A box office smash in its native Russia, 9th Company is an unashamed old school war movie that�s low on politics but high on gung-ho action and macho chest-beating.  As Russian cinema continues to modernise following the frantic sci-fi antics of Night Watch audiences will be able to see the old war clich�s reworked in a film mired in 80s machismo and death or glory visuals.  Borrowing heavily from the dehumanising portions of Full Metal Jacket right back to the solidarity of men in its Zulu-esque climax this is the country�s first big-budget war movie and one that concentrates on the basics.

With the usual suspects rounded up from poor, meaningless backgrounds the film�s heroes chart the progress of a group of wayward lads enduring basic training before being shipped off to the alien world of Afghanistan for the bitter end of a war, the origins of which have long been forgotten, that lasted throughout the 80s.  Becoming death machines via the usual array of beatings, shared use of the camp woman Snow White and making phallic shapes out of plastic explosives the soon to be 9th Company forge a brotherly bond which is tested to the limits once the boys leave the safety of the barracks and are shipped out to a hostile and freakish environment.

Marked by the melting of the harsh Ukrainian frost on the exterior of the troop�s transport plane, their arrival on the scorched soil of Afghanistan indicates the start of the brutal second half where most of the $9 million budget was spent to on recreating fiery battle scenes.  There is little time to muse on the futility of war as the company travel from gunfight to gunfight only saving the odd quiet moment for a hearty cry of �Nooooooo� next to a fallen comrade.  Prior to the bloody �protect-the-hill� climax there�s a hint at something more substantial during one soldier�s surreal trek to the caves of the natives where fear over those different is handled with swooning paranoia.

9th Company highlights just how resilient an enemy the terrorists of Afghanistan can be and, as one officer points out, no army has ever conquered them.  The film revels in its band of brothers homage to men trapped together in a bitter fight for survival and as a contribution to the genre it may seem some way behind more noble works yet still offers an action-packed edge you might not always associate with a subtitled export.