Adventure, historical drama, Eastern. The second film adaptation of the story "Red Devils", written by the Russian and Soviet writer Pavel Blyakhin. And since I haven't read the original book source, and I haven't watched the first film adaptation, so I rate "The Avengers" as an independent work. What can I say - a classic of Soviet adventure cinema, which can be watched and reviewed countless times, so did our parents, so do we, and I hope our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will do so already. And since I've stirred up a marathon of Soviet cinema here, I decided to start with this legendary trilogy about the Red Avengers, which was launched in 1966 by director Edmond Keosayan. And here's my brief opinion for you - The classics of the Soviet Eastern: part one. There is not a single minus in the picture, except for the technical "old age", but this can not be considered, so I will focus your attention on the advantages of this classic of Soviet cinema.
So, here they are:
1. The scenario is 1920. The territory of the former Russian Empire, Novorossiya. The civil war is almost coming to an end. The Red Army is smashing the remnants of the White Guard formations, in the rear of which the civilian population is terrorized by numerous gangs of different political orientation. As a result of one "intimidation action", a detachment of "avengers" appears in the village of Zbruevka, who spoil the life of the gang of ataman Burnash. The daring raids of the four young heroes keep a whole gang of hardened scoundrels at bay. And although not everything turns out smoothly for the heroes, but determination, audacity, courage and bravery help Danka, Ksanka, Valerka and Yashka defeat the gang and meet with the legendary commander of the First Cavalry Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny, and before that cause irreparable damage to the enemy. Vivid images, charismatic characters, and elaborate dialogues are the key to the frenzied success of this picture.
2. Fights, chases, shootouts - there's just a lot of this in the picture, almost every scene ends with this dynamic, and it's nice to look at, and given the fact that the characters cling, the viewer is already worried about them, wants their victory over enemies, and the production for the mid-sixties is my respect. The actors perform all the tricks themselves. These are not modern effects made on a computer, these are real jumps and chases for you. Yes, of course, the ability of young heroes to accurately hit the target with one shot is surprising, but let's put it down to the intensive training of Danka's father (after all, he is a revolutionary sailor after all).
3. Bright characters - our four, the magnificent Buba Kastorsky, ataman Fierce, Ataman Burnash, Semyon Budyonny, and Savely Kramarov in the role of an ordinary comical bandit. Their images are copied from real people of that time, for example, in ataman Burnash, the features of Nestor Makhno are guessed (in the book source, the devils were hunting for him), ataman Fierce is an obvious collective image of green and black bandits who terrorized peaceful people throughout Russia while white and red fought for its future. And the actors were chosen for these roles very colorful, it is impossible to argue with this.
4. Songs and music - another plus is the music written by composer Boris Mokrousov (unfortunately, he did not live to see the second picture), and the songwriters were the composer himself and Robert Rozhdestvensky. And although there are not a lot of songs, but they are so bright and memorable that I remember them from childhood, when I first saw this picture. The main song (Lead showers are beating), Verses of Buba, a song about Satan (became my favorite) and some more. This is a worthy example to follow for modern Russian filmmakers, learn mediocre!
5. Humor - there is enough humor here, starting from comical characters, and ending with effects that now cause a smile (I'm talking about "the dead with braids that stand along the road"). And although the theme in the film is raised seriously, this did not prevent the director from competently fitting humor into his adventure picture. Which was another reason for the frenzied popularity that eventually forced Mosfilm and Edmond Keosayan to shoot as many as two sequels.
A little bit about the main characters:
1. "The Avengers" performed by Viktor Kosykh, Vali Kurdyukova, Misha Metelkin and Vasya Vasiliev are four young heroes who decided to take revenge on the gang of the cruel ataman Burnash for all the terror that they committed. With their daring raids, they created a fame for themselves, which even Budyonny has heard about. Each of the heroes is a bright personality, and together they are an invincible force that cannot be resisted. Young actors and actresses coped with their roles very well. Well done!
2. Gnat Burnash performed by Yefim Kopelyan is the ataman of the Makhnovist gang, who, under the pretext of his ideas, robs and terrorizes the local population. A cunning devil, whom Danka and his friends intend to outwit, while causing serious damage. Yefim Zakharovich was great in this role. Bravo!
3. Sidor the Fierce, performed by Vladimir Treshchalov, is the ataman in Burnash's gang, his right hand and the most dangerous bandit, and at the same time very cunning and cautious, who will spoil the blood of our heroes more than once. Vladimir Leonidovich was also great.
As already mentioned, the picture was a huge success with Soviet viewers, so the management decided to remove the sequel, but we will talk about the second part of the trilogy next time.
My rating is 10 out of 10 and my recommendation for viewing!
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