Les aventures extraordinaires de Mister West au pays des bolcheviks

The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of Bolsheviks happens to be the most entertaining Soviet propaganda film I have ever seen (and as a student of Russian Studies, I have seen quite a few Soviet propaganda films). American Mr. West and his trusty companion—the cowboy Jeddie—go off to see the land of the Bolsheviks, which they are warned is chaotic and barbaric place. When they arrive, Jeddie is arrested (for lassoing and shooting a man in the fashion of a Clint Eastwood character) and Mr. West is taken in by a group of thieves. What unfolds is quite the tale. Kuleshov was a master of editing—he used editing of shots in order to make them something new, and that is seen in The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of Bolsheviks. For example, the closing scenes of the movie show a series of cuts—all quick scenes around Moscow pieced together. Even though Jeddie and Mr. West aren't in all of the scenes, viewers are under the impression that they are because of the way Kuleshov has pieced the cells together. On the propaganda side of things, the film is pretty easy to interpret. Jeddie and Mr. West—as Americans— symbolize American ignorance and all that is flawed with America—and therefore capitalism. The true Bolsheviks in the movie are portrayed as pure and good—showing that communism and Bolshevism is the true way to go. Mr. West is a highly entertaining movie—even if you are but a simple minded member of the proletariat.

This is truly an extraordinary film, even for the Golden age of the Soviet cinema. Documentary footage alone guarantees this film a niche in history (Church of Christ the Savior before its demolition, parade). Kuleshov's masterful montage should surprise no one, since the term "Kuleshov effect" wasn't coined out of thin air. Acting is superb, especially by Khokhlova and Vsevolod Pudovkin, himself at that time only a few years away from directorial fame and immortality. The flaws of the film are minor, and are a norm for the films of the time. The strengths are enormous, and make it a true masterpiece.

In the aristocratic dictionary, the Teutonic word "stereotype" means a set of characteristics or a fixed idea considered to represent a particular kind of person and that is a good description of "Neobychainye Priklyucheniya Mistera Vesta V Strane Bolshevikov"( The Extraordinary Adventures Of Mr. West In The Land Of The Bolsheviks ), directed by Herr Lev Kuleshov in the silent year of 1924. At this point it is not necessary to declare that this German count has a special, uncontrollable fondness for stereotypes…

The film depicts the extraordinary adventures of Mr. West in Moscow. Mr. West is an American tourist with a stereotyped idea of Russians, due to the American press. His innocence and credulity will be taken advantage of by a gang who kidnaps him and then behaves just as he expects Russian barbarians to behave. But thanks to one of his fellow countrymen, Elly and his faithful escort, cowboy Jeddy, Mr West escapes their claws and the true Bolsheviks present a radiant face of the country to their guest.

Herr Lev Kuleshov was one of the most important Russian film directors, a fundamental pioneer who formed in 1920, the Kuleshov workshop, a kind of film experimental lab where he gave classes to directors and actors who would later be famous and indispensable in the soviet film industry. In fact, an important group of those directors participated in this film satire as actors: Herr Vsevolod Pudovkin, Herr Sergei Komarov and Herr Boris Barnet ( these last two directed later important silent comedies during their careers.

In "Neobychainye…" Herr Kuleshov merrily uses and abuses stereotypes on both sides of iron curtain; classic iconographies and stereotypes of American capitalists and Russian Bolsheviks. It is very healthy and easy laughing out loud at your capitalist neighbours but it is even better laughing at yourself, with the permission of the communist party, natürlich!!.

This early U.S.R.R. comedy was influenced by the pre-war comedies of Herr Max Linder and André Deed, very famous in Russia at those times, as well as American westerns and European serials, different film genres whose spirit is absorbed and satirized in this mad comedy that includes car chases, a confused but efficient cowboy loose in Moscow and a chaotic gang formed by diverse members.

The film has frantic and funny moments especially during the first half of the film when those stereotypes mentioned before create hilarity with crazy situations, and a display of a kind of harmless Russian sense of humour. The film slows down in pace in the second half when the unavoidable propaganda appears and finally Mr. West is seduced by the Bolsheviks and declares his passion for Lenin after attending a typical military parade at Moscow's Red Square (that was really funny for this stereotyped German count…)

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must resume his decadent and stereotyped Teutonic existence.

The adventures of Mr. West in the land of the Bolsheviks is as bizarre and absurd as its title. Most interesting for us Westerners is the stereotypes portrayed of the Bolsheviks and the Americans themselves. Ignorance is universal, I suppose. All in all, the film is rather funny and Kuleshov's use of the Soviet montage techniques popularised by the period is fascinating for any student or fan of film.

This is amazing cinematic evasion that should be taught in film schools in place of Nouvelle Vague. Both assert that life is a movie and performance, but look how cleverly this one does and how early.

Mr. West travels from America to the land of the Bolsheviks, imagine him as a Harold Lloyd type businessman, erratic and wide-eyed, accompanied by a cowboy grunt as his bodyguard. He has been told upon departure that the Bolsheviks are a certain way, chaotic and violent, a turbulent, lawless country, this is rendered as a propagandistic brochure that he keeps with him the whole journey, a set of false - staged - images depicting imaginary enemies.

Soon as he arrives, a plot is set around him. His cowboy strongman almost immediately has been embroiled in an action movie, a western where he hot-headedly shoots guns and chases wagons, but the wrong wagon as it turns out, imaginary enemies and plot. He ends up in prison and is removed from the movie until the finale. No, our guy will have to fend off on his own.

The plot is set up by Russians to exploit his naivety, his utter disconnect with reality fostered by a life lived from images that don't correspond, but the film is careful to assert that none of these Russians is a Bolshevik. The shady group includes an aesthete and swindler, a count and his sultry wife, a one-eyed hunchback, a gang of thieves, chosen to reflect one in the other and all of them together the old days of the decadent Tsarist regime. They set up a movie around him where he is kidnapped by Bolsheviks and has to pay his way out, acting roles, wearing costumes, scripting situations, and no better clue about this that the director of the whole farce is played by Vsevolod Pudovkin.

So once again, false images, staged life that stifles willful action. Mr. West is a pliant puppet in their hands, being swept by illusion.

Oh, Bolsheviks show up in the finale, real Bolsheviks, fair, handsome, resolute, and we may concede that the film has perfectly played out its agitprop value. Bad guys are put behind bars. Mr. West is taken on a tour of the real Bolshevik Russia, worker's university, Bolshoi, factories, everything clean and orderly. He sends word back home that he renounces the falsehoods of capitalism and embraces Lenin. Censors are pleased and everyone's happy.

But Kuleshov was no ordinary talent, even inside this group of very talented makers. I maintain he was the most intelligent of them. He understood the mechanics of film by actually dismantling old films and assembling again for the eye. He was very fond of Hollywood and the West.

So look at the last couple of minutes again. Mr. West is taken to a balcony overseeing a parade of proud Soviet regiments, crowds cheering at the sides. In light of what transpired, what else but staged life and false image?

This is amazing, the pride of a perfectly orchestrated collective performance itself the indictment. But dismantling is not over. He's finally escorted to a radio station, ministry controlled and not arbitrarily named Continuous Waves, where manufactured reality is broadcast.

Pudovkin would use this notion of radio-transmitted reality 10 years later for his first sound film, Dezertir, but himself a staunch communist, would only posit the dialectic across Marxist lines.