Product Details

• Actors: Vladimir Zamansky, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Oleg Vasilkov, Roman Grekov, Valeri Troshin
• Directors: Hussein Erkenov
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: Russian
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Water Bearer
• DVD Release Date: October 17, 2000
• Run Time: 71 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004YKRL
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,340 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "100 Days Before the Command" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

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: Nr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Behind the lines, life in the soviet military, January 11, 2001

By 

"thecriticalbishop" (London, England United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 100 Days Before the Command (DVD)

Enigmatic and at sometimes a surreal film about the day to day monotomy and futility of the lives of a group of conscript Russian soldiers. The film is stark and bare, the actors largely former recruits and the film style moves from dream sequences to fly on the wall documentary.

Its hardly surprising this film was banned in the then Soviet Union - its harsh and disturbing view of conscript life is unreservedly critical, the visual presentation is almost hauntingly homo-erotic at times and as such the film isn't going to be a hit with authorities trying to conscript youths to military service where military life is marked by its drabness, un-ending boredom and the use of humiliation and bullying.

The acting is naturalistic and realistic, the players gritty and real. The viewer is left in no doubt that national service behind the Iron Curtain was neither glamourous nor particularly pleasant.

Well worth a spin if your into foreign films and like a challenging film, not for those who like Top Gun or Stripes.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A documentary snapshot of Russian military life, November 14, 2006

By 

Antonio B. Ooka Jr. - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 100 Days Before the Command (DVD)

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."

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good look at Russian boot camp, May 21, 2002

By 

J. Kersh (Tallahassee, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 100 Days Before the Command [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Excellent movie. The film quality and color were above average. It is a somewhat surreal look at young men enduring life in a typical Russian boot camp setting. Haunting and powerful. You will want to watch this movie more than once. You will understand why this movie was banned in Russia. Not exactly a recruiting tool for the Red Army.