The film “Warrior”, reviews of which became almost the most discussed topic of the outgoing year, was produced by Fyodor Bondarchuk and was released in October 2015. Advertising of the upcoming premiere was widely broadcast on central television channels, viewers expected to see something extraordinary. Did you manage to surprise the audience with good Russian cinema this time?
The creators of the picture
“Good” Russian cinema could not do without an American screenwriter: the script “Warrior” was bought up by David Frigerio, who was also creating a script for the mediocre film “Signal”, which was released in 2014. He was engaged in adapting the creation of the American “maestro” to Russian reality Ilya Tilkin ("Grigory R.").
In fact, Bondarchuk’s film is a copy
of the 2011
American film starring Tom Hardy.
The film "Warrior", reviews of which can hardly be called unambiguous, was staged by Alexei Andrianov, who in 2012 made his debut with the full-length film "Spy" with Daniil Kozlovsky in the title role.
The producers of sports drama were Fedor Bondarchuk and Dmitry Rudovsky.
Fedor Bondarchuk as Andrey
The film "Warrior", the reviews of which are very numerous, allowed Fedor Bondarchuk to appear in public in a completely new role. In the film, which Bondarchuk himself produced, he singled out for himself the role of Andrei, the father of two brothers who are destined to meet in the same duel.
Andrey is a former successful boxing trainer who, after leaving sports, turns into a Kaliningrad fisherman. In the family of the former coach, too, everything does not go well: his two sons, Roman and Slava, do not communicate either with him or with each other. When an international mixed battle tournament with a large prize pool appears on the horizon, each of the brothers decides to win it. To Andrei comes his youngest son Romka and asks him to train.
Fyodor Bondarchuk in this picture moved away from the usual roles of businessmen and womanizer. On the contrary, in “Warrior” he got an unpopular character and thrown to the sidelines by life. A big plus can be put Bondarchuk for the fact that he still decided on such an experiment.
Vladimir Yaglych as Glory
Vladimir Yaglych also deals with mixed fights in his life, so God himself ordered him to play Glory - one of the participants in the duel. Only two to three months were allocated for preparations for the shooting. During this time, it would hardly have been possible to “train” any other actor in boxing. Maybe that’s why the star of the paintings “We are from the Future” and “Five Brides” got into the film “Warrior”?
Reviews about the actor’s game, however, are mostly positive. It immediately catches the eye that Vladimir did his best on the set. His character Slava is in a difficult situation: he urgently needs money to treat a seriously ill child. To get them, the character of Yaglych will have to destroy his brother in the ring.
Vladimir Yaglych himself does not pay attention to criticism of the painting “The Warrior” and is convinced that this adaptation was worth removing, as it looks more spectacular in the Russian interpretation. Most likely, after such a prominent role in Russian cinema, there will be another popular movie star.
Svetlana Khodchenkova as Katya
If we talk about film critics, then they did not regret the picture "Warrior" - reviews of the film were devastating. But the project allowed another actress to reveal from a completely unexpected side - Svetlana Khodchenkova.
After the obedient and correct girls roles that Khodchenkova received at the beginning of her career, in recent years the actress managed to step forward: Svetlana managed to break into Hollywood, play the villain in the blockbuster X-Men, the manic lady in the horror movie, the spy, the alcoholic poetess and many other roles unusual for her. Now Khodchenkova also has the role of a stripper, because this is what the heroine of the actress in the film "Warrior" does.
Katya is the wife of Glory. Together they are the parents of a seriously ill child. Spouses rack their brains over where to find money for the treatment of their daughter. Katya decides to get a job as a dancer in a port club. But this does not save the family budget. Then Glory goes to earn money for fights without rules.
“Warrior”: Bondarchuk. Reviews about the actor’s game
A storm of indignation among the audience caused a game by Sergei Bondarchuk Jr. So far, there are only four films in the filmography of the aspiring actor, but it is embarrassing that the father of the young man (“Stalingrad” and “Warrior”) is related to two of them, and Sergey got into the Thaw only because someone had to play his famous grandfather. The drama Champions, in which Sergey will again play the main role, will be released only in 2016.
As for the drama "Warrior", reviews of the film show that this is not the best work of Sergei. In this film, he got the main role - a former marine and brother of Glory Roman. According to the plot, Roman is the second contender for the victory in the championship in mixed battles and is forced to confront his brother in the ring.
The main positive point is that off-screen Sergey is regularly engaged in mixed martial arts, so the scene of the battle of Bondarchuk and Yaglych is pretty high quality.
Alexander Baluev in the role of Kulikov
"Warrior", reviews of which in October could be read in many newspapers, was the next film work of the famous artist Alexander Baluev.
Alexander Baluyev has an extensive filmography. He graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School and first made his debut on the screen in 1981 in the cult film "Investigators Are Conducting Investigations." True, Baluev then got a cameo role, but very soon the actor proved that he can be trusted and the main roles. In 1988, Baluev played the twin brothers of the Udaltsovs in the film “The Kerosene Wife”. But Alexander Baluyev’s films were made popular by completely different films - the drama “Life Line” and “Bless the Woman”, and the series “Maroiseika-12” and “Special Forces”.
In the film "Warrior" Baluev got the role of a negative character - a certain Kulikov. The image of Alexander did not have any interesting nuances, he simply played the villain in all his vile beauty. Therefore, the actor “The Warrior” did not become something significant.
Critic reviews
Critics of the movie “Warrior” reviews wrote mostly negative. A critic of the Moscow newspaper Time-out notes the spectacle of screen battles, but reproaches the director and screenwriter for the incoherence and emptiness of the dialogues, as well as for transferring the American plot to “unsuitable realities for him”.
Empire newspaper generally called the film “Chinese fake”, and the newspaper “New Look” saw Adriyanov’s attempt to create a kind of famous Russian action movie “Brother” in the new film. But The Hollywood reporter praises the film, but again, a positive assessment relates to screen fights and the overall concept of the picture, but not its embodiment.
Why did critics so unanimously take the film negatively? Did the film “Warrior” by Bondarchuk really deserve such reviews? What do the viewers say?
"Warrior" (Russia): viewers reviews
After the release of “The Warrior”, that rare case was observed when both critics and viewers gave the same rating to the film. Only the game of several actors is positively evaluated, as well as the setting of fights. In other cases, 9 out of 10 spectator reviews are negative. The complaints are the same: what does Sergey Bondarchuk do in this picture, why was this mediocre remake filmed, etc.? Why is this happening?
No matter how much they say that the Russian viewer is not particularly spoiled, he still feels a lie. And the film "Warrior" is thoroughly saturated with it. Not because the actors did not try to justify the actions of their heroes, but because it was impossible to do so. It can be seen with a naked eye that a purely American plot was torn out of American realities and transferred to Russian conditions, where "this cannot be, because it cannot be in principle."
Lies and absurdities flicker even in small things. Well, what kind of international association will hold an international tournament in mixed fights with a millionth prize pool in a provincial town? Who will come to watch this tournament in such a wilderness? Why speculate and squeeze a tear from the viewer, mixing the child’s disease in this plot as well? What tips can a stripper heroine Svetlana Khodchenkova get in a small port town? It seems that the scriptwriter “randomly” attributed the profession to Catherine, if only a spectacular number using a pole appeared in the picture. In a word, there are more questions than there are answers to. And behind this is a frank lack of logic and a pile of useless facts from the life of the main characters.
So the Russian film “Warrior” received not very good reviews. And this "slap in the face" is directed specifically towards the scriptwriters, producers and the director of the project.