Tractor Drivers (1939) User Reviews

A Soviet comedy

[ionmarandici · 8/10 · 13 October 2014]

This is a good comedy about collective farm workers and a recently returned tank driver from the Far East. It is difficult to understand it if one does not speak Russian and Ukrainian (yes, there is even an Ukrainian folk song in the movie). It so happens that I understand both. The "Zabady vas komar" line is epic. Explicit propaganda is quasi-absent. There are three things I found curious. First, at some point, the kolkhozniki find a German helmet and they comment that the Germans are preparing to attack the Soviet Union. It is curious, because the movie was released in 1939, so presumably the Soviets were expecting the attack (this is also Curtio Malaparte suggests). Second, there is the idea that in case of war, the kolkhozniks can easily change the tractor for a tank. The idea o patriotism and the need to sacrifice for the fatherland is Third, the Georgian guy in the beginning does not appear later in the movie, although he seemed a funny character. I did not understand where exactly was the main character coming from. He says he is returning from the Far East, so it might be from Khalkhin Gol. Overall it is a very good bilingual movie.

Classics of Soviet utopism

[rainfall · 9/10 · 6 January 2011]

"Traktoristy" (Tractor-drivers) is a strange movie from classic Soviet director Ivan Pyriev. On one hand, it is a pure stalinist propaganda of the workers class, and like hundreds of other period movie of that time (the movie was set in 1939), and it sure did mean to prepare people for the upcoming war and raise the fighting spirit of the nation. On the other hand, if one can abstract from the propagandistic nature of the film, it is possible to see the powerful cinematographic side of it. Over-the-edge performances, fast soc-realistic camera work, sincere pathos of the heroes - it has everything for which Eisenstein's films are famous. And it isn't a coincidence, as Pyriev started his career under the wing of the maître. Interestingly, the movie was re-edited during the Khruschev's dethronement of Stalin's cult as it appeared to be too pro-stalinist (which is absolute truth). Only recently there has been re-edition of the original in Russia. Seeing the film, we see the expression of Soviet mythology. In this sense it is a really scary film, because nothing is real. It can be somehow compared to the images of war heroes and usual people painted on ancient vases - it's an idealized image of life. This movie's antonym in cinema history is Waida's "Man of marble", which helps to understand the rise and fall of communist mythology in retrospective. Probably having more interest for cinematography students than for average viewers, Ivan Pyriev's "Traktoristy" still remains forgotten classic of soc-realism.