TONITE’S BEST BET: Avast, Ye Greenpeace Scum! Пираты XX века/Pirates of the 20th Century (Drama. USSR, 1979)(TV 1000 Liubimoe Kino, 22:00) -- > Soviet box office leader for 1980 by a huge margin (90 mln tix sold), “Pirates” was the USSR’s first blockbuster. By 1990 it had been seen by 120 mln viewers, making it the most watched Soviet/Russian film (per ticket/attendance) since, well, ever. And it’s *still* ever. What’s all the fuss about a pirate movie w/o Johnny Depp, you might ask. Well… Let’s start w/ the obvious: everybody everywhere likes pirate movies, always have, always will – the Depp franchise can’t count their $ fast enough. This one also has a curiously serviceable action-script, by dir. B. Durov and S. Govorukhin (before he broke bad). But genre and screenplay aside, “Pirates” was (drum roll)… the Soviet answer to Bruce Lee movies! It was the first film in which martial arts were demonstrated on the big screen in the USSR – and with spectacular effect, sparking a tsunami of interest around the country. Say, what’s the current president’s favorite sport? Oh yeah… Granted, there’s a big hole in the plot, or in its premise, rather: the Soviet freighter that’s attacked by pirates is supposed to be hauling pharmaceutical opium from the southern hemisphere (played by the Crimea) to Vladivostok; but the USSR was, um, one of the world’s leading opium *exporters* at the time – so that would be as illogical/unbelievable as, say, hauling Soviet sugar to Cuba. Oops, bad example. Oh, and the movie’s (sort of) love-interest subplot – focused on, as one viewer noted, “an island whose entire population consists solely of photogenic women of vaguely Uzbek appearance” – remains mysterious before and after the film’s denouement. Anyway, the pirates do their worst, there’s a lot o’ kung-fu fighting and in the end…ta-da! So tune in (or watch on YouTube below) what’s been called a “far superior groin-kicking film to ‘Home Alone’” and ponder awhile for yourself over this very large n exotic piece of the sociological puzzle that made up the late USSR. And just to keep you interested if/when the karate chops don’t, consider this: a Beatles song [!] is featured prominently on the sound track – which one do you think it is? https://youtube/watch?v=gyd5sKH_rAs
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 07:55:56 +0000
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