Something strange happened to the filmmakers. Heroes flirt, joke, even behave somewhat infantilely. Most importantly, there is no atmosphere of war. That is, the pilots go on a dangerous combat flight, like a regular job. The feeling that there is fighting, not at all. There are some fascists somewhere, they are beaten, bombed, and, in general, life goes on. And there is no exaltation and pathos heroism either. It would be as if we were not military pilots, but, for example, police officers of quite peacetime.
But it's pretty clear. Part of it, of course, is censorship. But more in genre and target audience. This is a typical girl romantic comedy. More songs and you could call it an operetta. Why is such a frivolous genre and such a serious topic? Perhaps the topic of peaceful life was a little premature – and over the war won, it was time to laugh, to ward off the carnival fun gravitated four years over the country horror. And it was necessary to defuse something propaganda pathos.
The film, in fact, is about the fact that everyone is important in war, and there is always a place for heroism. Even if you are piloting a plywood "floor". Victory is not created by airplanes, but by the courage, ingenuity and fighting skills of soldiers. Without a soldier, weapons will not fight themselves, and a good specialist will always perform his task. On the front, there are no big or small tasks, every small victory is a neutralized enemy and the lives of colleagues saved.
However, the idea imposed on the viewer “U-2 is also an aircraft” looked quite dangerous at that time, because it was strange how it did not see a hint of insufficient technical equipment of the Soviet army. Well, really, this film is just some kind of commercial for the legendary biplane. However, the accents are shifted towards the heroism of the Russian soldier, and the latest technology is constantly flashing in the background. And the U-2 is not the case when we can talk about technical backwardness. Just because of the unique TTC biplane did not need to be replaced with anything - for its tasks it, quiet, slow and maneuverable, fit perfectly.
And, of course, this is a movie about love. But there is nothing to say – it is clear that their promise not to look even towards the girls three friends pilot will fulfill with great difficulty. After all, danger exacerbates feelings, and in aviation there are many beauties.
The result: an operetical view of the war, romance with a taste of pre-war Hollywood and the power of suggestion that can make the viewer succumb to aviators. Not a bad movie, they don’t do that now.
7 out of 10
Original