1612
by Vladimir Khotinenko
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DVD details
Actor: Artur Smolyaninov, Mikhail Zhebrovskiy, Pyotr Kislov, Ramon Langa, Violetta DavydovskaDirector: Vladimir Khotinenko
Brand: Koch International
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Russian (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 135 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-04-07
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: E1 Entertainment
Product features:
- The battle for Russia begins! After the brutal massacre of Tsar Boris Godunov and his family, Russia is thrown into a chaotic power struggle. Moscow slips into lawlessness, and as Prince Pozharsky tries to regain order, the massive Polish and Swedish armies have set their sights on conquering the great empire. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: FOREIGN Rating: NR Age: 74195266709
DVD Reviews of 1612
DVD Review: He likes me... He likes me not...
Summary: 2 Stars
I like it, but I don't like it...
Funny, but true. As a modern action movie it stands at par with other similar stuff that even Hollywood manages to produce (see "300").
Not so much for special visual effects, of which there are virtually none, except for the occasional battle scene, but rather for the silliness in language and story development.
It is a simple fun movie. One for popcorn chewing moviegoers.
Unpretentious and yet captivating in its silliness.
At times, while watching it, I was reminded of movies of yesteryear, such as Errol Flynn's escapades in "The Black Hawk" or more recently Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow's shenanigans in "Pirates of the Caribbean".
Costumes and settings are gorgeous though, and even the music is pleasant and appropriate for a movie of this type. But let's face it,
it's just another cape and dagger movie, not really Russian history as it pretends to be.
Sure, there are hints to that (and many, but then again distributed freely throughout, without an actual chronology). All we get to know is that after Czar Boris Godunov's demise and that of his entire family (but one surviving Princess), there is a period of anarchy in Russia.
Add to this the ever-lasting "bad" Polish invader, riding in with very fanciful armor which sports applied feather wings (actually an accurate depiction, but just reserved for the Royal Polish Guards of that time and only worn during parades, never in battle - for obvious reasons) and you have Holiday on Ice.
True to history is the fact that after the fall of Czar Boris, Russia had been literally invaded by opportunistic tradesmen from everywhere in Europe. This has been simplified and centered around a central Hispanic figure, represented by a mercenary, and apparently, former Conquistador.
The reality though was different, and the so-called invasion was far less pervasive and intrusive. Europe simply needed new trade routes through Russia and did indeed send out emissaries for this purpose.
Yet then the entire story goes through a mystic development, even involving unicorns and a mysterious Hermit chained on a pole in the midst of a forest. It may be significant for Russians but for a foreign audience who may not know all the symbolic significances of this, it still remains a puzzle to the end of the movie.
As said, as an entertainment movie, not too bad, but as a pretense in historic fact it really leaks all over.
The actors, probably all unknown to the Western world are all competent, especially in secondary roles and do their job quite convincingly. The action scenes (battles, swordplay, fights, etc.) are all very well choreographed and at times, even spectacular.
But does this mishmash stand for something?
Not really.
Not even as other reviewers have stated, as a propaganda movie for the Medvevev / Putin duo.
If it is true that this movie was pushed by the Kremlin itself, then the taste of this entity has considerably diminished since Stalin's times.
But such are the times we are living in.
Not wanting the invasion of Western culture in their Country, in that sense at least, it is utterly a wasted effort, since this movie proves without a doubt that they have already been "contaminated" by this - bad taste - kind of trendy movie.
What next? Japanese "Animes" to entertain the masses in Russia too?
At least Stalin had Eisenstein to propagate his views, and those movies have become true Classics.
But "1612"? Forgettable at best.
Being of Russian descent myself, I regret this popularization in Russian history. Why can't we have true historic, if not epic movies about the true history of Russia?
The theme alone, Boris Godunov, already made famous by a well-known Opera, should entice any film-maker deserving this definition, to make an extra effort and develop a true biopic around this figure.
But not just limited to this period.
All we have are just excerpts from Russian history. We never get the whole picture. What about the first Viking invasion of Russia, when it was still unknown under that name? In fact Russia takes the name from the first Conquerors of the land, which the native population named "Rus" after their reddish scalps and beards.
What ever happened between the Era of Boris and that of Peter the Great? Who were the various successors, what did they do, what have they achieved, how long did they all rule? These are all still unanswered questions that no one ever bothered to tackle with in any serious form.
I only wished that the new generation of movie-makers in Russia, but not just limited to Russia, would actually have that kind of culture and wisdom as to come up with some more original stuff than your average Action movie.
This DVD is no exception (I own three copies of it. One is the U.S. version, available here. One bought in France and one bought in Germany).
I wanted to test if there was actually a difference among versions, but there were none.
They all run at an approximate length of two hours and twenty-four minutes. There are virtually no special features (except on the French copy, which has "The Making of" feature).
The sound for all three is in DD 5.1 in Russian. The German copy gets an additional language track in German (also DD 5.1), while the other two versions only come with subtitles in their relative languages (the U.S. version in English and the French, obviously in French).
The image is crystal clear, although a bit too bright for my taste (but this may depend on how the movie was originally filmed).
There are absolutely no differences among the copies. The NTSC or region 1 copy, is exactly the same as the ones in PAL or region 2 code.
But as said, this is just an great spectacle entertainment with a pretense to be a historic movie, not truly a classic, and far, far away of true classic
cinematography a la Tarkovsky or Eisenstein. If you are looking for that kind of style, you're light years away.
I can only recommend it for a very young and inexperienced audience, and just as an approach to adventure movies.
For those who are demanding, you better buy something else, hoping that someone else makes the extra effort to finally come up with a series of movies which deal in true and serious historic fact about Russian history, instead of wanting to simplify it for the masses.
In my view, it just deserves 2 out of 5 stars, due to the effort made by all those involved in making it, but none should be given to the finished product which is offensively populist and to a degree as to be talking down at people that may know more about movies and history as well, than movie
makers these days.
Description of 1612
?Reminiscent of Lord of the Rings? ?Sunday HeraldAfter the brutal slaughter of Tsar Boris Godunov and his family, Russia descends into chaos. Guided by faith and mysticism, Andrey, the only witness to the massacre, transforms himself from servant to cavalier and sets off on a quest to save Princess Ksenia, the missing daughter of Godunov. Andrey joins forces with Prince Pozharski, the people?s army leader, and faces down the Polish army in an explosive, blood-soaked battle for Moscow.
Includes Over 45 Minutes of Behind-the-Scenes Bonus Material:
Making-of Featurette, Photo Gallery
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