In the autumn of the past year, the Russia-1 television channel pleased the viewer with the action-packed series Ashes. The reviews, however, were mixed, despite the chic promotion arranged long before the show. Mentioned and exciting story, and the stellar composition of the picture. What were the critics dissatisfied with?
So, in 1938, the captain of the Red Army Igor Petrov (played by Vladimir Mashkov) awaits Stalin's dungeons. At the same time, the thief Senka Pepel (Evgeny Mironov) was carrying looted jewelry on the eve of the thieves' common fund. Heroes are found in a train compartment. Along the way, accomplices attack the Ashes, but Captain Petrov intervenes in the brawl at a crucial moment. Now he has in his hands the blood-stained body of a thief and a bag full of jewels. Petrov grabs the chance to avoid being arrested and, having changed into Senka’s clothes (not forgetting to dress an unconscious thief in his uniform) and grabbing treasures, he hides in an inconspicuous village. Then the ashes with Petrov’s documents would wake up in a military hospital and fall into the hands of the NKVD, and the former Red Army soldier would be in the clutches of bandits demanding that the common fund be returned to them.
The Great Patriotic War begins. Passed officer training from a cellmate - an unyielding military personnel (Vladimir Gostyukhin) - Senka, and now "captain Petrov", successfully fights and is promoted to the rank of colonel. And the former Red Army man puts together a gang that seizes from the Nazis the values ​​that they are preparing for export to Germany. After the war, a gang disguised as prospectors is working in a mine and robbing gold mined there. The fates of the former thief and former officer clashed in Karelia: now Colonel "Petrov" must catch the dangerous and cunning "Ashes". The stumbling block is Rita, the wife of the real Petrov, who is forced to become the wife of Petrov fictional. For her sake, the heroes are ready to forget both duty and honor, and thieves' ethics. She is a tragic victim of a substitution story.
I do not believe, gentlemen!
What did the “Ashes” (series) reviews of film critics cause? Television observer Arina Borodina lacked credibility. She reproached the creators of the series in the absence of logic and psychological background of the actions of the heroes. Let us close our eyes to the remark that after the rivers of blood shed during torture, the clothes of the heroes remain immaculately clean. Suppose this is a convention. Countless coincidences in which the characters always find themselves (and with those) where necessary, can also be called an artistic device. But why would such an officer be right at the beginning of the film, who responds to his wife’s alarmed offer to hide from arrest, refuses and goes on the subpoena to suddenly become a seasoned criminal? And Senka Ash with his dark past does not look too believable in the guise of a courageous and noble order-bearing colonel who survived inhuman torture. True, in order not to be exposed, he sometimes has to dissemble and dodge. And this also does not add integrity to the character that the authors are trying to recreate.
A bomb, not a movie!
And what kind of reviews did the creators leave for their work on the film “Ashes”? The scandalous writer and blogger Eduard Bagirov, who co-wrote the script with Renat Khayrullin, on the eve of the premiere guaranteed that the series “tear to pieces” all previously existing projects. Director Vadim Perelman (a Hollywood celebrity, but originally from the USSR) was also confident that the film was doomed to success. Producer Timur Weinstein had no doubt that it was "a whole new level for domestic television." It was rumored that the film would compete with the "Place of Meeting" (referring to the picture of S. Govorukhin). Indeed, there are some alliterations: cigar ash as a business card of a bandit at a crime scene, understanding Peple-Petrov’s glances at a thief’s offender at a thieves ’gathering, etc. There is enough suspense and action in both films, but in the Govorukhinsky tape the plot was built according to all the laws detective genre, and it was clear who the criminal and who the hero. In Ashes there is no such clarity, as there is not a single unconditionally positive hero.
Schnifer, not a bear cub
Critical about the series "Ashes" reviews of police pros. Gennady Sarychev, an employee of the modern MUR, noted that Ashes were incorrectly called a bear cub in the frame. They crack the safes roughly, cutting holes in the metal and unscrewing the lid. The masterly work of master keys, and even for several minutes, until the cigarette has gone out, is called the art of the sniffer. Unlike filmmakers who shot domestic detective stories, the creators of Ashes did not contact the police department for information.
Do not sharpen the red pencil
Not so picky and categorical about the series "Ashes" reviews of most moviegoers. They call discrepancies with chronology, geography and texture trifles, but they highly appreciate the rich, far from banal plot and fascinating psychological intrigue. So you should not watch this movie with a red pencil at the ready and notice the “bloopers”. What is really dear to the viewer is the embodiment (albeit on the screen) of a dream to live not only his own, but another, radically opposite fate.
Can the film finale be considered open? Where with a broken heart rushes on a motorcycle over a car broken under the bridge by Petrov-Pepel, and did his enemy manage to survive again? The authors do not promise to continue the story. But if it happens, the film “Ashes” (2013), reviews of which present an interesting duel of opinions, will remain one of the most significant events in the annals of Russian cinema history.