Thank you for the message Technically, "First Oscar" is a fairly common military film of recent years in Russia. We have already learned how to shoot the Great Patriotic War. In general, in the First Oscar with the picture everything is fine, although you will not see anything outstanding.
But there is something in this film that stands out, for me, against the background of many other modern Russian films about the Second World War (take the same 1941). Wings over Berlin, which are parallel in the box office, namely the message. What is this movie about?
There are 2 main storylines in this film. The first is about the activities of American producer David Selznick, who wants to create a new Oscar nomination (best documentary) and nominate the Soviet film “The Defeat of German Troops near Moscow” (or “Moscow Strikes Back”). I will not dwell on this line in detail, it is rather an addition to the main line.
The main line tells about two young cameramen - Ivan and Lev, who are assigned to shoot material on the front for a documentary. The main conflict of the film is based on their relationship and attitude to how to make documentary films. Ivan believes that reliability is not so important, the most important thing is to convey an ideological message and records encouraging, agitational, and most importantly, staged scenes. And Leo, who is the main character here, on the contrary, believes that it is necessary to show the truth and film the war as it is, with wounded soldiers, crying nurses, destroyed houses and hanged civilians. He does not remove productions and is constantly looking for new shots and ideas around him, in the horror that happens.
And in the film, Leo’s approach turns out to be more correct, because his shooting, rather than Ivan’s shooting, falls into the documentary. So the First Oscar tells us that truth will always be stronger and more sensitive than lies and staging. And this film speaks about the dangers of censorship, even in wartime, and shows that war is a cruel place where people are killed and maimed (both physically and emotionally) and there is nothing good about it.
In general, the First Oscar is a fairly average film from a technical point of view, but who would like to thank for the message that it carries.
6.5 out of 10
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