has all the food and money he needs. The negativity of the state is not part of any plot or event. So most of the potential drama is removed and we just get his inner conflicts as the main drama which doesn't quite work. His feeling of being a failure just makes him more reactive and the drama then ends up taking away as much from the movie as it puts into it. It's especially weird as he is super successful. So him worrying and being his biggest enemy makes no logical sense. The USSR setting is really all you needed for proper drama. Like with Doctor Zhivago or Citizen X. Shame Russians are legally not allowed to do the same in their own movies. They even ban movies that make fun of any historical figure and overall largely refuse any negative look at their military or leadership as there are a ton of laws banning even talk about this. So the movie could have been better. It's overly cutesy and basic. But it's still quite enjoyable. Many biographies produced by the subject himself are made the same way where only the positive stuff is shown. So it's not totally unwatchable or unacceptable. It just feels fake. I'm sure Soviet in WW2 during Stalin was not really this wonderful.

Overall it's just a simple feel good movie with a few historical elements to it. But it works. You keep watching it and keep waiting for the big wins. You get them and are happy. I can't complain much. I just wish it had technical jargon in it. The movie assumes the viewer is not interested in weapon designs whatsoever. Big shame.

a BIG 10 stars!

[ISpliter · 10/10 · 25 April 2020]

A very good movie. It shows the real atmosphere of the war, with good and bad, struggles, realities and the fking AK-47! One little critique I do have. What I have wished in this movie was to see him talk on the technical parts of the AK-47, the mechanics behind it ... and so on.

I laugh my ass off when Kalashnikov in his old age declared that he is upset that many countries build his AK-47 without license :))) I remembered a Bill Gates complaint regarding windows, the exact same speech :)))

No doubt, a great man ! Rest in peace Kalashnikov :)

A generic underdog biopic

[agof · 4/10 · 31 August 2020]

No, not a Kalashnikov's biopic. Just a generic underdog biopic.

Like, really, it's not even remotely based on his life or even the gun's story. It even has a fistfight with an NKVD officer in a puddle of mud. If you are gonna make up your own story, at least make a good one.

What a great story

[martinjkristiansen · 10/10 · 2 October 2020]

Here we witness strong patriotism for making the best gun ever. The story about this young man is amazing and the culture of Russia is definitely worth the time. Goosebumps many times during the movie. I will recommend to watch this movie.

It's OK

[yapma-030 · 5/10 · 29 December 2020]

Typical rusky legendary hero movie about developing a machine gun.

Accurate to the extreme! Militaria History Buffs must see !

[OzMovieWatcher · 9/10 · 22 October 2020]

Of all the Russian war movies I have seen, which are mostly laced with propaganda and predictable plots... This movie rates extreme best !

The accuracy is impeccable, not just in delivering the historic events, but accurately portraying the devout Christian person of Kalashnikov... he only wanted to win WW2, but his weapon destroyed so many in terrorism in the years to come, of which he recognized withy great remorse in his letter just before he died aged 94.

The film work and acting is without fault. Me as a military historian could only find miniscule faults such as an ironed and creased uniform in battle, and a few geographical errors.., but that is nothing...

This is a must see for all military and weapons history buffs.

This movie deserves international recognition.

Kazakhstan??

[alektl · 1/10 · 18 December 2021]

Even the synopsis from this movie is incorrect. Mikhail was RUSSIAN... DUH.... He grew up in Kurya, Russia to be exact.

Why anyone would think Kazakhstan? Lmao.

UNTOLD STORY OF ALEXANDER KALASHNIKO

[barryallen-42310 · 9/10 · 11 February 2022]

This is very good movie ...This movie tells about how A. K-47 Made ,and struggles of Kalashnikov ..... Don't warch this movie for fun ,This movie is made for person who wants to know the behind story of A.k-47 .... All actors acting is very good ....i really like this movie .

Silly

[richkiel · 1/10 · 28 October 2021]

Nothing in this film seems even remotely genuine. It's a fairy tale, like all the recent Russian films about the war. It is very reminiscent of the T-34 film, about the building of the iconic Russian tank. WWII has remained the foundational myth of the Russian nation, and this mythology is being enriched with new fantastic entries every year. The message is all that matters: Russia is indestructible, Russian designs are best, Russian soldiers are best. Now throw in a love story and some exaggerated anecdotes, and you have your average Russian film about WWII. It is interesting that contemporary Russian films about WWII and other wars are a lot less realistic and a lot more ideological than films made in the USSR. What contemporary Russian audiences are being served is pure kitsch and nonsense that insults intelligence. I hope this industry of nonsense comes to an end, as much as I hope Russians finally stop worshiping communism under the guise of worshiping their great nation. Russia did not begin or end with WWII, and that era brought about complete annihilation of Russian spirit and Orthodox Christianity. It is time to return to Russian roots and ditch this abomination of WWII pseudo-religious cult about Russian greatness.

An amazing biographyical movie

[gangeshgnair · 8/10 · 12 November 2022]

This is definitely a underrated movie.

Well ever imagined how the famous AK 47 got made? This movie is the answer.

I loved this movie because the story and the setup of the movie itself is very interesting. There is a war going on, a man trying to build a gun, a love story, a motivational story the story has it all. The lead actor yuriy borisov who plays the famous Kalashnikov does an amazing job. All the other actors who come in the movie were also amazing. The cinematography is superb. The set design, the few war sequences, all were amazing. The music really elevates the scene in few sequences. This technically a amazing movie.

Definitely watch it if you like war movies and biography movies.