The DVD costs $45 on amazon and I'm pretty sure I haven't seen it anywhere else. So what's with the price and is it available somewhere else for decent money?

http://www.deepdiscount.com/viewprod...ductId=5739039

I bought the R2 Finnish DVD many years ago. It has a much better picture (although still non-anamorphic), some extras, and a longer cut of the movie. You do need a region-free player that can convert PAL to NTSC. Here's a link although they're out of stock at the moment.

(Didn't notice your location. Looks like you wouldn't have to worry about region and PAL issues)

I also bought it at Deep Discount and do not regret it one bit. A fascinating story that I really enjoyed, especially already knowing the historical background on the Russian invasion of Finland.

Isn't the R1 release severely cut? The R1 only runs about 125 minutes. The R2 runs about 190. That's over an hour of footage lost!

BTW, thanks for the link Mugwump. I didn't realize that the Finnish DVD had English subs!

Thanks guys for DeepDiscount heads-up and for Filmifrikki link. I always knew of this site but somehow didn't think of a possibility for Finnish site to have a Finnish movie
Now I have to figure out if they ship to my whereabouts and study the cut status of the film. More than an hour cut from the US release - that seems at least strange doesn't it?

Yes, it does, but I just noticed that the R1 DVD is distributed by Belle & Blade, a very small company that has only released about a dozen DVDs. I imagine that they had to use whatever print was given to them. (Based on Amazon reviews, it sounds like they may have used an old TV print for their DVD -- which would cause other problems besides being edited.) If I were you, I'd definitely go with the Finnish release. I probably will myself before long. Taking PAL speed-up into account, its running time matches what's listed on IMDb.

Yes, I think I'll definately go with the Finnish version. Besides shipping to my location will be a bit faster from Finland than from the US

I previously owned the VHS from Belle & Blade and I imagine the DVD is sourced from the same print. Needless to say the Finnish DVD is a substantial upgrade in quality.