Piraty XX veka

Officially the first martial arts movie in USSR cinematography featuring actual martial artists like Tadeush Kas'yanov and Russian Bruce Lee - Talgat Nigmatullin. Bad people highjack a ship in the high seas but fortunately just about everybody on board is a trained martial artist. A collectible for martial arts aficionado.

The basic temptation - to compare it with the American hijaking films. the basic sin - to ignore the context when it was made. and, not the last, to ignore the story. sure, many cliches. and fight scenes. and the brave sailors . but the film is more than part from a too familiar series. it is nice, unrealistic - so amusing, chaotic and full of precise pieces of Soviet entertainment . result - its succes. and the perspective from today about a new tool of propaganda in Brezhnev era.

Exotic locations, big guns, long, tan legs, martial arts -- this movie had everything Soviet teens so longed to see. Back in the days when Rocky and Rambo where denounced as propaganda of violence, VCR's were scarce and movie tickets still cost 50 kopeks, the question to any Russian young man was not whether he saw "The Pirates of the XX Century", but how many times.

A "10" in the 1979 Soviet Union, it is no match for today's Die Hard type movies. It does not have the THX sound, or big budget explosions, or even a big star, who can not only flex muscles, but deliver a large than life emotional performance. In fact, it is more realistic than Die Hard in that it pitches a whole ship's crew against the bad guys, rather than a superhuman loner. Naturally, there are talented and brave leaders, but every deck hand gets an important job he has to carry out before the Soviet freighter, hijacked by the modern day pirates, is freed. A concept so close to the Soviet propagandists' hearts that the movie actually made it to the screens - the first of its kind. It paved the way to many more homegrown action flicks, some better, most worse, all eventually beaten out by Hollywood. But if one wants to know what stuff the Russian boys of the 80's are made of, "Piraty" is a must.

The partisan attitude towards 'popular cinema' is something unhealthy which should bother any genuine cinéphile. It is the lack of interest to appreciate unknown films especially if they belong to 'popular cinema' genre. This lackadaisical attitude of disinterestedness compels many viewers to denigrate popular cinema. This is an extremely unhealthy trend which is detrimental to the growth as well as appreciation of popular cinema. Russian film "Pirates of the 20th century" can also be said to be a victim of this bizarre syndrome as most viewers tend to associate Russian filmmaking to author films, films which are made by cinéastes with their own ideas about the whole process of filmmaking. What makes this film by director Boris Durov interesting is that it came at a time when advanced technology was not available in Russia to shoot adventure films. Despite this obstacle, this film has managed to be recognized as a thriller which reveals the goodness of Russian people. 'Pirates of the 20th century' was shot on an idyllic location with some good shots of underwater photography. Its success was replicated by other national cinemas too. For example : A Hindi language film "Samrat" with some famous actors was released in 1982. When it was shown during a prime time slot on India's sole television network 'Doordarshan' in 1985, according to a rough estimate "Pirates of the 20th century" managed to garner a total of more than 5 million viewers.

_Pirates of the XX Century_ was (and is) the highest grossing film in Soviet Russian history. It was released in 1980 and reflected growing interest not only in American and Hong Kong film genres like action and martial arts, but also a desire to see other, more exotic, locations than were physically possible for average Soviet citizens. From the perspective of someone living in the year 2003 and continually bombarded with action-adventure blockbusters that contain nothing apart from advanced special effects, this movie is not incredibly successful. The historical context of the film is absolutely necessary to understand why this film was so radical and so popular in its time and place. Soviet cinema in the 1960s and 1970s was a high art cinema by and large, and was only marginally geared toward so-called popular tastes. _Pirates_ dispensed with narrative development almost entirely, and was more interested in action sequences, the iconography of which attempted to touch upon adolescent fantasy. On another level, the Soviet government's allowance of this film to be made represents greater attention to the profit-making potential of cinematic products. Thus, the appearance of _Pirates_ indicates a certain transformation of notions of the enlightened Soviet film spectator toward a conception of the film-goer as consumer, much as is consistent with views in capitalist countries. In any case, this film is certainly worth your time if you have any interest in the cultural politics of the former Soviet Union