Piraty XX veka

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 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.

It was the first action movie made in banned in USSR Hollywood action style. It is not even close to the Hollywood action movies of that time. The plot is childish, the directing is so-so. This movie succeeded because it was first of its kind in Russia. Even though I watched it many times I have to admit it was kind of naive and I did not like it. This is not the best example of Russian action movie. This is just the first experience.

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.

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.