100 Days Before the Command
by Hussein Erkenov
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Oleg Vasilkov, Roman Grekov, Valeri Troshin, Vladimir ZamanskyDirector: Hussein Erkenov
Brand: Water Bearer Films
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Russian (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 71 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-10-17
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Water Bearer
Movie Reviews of 100 Days Before the Command
Movie Review: A documentary snapshot of Russian military life
Summary: 4 Stars
Some may be looking for deep symbolism in "100 Days".
One reviewer called it surreal.
It is very realistic actually, almost a documentary
about a real problem in Soviet and Russian society:
low morale and brutal treatment of recruits in an
Army dogged by a failed war in Afghanistan and the
collapse of the Soviet Union. To this day today's
Russian military has faced accusations of atrocities
committed in Grozny, Chechnya, which had been
tragic for both Russians and Chechens.
There have been Red Army scandals involving the
deaths of young men at the hands of criminally
sadistic officers and NCOs. Drug abuse, alcohol
and even male prostitution have been known to occur
on Army bases.
In one incident, commanding officers got recruits
to perform sexual services for a third party while
the officers took payment. There have been rapes
and desertion and suicide is not any surprising
event.
Just to escape the stultifying army environment,
recruits had been known to get high off their
boot polish. Many have gone blind from such
dangerous activity.
Viewers of "100 Days" who attempt to make sense of
all the nudity and strange broken down landscape
shouldn't trouble themselves too much. Such places
and activities literally did exist and were not such
uncommon sites around 1990.
The boys rubbing eachother down nude is not just
some bizarre symbolism. Men of all ages did and
still do rub eachother down in the age old Russian
tradition of the "Banya" or communal bath and sauna.
To some Westerners it may look "gay" but it really
is a traditional Russian cultural phenomenon.
The broken down, abandoned looking landscape was
not a surreal movie set designed for effect. Soviet
army bases were horribly dilapidated as much of Soviet
society was at the point of collapse.
The translations are indeed peculiar as one review points
out.
The original Russian title "Sto Dnej Do Prikaza" should
actually be translated as "A Hundred Days 'Til Orders Arrive"
(i.e. Orders to get discharged or move on to another
place)
The producers maybe should have prefaced the film with some
background on Soviet/Russian society and culture back in 1990
so the realistic episodes of the film would not seem meaningless
and "surreal."
Summary of 100 Days Before the Command
Five young red army recruits struggle for survival against the merciless violence that surrounds them on a daily basis. Their only means of saving their dignity is by preserving the humanity & compassion they share for each other. Studio: Water Bearer Films Release Date: 10/17/2000 Run time: 171 minutes Rating: NrSimilar DVD Movies
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