The film “Officers” has a new meaning

It came out on the big screen in 1971, 52 years ago. But they have never talked about him like they do today. “Officers” has never been included in the top, in the trend of the best films about the Great Patriotic War.

Because there were “Two Fighters”, “Ballad of a Soldier”, “Father of a Soldier”, “Liberation”, “…And the Dawns Here Are Quiet”, “Ascension”, “Only “Old Men” Go to Battle”, “Come and See”…

But in our time, the main film about the war has become “Officers”. How did it happen?

It is uneven, fragmentary, fragmentary. The transitions from one time to another, from one war to another, are torn, if we speak in cinematic language – editing, when gluing and scissors are visible. “Officers” was never considered one of the masterpieces of the Soviet epic, and suddenly…

Nothing happens suddenly…

After the collapse of the Union, “Officers” began to be shown regularly on February 23. Yes, we have a tradition: December 31 is obligatory “Irony of Fate”, May 1 (from the day of workers’ solidarity it simply turned into the first spring sunny weekend) – “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” and “Love and Doves”… And February 23, which remains in the new Russia, a men’s military holiday is “Officers”.

It cannot be said that someone up there in power pointed to “Officers” and loudly declared: from today and forever this film will be the first. No, it just came naturally.

Yes, “there is such a profession – to defend the Motherland.” It sounds like the slogan of the day, something most important, taken from the Soviet Union, from that Russia that is gone forever, the homeland of our ancestors. This is not forgotten.

In fact, this is a film about friendship, strong male friendship. And not even between the characters, Ivan Varnava and Alexei Trofimov, who in the course of the plot grow up, grow old, turn gray, from frisky youths galloping through civilian fields, become military generals, until the end of their days in love with their Lyubochka, who married Trofimov, not for Varnava… But it so happened that, starting with “Officers,” Vasily Lanovoy and Georgy Yumatov played together in “Petrovka, 38” and “Ogarevo, 6” by Yulian Semenov, two comrades served. The film friendship turned into life, and when an unbearable tragedy happened to Yumatov, a war veteran, he did not abandon Lanovoy, did not leave his friend. “Russians don’t abandon their own!” – Isn’t it like that in “Brother”? They became brothers – Lanova and Yumatov.

“Officers” includes the magnificent Alina Pokrovskaya, who won the casting for Lyubochka from Lyudmila Gurchenko herself, and from Svetlana Nemolyaeva, and from Larisa Luzhina. I don’t know how she made a choice between such men, you can’t tell your heart who is a husband and who is a friend, and it’s not just Trofimov’s red pants that’s the issue here.

This is Natalya Rychagova (Masha). A short life played so poignantly—it brought tears to my eyes.

This is Alexander Voevodin (Egor Trofimov) from the Satire Theater. And here the role is tragic and bright.

And, of course, the fighting grandson Vanya Trofimov, brilliantly played by the then boy Andryusha Gromov, who later became a famous diploma. Although, perhaps, the great actor in him died.

The director is Vladimir Rogovoy, this is the most important thing in the life of his cinema. The screenwriters are the famous writer Boris Vasiliev and Kirill Rapoport.

And there is also a song… Such a song… “From the heroes of bygone times…” In the film, it is sung by the second director Vladimir Zlatoustovsky. Music by Rafail Khozan, poetry by Yevgeny Agranovsky, who went through the entire war. Without this song there would be no “Officers”.

Then Vasily Lanovoy sang it. Then Lanovoy, until his death, as long as he could walk, marched with a portrait of his father in the front row along with the president at the “Immortal Regiment” march-action.

From all this new meanings of “Officers” emerged.

This is how this movie feels and feels now. And “there is such a profession – to defend the Motherland.” Everything is correct.

THE GREAT MUTE

According to OTR, the best films of Charlie Chaplin. Every Sunday – hurry to see! Silent films from almost a hundred years ago, but I want to watch and admire. True art never dies.

“Without even saying a word, you said everything,” Lima sang correctly. This is about us, about each of us. We are all little people in this life, no matter how we swagger. We have both joys and misfortunes in half. And we suffer, and we have complexes, and we reflect, and we cry. And we wish ourselves happiness beyond belief. Well, you won’t be sick either.

To paraphrase, we all came out of Chaplin’s overcoat. Ryazanov, Danelia, Gaidai – all these are Soviet Charlie Chaplins. And the clown Pencil. And Leonid Engibarov, also a clown, which is the highest form of understanding life. And Kalyagin, “Aunt Charlie from Brazil, where many wild monkeys live in the forests,” isn’t that the same thing?

You know, they all had a small figurine of Chaplin at home – Roman Kartsev, Ilya Oleinikov, Mark Zakharov, and Raikin. The little man became grandiose. Not a monster, not a “Joker”, but the most beautiful in the world, because he found his Love.

That’s how Chaplin is – through thorns to the stars, through the funny to the great, through humiliation to dignity.

However, he always retains this dignity of his, no matter what happens. They beat us, but we grow stronger. True, he himself is not a fool to punch in response; “turn the other cheek” is not at all about Charlie.

He’s like that frog from a fairy tale: he climbs and climbs and finally knocks the sour cream into the butter. And it ends up at the top. Never gives up, despondency is a sin.

Charlie, the “funny weirdo,” gives hope to us all. And his funny stuff always has a subtext, not just “33 slaps in the head”, not just a cake in the face – but for what and for what reason. Not out of nowhere. A gesture where you burst out laughing and then burst into tears – this is already fate.

And why then the words? Let’s be silent, and rejoice, and be sad, of course. The great mute speaks – and this is wonderful!

BIM AND BOM

Bystrov and Arshavin, to be honest… No, a couple and whatnot! At the match between the leaders Zenit and Krasnodar, they again performed as a duet. They were united again, it turned out to be an encore.

Two famous football players in the recent past, two handsome men, masters of words. One is witty, like Zadornov, bright, like Utkin. The other one, never at a loss for a word, speaks the truth, regardless of faces, our quick, clear-eyed, straight-up young Lovchev.

Yes, they are a couple, listening to them is a pleasure. Just like Tarapunka and Shtepsel, Kartsev and Ilchenko, Veronika Mavrikievna and Avdotya Nikitichna… Yes, they are in this row.

Once wonderful football players, but now… We bring laughter and joy to people. When the sad and the funny are side by side. Entertain, enlighten. If I were Gennady Khazanov, I would take them to the Variety Theater.