Il ne faut jamais changer le lieu d'un rendez-vous

It's a wonderful example of the great Soviet movies shot for the sake of its spectators but not for the regime and its propaganda machine. Even though it does feature some of the latter, it's skillfully incorporated into the thread of the plot and can be considered as rather an indisputable trait of that time: right after the Great Patriotic War the country and its past lie in ruins, and semi-hungry weary people are left with nothing more than aspirations and hopes towards brighter future. Thus, the historical context of Moscow from that period is very natural and believable.

Although its other feature of a slowly unfolding plot might scare some people away, it lets the creators rigorously portray all the details of the detective business from back then. Additionally, it makes the story whole without contradictory bits and pieces.

Finally, it's just pleasantly exciting to watch the main two characters amazingly played by Vysotskiy and Konkin: the ups and downs of their relations, and how they overcome their irreconcilable distinctions and dissents for the sake of justice and their common goal.

The movie is by far the part of that Soviet legacy that the people of the past era are proud of. Adding to that, it is still affecting the cinematography of the modern Russia. Unfortunately, today there are cohorts of low-quality Russian films produced just as petty copies exploiting the ideas of their successor without adding anything new to them.

This film is a masterpiece of the Soviet cinema, comparable to the role "Godfather" has been playing in the American culture. In addition to the brilliant performance by Vladimir Vysotsky, this is an all-star movie with the best Soviet actors of the 70s--80s: Udovichenko, Evstigneev, Kuravlev, Yurski, etc. With its level of dramatism and realistic depiction of Russia of the 40s, the movie is a artistic monument to the WWII generation.

True classics of the Soviet cinematography. Vyssotsky is brilliant, but so are Konkin, Belyavsky, Yursky, Pavlov and all the rest. A suspense, rare for the Soviet movies, is greatly mixed with philosophy. Govorukhin in his best directing effort, a true talent and professional unlike in politics.

This movie is a gem. I was amazed by its storytelling: at first slow, the momentum goes building on, spiralling until you finally get trapped in a never ending suspense. What would be of young Sharapov?

If I had to pick a climax scene, I would say is that when the new recruit of the Moscow Criminal Police ends up having to supper at the same table of the most dangerous Moscow criminal! The story makes here quite a twist, since previously Mr. Visotsky had stealed himself the show, without even giving a chance to his fellow partner.

Simply put, what an amazing way to tell a story.. In this movie it seems like every scriptwriter, assistant, every person in the crew carefully invested his talent and effort into creating a masterpiece. And this actually isn't a movie properly, but a TV mini-series. Having recently seen other East European works like the Dekalog (polish television) and Ironiya sudby, ili S lyogkim parom! (or the Irony of Fate) I can only conclude that the former Soviet television was able to produce a content of the utmost quality.

Having said that, I think it's such a shame that so few Western audiences (if any at all) had been exposed to Soviet culture. But I can not blame them anyway, for two reasons. First, some (and I remark "some") of this content might be ideologically flawed. Secondly, the English subtitles are really poor, and there were parts of this movie where the translation wasn't helpful at all, proving instead to be very confusing.

I'll stop here, since this is not the forum to discuss the deeper meaning of some Soviet content. I'll just recommend you to watch this movie. It's a masterpiece, greater than anything Hollywood could ever produce. Now that this movie is available on DVD from numerous sites on the Web, there's no excuse to give it a chance.

The movie is an almost word by word adaptation of the Vayner brothers classic novel "Era of Mercy" - one of the few good book adaptations I ever saw... and also a good reason why word by word adaptions don't work --> The novel being 350 pages long, the movie turned out at just over 5 hours, broken into 5 series... the original theatrical debut took 3 daily shows... the streets of Russia were empty during the screenings and zero crimes were recorded throughout the country - all the criminals were busy watching the movie. The movie is still shown approx twice a year on Russian TV channels...

So, why do so many people like it? Or, to be more exact, what makes it such a great film?

The "core of the film" - the detective story is excellent, unpredictable, yet logical. The attention to the details of the late 1940's criminal and civil environment is incredible... Sharapov's personal life, and love interest, rather then being just filler between the investigation scenes, do a lot to show us what Volodya is fighting for and what he stands to lose. The film is chalk full of quotes that remain popular even to this day. And, of course, Visotzky...

Every time I see this movie I feel a sharp sense of loss, due to his untimely death... I feel that I should have seen him perform on stage, I film I should have heard what kind of songs he would write when he reached 50, what kind of movies he would enchance with his presence...

Vysotzky isn't the natural casting choice for the the novel's Jeglov. If the film was filmed in the US, a Brian Dennehy type of actor would probably be cast for the role... But Vystozky takes the role of Jeglov, and makes it thoroughly impossible to imagine anyone else in that role...and, as his second to last role, Jeglov defines him...

While the novel ultimately condemns Jeglov's methods and personality, the movie Jeglov remains sympathetic even after we have seen the uglier side of him... not because Vysotzky downplays it, but due to his sheer charisma and force of personality...

Great movie overall, one worth watching time and time again.