Making films about the war is always difficult, especially if it is civilian. Indeed, in such fratricidal chaos, it is difficult to understand who is right and who is to blame. Despite this, both in Soviet times and today they like to make films about the revolutionary events of the beginning of the last century. One of the most recent examples is the 2016 film Hero. Let's find out what he is talking about, what artists starred in this project and most importantly - how the audience and critics met the tape.
The Hero (2016)
The director of this tape was Yuri Vasiliev. The premiere of the project in the Russian Federation took place on March 31, 2016.
The film "Hero" was shot on the basis of the novel of the same name. However, the plot of the book covered too many events, so when adapting the material to the movie script, I had to throw away many points. For this reason, inconsistencies are felt in the picture.
In addition to the Russian hire, “Hero” was also shown in South Korea, China and Turkey. In total, he collected more than 1.5 million dollars, with a budget of 7 million. For this reason, the picture is considered a failure, from a commercial point of view.
Entertaining facts
- At first, instead of Bilan, it was planned to invite Danila Kozlovsky. However, due to employment in other projects, the artist was not able to play “Hero”.
- Dima Bilan had to learn to ride a horse, and also grow a beard.
- Filming took place in Paris and Vilnius.
- The draft title of the tape was “Music in Ice”.
Plot
The film considers two love stories: Lieutenant Andrei Dolmatov and Princess Vera Chernysheva during the events of 1914-1918; as well as their descendants living in the modern world - Andrei Kulikov and Vera Yezerskaya.
Shortly before the 1917 revolution, Dolmatov and Chernysheva became acquainted. Young people fall in love, but they have to part because of the war, which smoothly moved from world to civil.
After the previous system fell, most nobles and wealthy citizens of the empire were forced to either find a common language with the new government or to flee the country. However, Dolmatov remained faithful to duty, and until the end he fought on the side of the nobility.
Faith was a match for her beloved. Instead of escaping, she got a job as a nurse of mercy in a military hospital.
After going through many trials, Andrei and Vera meet again. Dolmatov realizes that their movement is doomed to death. Therefore, he wants the princess to emigrate to Paris, promising her that she will come soon.
However, the lieutenant was not destined to fulfill his promise - he died in the battle. But Vera did not find out about this, since she had previously died of consumption.
100 years pass. A descendant of Dolmatov, a young auto mechanic Andrei Kulikov, comes to Paris. It turns out that even during the Civil War, the lieutenant was saved from execution by the daughter of the merchant Maria Kulikova. Being delirious, the hero spent the night with her, believing that Vera was with him. The nobleman never found out that after 9 months Masha had a son born from him - Andrei’s grandfather.
In Paris, a young man accidentally meets a charming girl named Vera. He falls in love with her and tries to find. In parallel, the hero learns the story of his great-grandfather. In the finale, he finds his lover - the great-granddaughter of Vera Chernysheva. The girl responds to his feelings, and young people are happy together for themselves and for their less fortunate ancestors.
main characters
In the center of all events is Lieutenant Dolmatov, who, in fact, is the very hero about whom the film was made. It is presented to the audience as a person of honor. It is for this reason that he does not escape to Paris, but fights to the last and dies heroically.
His beloved Princess Vera is a match for lieutenant. The irony is that closer to the denouement, Dolmatov realizes that their position in life is not viable in this country. However, he himself cannot afford to escape, but at the same time he saves his beloved by lying to her.
The descendant of Dolmatov Kulikov is a more practical young man. To earn a living, he agrees to participate in a scam. But later in Andrei, a family nobility wakes up, and he corrects everything.
As for Vera Yezerskaya, this heroine is poorly spelled out by the scriptwriters, so she is perceived as a copy of Princess Chernysheva.
In addition to lovers from the past and present, in the tape there is another couple, more precisely, a love triangle. This is the sister of the main character - Irina and two men in love with her. One is the brilliant nobleman Baron Ivan von Lieven.
And the other is a former shopkeeper Tereshchenko, who managed to make a fortune during the collapse of the country.
Project actors
The cast of the tape is somewhat unusual. The two main male roles - Andreev - were played by the popular singer Dima Bilan. This is his first film work.
Unlike Bilan, the role of Vera was performed by professional artist Svetlana Ivanova.
The role of her sister is the Lithuanian actress and model Jurgita Jurkute. The parents of the princesses were played by Tatyana Lutaeva and Vladislav Vetrov.
The roles of Irina’s admirers were played by such actors of the film “Hero” (2016) as Alexander Baluev (Tereshchenko) and Marat Basharov (von Lieven).
The merchant daughter in love with Dolmatova was played by Julia Peresild.
Also in the film, Alexander Golovin starred in the role of Alexei Repnin.
Criticism reviews of the film “Hero” (2016)
This film was highly appreciated by foreign film critics at the Monaco Charity Film Festival. “Hero” entered the top three finalists and received awards for directing and producing work, as well as in the category “Best Actor”.
As for Russian critics, they did not particularly comment on the release of the picture. They are difficult to judge for this, because 2016 was recognized as the Year of Russian cinema, and over 1000 full-length films were released throughout its duration. It was simply physically problematic to view and comment on such an amount of video material.
However, there were still those who were able to devote time to this picture. it
Denis Gorelov from GQ, Andrey Arkhangelsky from Ogonyok and Evgeny Ukhov from Empire.
How did they meet the "Hero"? All these critics characterized the tape as too superficial, as for historical. By the reliability of everything depicted in it, she was ironically compared with the Hollywood cartoon Anastasia. They also drew parallels with the Admiral, and obviously not in favor of the Hero.
Despite all the flaws, Gorelov and Arkhangelsky nevertheless noted the advantages of the project in their reviews of the film “Hero” (2016). Among them, a good job of dressers and cameraman, as well as a good acting ensemble.
At the same time, both critics ironically commented on the chanting of Paris, which takes place in the tape.
But Evgeny Ukhov more negatively assessed the project. Among the moments criticized is that in the end, instead of singing love for the Fatherland and the nobility of its defenders, the tape, on the contrary, showed them from the most unsightly side. According to the critic, “Hero” is a living example of how inspirational pictures should not be made. ”
Reviews of the audience about the film "Hero" (2016)
If professional specialists reacted to the tape coolly, then how did the audience, consisting of ordinary people, perceive it?
Contradictory. Some in their reviews of the film “Hero” (2016) call him a real masterpiece, admiring the love story of the main characters and their noble deeds. Others consider the tape an unsuccessful attempt to copy Admiral.
Sometimes in reviews of the film “Hero” (2016) he is called the longest video by Dima Bilan.
There is some truth in such ironic remarks. The picture is really more like a video sequence from a clip, rather than a related art narration.
As for the play of artists, the most praise went to Alexander Baluyev. Many viewers claimed that he played so realistically that he managed to arouse a genuine feeling of hatred in them. But the audience considered the work of Marat Basharov weaker than its usual level.
The game of Svetlana Ivanova received no special comments in the reviews of the film “Hero” (2016). Some call it expressionless. However, it is rather the fault not of the actress, but of the scriptwriters who made both of her heroines too bland.
But the performer of the role of her sister - Yurgite Yurkut - went for her Lithuanian accent, which the Russian princess could hardly have had at the beginning of the 20th century.
A lot of criticism was expressed about the plot and chronological inconsistencies.
According to all reviews of the film “Hero” (2016) on “KinoPoisk” earned a rating of 5.576 out of a possible 10.
How did the audience evaluate the acting of Dima Bilan?
Considering the audience’s reaction to the “Hero”, it is worth noting separately how the work of Dima Bilan was perceived.
As you know, good musicians are far from always great artists. So, for example, Vera Brezhneva in the epic "Love in the Big City" and "8 Best Dates" looks good. But when the singer tries to play, she turns out to be very mediocre.
Fortunately, Dima Bilan was an exception to this rule. In reviews of the film “Hero” (2016), his excellent game was noted not only by fans of the singer, but also by professional critics and ordinary viewers.
Image of the nobility in the project
In addition to all of the above, in many reviews the too one-sided image of the nobility in the picture is criticized.
The life of the noble protagonists is covered in a nostalgic haze: balls, graceful outfits and manners, brilliant uniforms and men with proud officer dressing. Looking at this, you really begin to ask questions: “If everything was so good and the aristocrats were all so noble, why did the revolution happen? What did the people lack under such rulers? ”
This is one of the main problems of the film, which both spectators and critics point to: it does not even show the approximately reverse side of this whole carefree life. So, while the princesses danced at balls in luxurious dresses and learned to drive a car, tens of thousands of girls throughout the empire went in rags and worked for 10-12 hours a day so as not to starve to death. Moreover, they were not only illiterate peasant women, but also bourgeois or daughters of ruined aristocrats.
What can we say about Dolmatov or von Lieven, who lived on everything ready and their main occupation was to boast of their own nobility and to overlook the princes.
It is not clear what stood behind their beautiful phrases about the Fatherland and what they put into this word? Indeed, judging by the plot, they really did not know anything about the state system or economy of the empire, and did not want to know. The fate of the people with their problems was not at all interested. It turns out that for the main characters, the Fatherland is their way of life. However, what about ordinary viewers, the descendants of those same workers and peasants whom the noble Dolmatovs had oppressed for centuries? Why start sympathizing with such heroes?
The creation of one of the main negative characters, the shopkeeper Tereshchenko, looks rather strange against this background. Princess Irina constantly reproached him for his low origin, money, etc. In the finale, she leaves him for the "pretty plucked, but undefeated" baron. And she doesn’t forget to take with her a heavy suitcase, where, probably, “everything that has been acquired by excessive labor”. It is strange that such a desire did not visit her when the vile shopkeeper exported all her relatives from Russia and paid for their accommodation in Paris.
From the foregoing, we can conclude that the noble nobility in the "Hero" is shown in a very disgusting way and for sane people does not cause admiration and nostalgia, but, on the contrary, disgust and contempt.
I want to say a few more words in defense of Tereshchenko. It is not clear what guided the creators of the project when they created this image.
Its real prototype - the owner of sugar refineries Mikhail Ivanovich Tereshchenko - although he was a “upstart”, but at the same time he was one of the smartest and most educated people of his time. He spoke 13 languages, taught at Moscow University, was well versed in music, literature, ballet and possessed one of the largest collections of works of art in the empire. And this is all besides his active entrepreneurial activity.
Unlike purebred aristocrats sung by the Hero, who were only inclined to read poems, Tereshchenko actively supported their authors, publishing at his own expense poems of many poets of the Silver Age.
After emigration, he lost his fortune. However, once in Paris, he managed to start all over again and get rich again. Moreover, it was he who for many years did not let the majority of Russian blue blood immigrants die of starvation, many of whom did not know how to do anything, and did not really seek to learn new life. Moreover, he preferred to keep his charity secret, so as not to offend the pride of the former princes and barons.
If about whom it would be worth making a film with the name "Hero", then this is just about Tereshchenko. And not about the nearby lieutenant, who dishonored the girl who saved him and left him pregnant. And instead of taking responsibility for the fate of another woman (which, in his own words, he loved), the man actually left her to the mercy of fate in a foreign country, preferring himself to die “heroically”. Is this a role model?