Over the 70 years that have passed since the Victory Day, a lot of film works, including feature films, were shot about the Great Patriotic War. Among them, a special place is occupied by the film of Sergei Bondarchuk "They Fought for the Homeland." Actors who starred in this film at the 16th Panama Film Festival (1976) received an award for best performance of the roles of soldiers. It was an unprecedented event of awarding immediately 27 actors. However, such a decision of the jury was quite logical, since each of the winners played his part with incredible skill, and among them it would be difficult to single out one.
About the film
Nobel laureate Mikhail Sholokhov created several memorable works about the war. Among them, a special place is occupied by the novel "They Fought for the Homeland", on which the writer worked from 1942 to 1969.
In the year of the 30th anniversary of the Great Victory, director Sergei Bondarchuk took up his film adaptation, in which the most famous stars of Soviet cinema were invited. The film turned out to be unusually piercing and humane.
Large-scale battle scenes in the picture are replaced by everyday ones, and dialogues allow you to penetrate the psychology of heroes, each of whom was torn out of the usual daily routine and became the defender of his country.
Throughout the work on the painting, Bondarchuk consulted with Sholokhov himself, who began to write his novel, so to speak, in hot pursuit, after visiting the arena of military operations. This explains a certain documentary of the film, which was noted by all the front-line soldiers present at its premiere.
What is the secret to the success of the film "They Fought for the Homeland"? The actors and roles in it are matched incredibly accurately. In modern language, a brilliant director could not have created such a masterpiece if it had not been for a successful casting. After all, every artist whom the viewer sees from the screen, as if playing himself, with his personal experiences, longing for a peaceful life and a desire to take revenge on the enemy who destroyed the familiar world.
Vasily Shukshin
When they recall the film “They Fought for their Homeland”, the actors in which played to the brink of their capabilities, first of all they call the image of Peter Lopakhin. This was the last role of Vasily Shukshin, who died during the filming. Instead, Igor Efimov was invited to voice the picture . Shukshin masterfully played a cynic, which, however, is not alien to heroism. The image turned out to be so truthful and devoid of gloss, which in the Soviet cinema was endowed with the defenders of the Fatherland, which the audience remembered for a long time.
Vyacheslav Tikhonov
After the famous role of Stirlitz in the cult “Seventeen Moments of Spring”, it was difficult for viewers to perceive their favorite artist in a shabby tunic and with a face covered with a thick layer of dirt. However, a few minutes after the start of watching the film, it became clear that it was he who was supposed to play Nikolai Streltsov in the film "They Fought for their Homeland." The actors who worked on the same site with Tikhonov, in particular Vasily Shukshin, formed an excellent ensemble with him. They complement each other and form a holistic image of the soldier of that Great War.
In addition, it is precisely the scene where the wounded Streltsov tries to crawl out of the trench in order to attack the certain death with his comrades, is one of the strongest in the picture.
Nonna Mordyukova
One of the most significant roles in the film is the image of Natalia Stepanovna. Prior to this work, Nonna Mordyukova played in the movie a lot of roles of real Russian women who can bear any burdens on their shoulders and at the same time retain the ability to love. In the picture, Bondarchuk Natalya Stepanovna is in the field of vision of Lopakhin, who even in the war did not lose interest in the opposite sex. However, his courtship does not lead to anything, and he is forced to retreat, ashamed of the heroine Mordyukova, waiting for her husband, who is in the hospital.
Yury Nikulin
In the film, this artist, known for his comedic roles and work in the circus, performed in a completely different role. Moreover, almost all the actors in the film “They Fought for their Homeland” treated Yuri Nikulin in a special way. After all, the artist was a veteran of the Great Patriotic War and was justly proud of his medals “For Courage”, “For Victory over Germany” and “For the Defense of Leningrad”. In the film, he embodied the image of Private Nekrasov - an ordinary Russian man who, in a moment of danger to his homeland, becomes a soldier and, gritting his teeth, goes to the enemy.
Andrey Rostotsky
In the film Bondarchuk starred for the most part already very famous actors. “They fought for their homeland” brought together real stars. However, the picture brought fame at that time to the very young artist Andrei Rostotsky. As a schoolboy, he attended classes in the creative workshop of Sergei Bondarchuk at VGIK, and the master invited him to star in the role of corporal Kochetigov. In the picture, the hero of Rostotsky dies, knocking out an enemy tank. At the same time, the young actor performs the first trick of his career, which to this day could not be repeated by any other stuntman.
Sergey Bondarchuk
All the actors who starred in the film “They Fought for the Homeland” subsequently admired the director’s work on the set. Moreover, Bondarchuk played in the picture the role of private Ivan Zvyagintsev, who was a combine operator before the war and cannot calmly look at the damage that the war caused to the farmers. He participates in the two most powerful scenes: when a thin nurse takes him out of the battlefield, and in the hospital. In the latter, his partner is Innokenty Smoktunovsky, who brilliantly played the role of a surgeon. As a former front-line soldier, Bondarchuk endowed his hero with the features that he saw among the people with whom he went on the attack in the years of his youth.
George Burkov
In the picture, the actor played the role of Private Alexander Kopytovsky. Burkov was a close friend of Shukshin, so the joint scenes of the actors who sympathize with each other in the film look very convincing. In both there is nothing heroic, as well as the desire to die for an idea. However, the enemy who invaded their huge house, whose name is the Motherland, causes them hatred and makes them go under the bullets in spite of everything and everything.
Now you know who starred in the film "They Fought for the Homeland." Actors, photos of which were familiar to every Soviet person, played their best roles in this film. They managed to truthfully show the image of a simple soldier, thanks to which the Great Victory was achieved.