Biographical films based on living history have recently become almost as popular and relevant genre in world cinema as fantastic comics about superheroes, including in the nominations for the main film award "Oscar".
Life writes such million-dollar stories that are ahead of any fantasy of the most talented screenwriter. And in a civilized society, national history and national heroes have always been a matter of special pride. Americans, as a young nation with 200 years of history, are especially reverent about this topic. Let's imagine how much more pride there is in this sense for multinational Russia with its thousand-year history and what an important part of the unifying national idea they are.
In recent years, in the domestic cinema in the biopic genre, not only revival has appeared, but also achievements. First of all, the enthusiastically received film about Kharlamov and Tarasov "Legend No. 17" and the somewhat less enthusiastic film about astronaut No. 1 "Gagarin: The First in Komos". And here is a film about another legend of domestic and world sports, Ivan Poddubny, a hero from the people, as incredibly strong as the epic Ilya Muromets, the mythological Hercules or the superhero from the current comics. From the Zaporozhye Cossacks of the Poddubny family, famous for their phenomenal physical strength.
He got into the circus arena, where at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries performances of strongmen and wrestling fights took place, by accident, but for the rest of his life as a proud and gambling person, for whom the desire to prove physical superiority became urgent, and losing was unacceptable. He worked as a professional wrestler in several circuses, later he brilliantly defended the honor of the fatherland at competitions in Europe and America, and had his last fight in 1941 at the age of 70. He survived the German occupation, refusing the flattering advances of the Germans, and was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR in his later life, in addition to other awards. With an awkward personal fate and the innocence of a big child who ended his life in the provincial Yeysk almost in poverty.
It is clear that such a rich and vivid biography cannot be accommodated in two hours of screen time. But screenwriter Yuri Korotkov, a great master of his craft, the author of scripts for many hits of the 1990s-2000s, collected key events in the life and fate of Poddubny, inevitably cutting something off, somewhat sinning against the facts for the sake of compactness of history, and not avoiding some stereotypes: the capitalist world is insidious, soulless and only interested in profit, and the Russian hero is a heart of gold, the embodiment of honesty and a deeply believing Christian. But behind these stereotypes is a living person, proud, lonely, with a mysterious Russian soul and unpredictable actions.
In the film, most of the time is expectedly devoted to Poddubny's professional career, many performances in different arenas. There is an affair with the main love of his life, circus aerial gymnast Masha Dozmarova, the "dragonfly" Mimi, with whom they were the same field of berries - from the breed of winners who broke stereotypes all their lives. There is a family part, a difficult and important relationship with his father, a stern Cossack, who in childhood taught his son not to run away from a fight with a whip: one on one - fight, one against five - fight, one against the whole world - fight anyway. Particular emphasis is placed on the quarrelsome and uncomfortable character of Poddubny, who, due to the honesty of his nature, never agreed to contractual fights, but he himself more than once became a victim of financial fraud, fraud and dishonesty of opponents, almost became a victim of contract killings.
The film is simple like its hero, without excessive dramatic tension and frills, but solid and conscientious, most importantly, sincere and causing genuine pride in the fatherland and its heroes, which is what he aspired to. A bit "fair and popular prints". But this theatricality is partly justified by the fact that Poddubny's "workplace" was the circus arena - the world of enchanting and exotic, the main folk show of that time. The project team is as colorful as the visuals - the French, including the colorful Denis Lavant as a coach, the Bulgarians are combat sambo stuntmen who worked with Stallone in The Expendables. The diversity is added by the wide geography of filming - Feodosia, Kiev, Odessa, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, New York - and not entirely justified and even superfluous time jumps from young to mature years of a wrestler, from the American tour of 1926 back to the World Cup in Paris 1904, etc.
The role of Poddubny will be one of the best in the filmography of Mikhail Porechenkov. He sincerely loves his prototype, is monumental and formidable as a professional, and absolutely naive and defenseless in everything else. All fights were shot without doubles, special training with the Armenian weightlifting team and 14 kilograms of muscle mass gained were not in vain. The operator's camera almost did not flatter Porechenkov, only presented him in the best possible way. He succeeded in all the nuances of the age role, covering 30 years of the life of a wrestler from 1896 to 1926 - from a young man with shining eyes, who has everything ahead, to a mature professional fighter who has experienced many disappointments and losses, but retained openness, sincerity, youthful ardor and inflexible inner core.
The memorable roles of Alexander Mikhailov (Poddubny's father), Vladimir Ilyin and Yuri Kolokolnikov are domestic fans of the wrestler from the Russian nobility and his entrepreneurs, Roman Madyanov (circus director), Katerina Spitz (Mademoiselle Mimi).
The film owes its success, which can be discussed with some reservations, first of all, apparently, not so much to the director Gleb Orlov, on whose account there is only one satirical film in the big meter "Our Russia: Eggs of Destiny", but to experienced domestic producers who released the best domestic projects of recent years, Leonid Vereshchagin, Leonid Lebedev, Vadim Goryainov.
I would like to hope that behind the voluntary or involuntary schematization of the film and the textbook figure of the "champion of champions" and the "Russian bear", the audience will nevertheless discern the restless and rebellious soul of a living person, a little holy fool like all extraordinary talents and outstanding personalities, and bewitching with his uniqueness less mythological characters.
