The world in my pocket
4 robbers and a woman get together to make a robbery of a lifetime. Will they succeed and will the money bring happiness they've been missing?
This is the question that this movie (actually a 3 part series showed on Soviet TV) is asking us.
The plot is very true to the the original novel by James Hadley Chase, a Brittish author, who was wildly popular in Soviet Union. Most of his books took place in USA, without him actually living there, instead he constucted the books and dialog from travelogues and slang dictionaries. This gave the books a somewhat artificial feel. The movie, made "foreign" by a couple of ad boards but mostly getting a lot of cars on the road, shares this feeling of being fake. Every russian could recognize the armoured truck to be a pimped up Lada Niva. But in general, it was pretty convincing, especially with all the americans they could put on the road at the same time, but also casting non-russian actors who looked more foreign. One amusing tidbit besides the Niva is seeing a Captain America T-shirt on the boy who makes friends with the robbers. That could've been a Marvel hero debut behind the Iron Curtain.
Besides the technical side, what drags you in is the always impressive work of Latvian master of detective: Aloizs Brencs. He introduces the players early, and by using simple means builds a compelling technical and psychological "seed" for the rest of the movie. Ginny, a fatherless tough girl and Morgan take the command, but every actor is given a clear place and time to shine. Also, he doesn't spend time just on technical and action parts, we could see frustrations of Morgan when they're trying to get the safe, Gippo's desire for peace and calm in the home land as well as Kittson's and Ginny's dreams and life goals changing over the course of the events.
For a kid watching this in the 90s, it was an amazing production. Still with me to this day is the last shot of the movie, as well as seing Blake's gray hair with the gun in the mountains.
When rewatching it 30 years later, it still feels fresh. I love the play between Kitson and Ginny, as well as Gippo's struggles. The only complains i have is the somewhat melodramatic overdubbing which perhaps robs the actors of their more true performances (most Baltic productions were over-dubbed in russian, and i'm not sure there's actually an original latvian version). Otherwise, it's a very well done soviet production about having that one last chance in life at happiness.
This is the question that this movie (actually a 3 part series showed on Soviet TV) is asking us.
The plot is very true to the the original novel by James Hadley Chase, a Brittish author, who was wildly popular in Soviet Union. Most of his books took place in USA, without him actually living there, instead he constucted the books and dialog from travelogues and slang dictionaries. This gave the books a somewhat artificial feel. The movie, made "foreign" by a couple of ad boards but mostly getting a lot of cars on the road, shares this feeling of being fake. Every russian could recognize the armoured truck to be a pimped up Lada Niva. But in general, it was pretty convincing, especially with all the americans they could put on the road at the same time, but also casting non-russian actors who looked more foreign. One amusing tidbit besides the Niva is seeing a Captain America T-shirt on the boy who makes friends with the robbers. That could've been a Marvel hero debut behind the Iron Curtain.
Besides the technical side, what drags you in is the always impressive work of Latvian master of detective: Aloizs Brencs. He introduces the players early, and by using simple means builds a compelling technical and psychological "seed" for the rest of the movie. Ginny, a fatherless tough girl and Morgan take the command, but every actor is given a clear place and time to shine. Also, he doesn't spend time just on technical and action parts, we could see frustrations of Morgan when they're trying to get the safe, Gippo's desire for peace and calm in the home land as well as Kittson's and Ginny's dreams and life goals changing over the course of the events.
For a kid watching this in the 90s, it was an amazing production. Still with me to this day is the last shot of the movie, as well as seing Blake's gray hair with the gun in the mountains.
When rewatching it 30 years later, it still feels fresh. I love the play between Kitson and Ginny, as well as Gippo's struggles. The only complains i have is the somewhat melodramatic overdubbing which perhaps robs the actors of their more true performances (most Baltic productions were over-dubbed in russian, and i'm not sure there's actually an original latvian version). Otherwise, it's a very well done soviet production about having that one last chance in life at happiness.
- siggemannen-374-783473
- Nov 20, 2021