Long ago... For a long time I wanted to write about this film. But... How do you make the reader believe that yes, Squad is really one of our best films about the Great Patriotic War? There's a lot of these movies. The good ones and the good ones are many.
“Torpedo carriers”, “Road check”, “In war, as in war”, “There is no return road”. We all have our own personal list of these films. And to convince someone that his choice is worse than yours? No, it's an ungrateful job. Ungrateful and hopeless.
But I'll try. Maybe someone, after reading it, will find it possible to adjust their list and contribute somewhere, between Twenty Days Without War and Chronicles of the Diving Bomber, and this film, shot in 1984 at the Lithuanian Film Studio.
Already in the next 85th, at the festival in Minsk, Squad will be recognized as the best Soviet film of that year. Special prizes for directing the film will be received in Tbilisi, Yugoslav Kosmai and Bulgarian Gabrovo. But that’s exactly what it is – and nothing surprising. After all, he made a film by Alexei Simonov. Son of Konstantin Simonov.
And this, I think, is the first component, the sum of which led to the fact that “The Squad” became, if not the best film about that war, then one of them.
The second is the actors who starred in the Squad. By the way, for Simonov it was not only a certain risk, but also a departure from the established canons, when in military cinema, especially in the leading roles, already experienced artists, people of age were filmed. At that time, at the very beginning of the war, very young people of 1921, at most 25 years of birth, entered the battle on the eastern borders of the country. These age categories were suitable for young people who had just graduated from various theater studios or schools. They didn’t know the country that was just going to do it. But probably already believed the director who gave them the main roles in this film. And they didn't fail. Played the right thing. And today we know Alexander Feklistov (Sgt. Konstantin Doronin), Sergey Garmash (Ivan Urin), Alexander Peskov (Yurka Okunev), Dmitry Brusnikin (Nikitin), Mikhail Morozov (Kostya Petrov), not only by name. But in the face.
Well, the third component of the success of the Squad is, in my opinion, the film itself.
What is it? According to the short annotation, seven soldiers, who in the summer of the 41st were cut off from their garrison and through the occupied territory, without food and weapons, went to catch up with the units of the retreating Red Army, so that in the final only two of them managed to do it and reach the front line.
One complicated sentence. Behind which the pain and tragedy of the living people who waited for this war and, it would seem, were ready to meet it fully armed. But in reality, things will go very differently, much more terrifying and cruel scenario. Who wasn't in our headquarters. And not our commanders.
We waited. And they were ready...
The film does not begin with war. And the last weeks before the war. In order to take the first shots, plunge us into an atmosphere of anxious expectation: “Worry!”
And part in a hurry removed on the combing ground.
A peaceful sunny summer landscape. There are grasshoppers in the grass. Lithuanian peasants are engaged in ordinary work. They have no time to be distracted when a summer day feeds. Therefore, without stopping the stakes, they throw their short “Labas”, responding to the greeting of a local guide walking in a chain of soldiers combing the terrain.
This peaceful landscape is a hoax. Because somewhere near the enemy, an uninvited guest violated the state border. Clearly not for peaceful purposes. This is probably not the first time.
And the stuffy, moist air doesn't smell like a storm. War. If not everyone, many people understand this. That is why the arguments of Kostya Petrov, who, in unison with the newspaper editorials, begins to argue that in no case should one succumb to provocations, because a non-aggression pact has been concluded with Germany, the hero of Feklistov reasonably objected: “If nothing happens, why should we, the firemen, keep here?”
It will. Very soon. With a powerful and dangerous enemy. And we understand that. When, the saboteur and will not be able to catch, and Yurka Okunev disappointedly stretch - "Shooted", and bewildered raises eyebrows - "Why else?" - on the counter, Nikitinskoe - "And did the right thing." Yes, because he, a saboteur, to the end fulfilled his military duty and was faithful to his oath.
And such, faithful and ready “to the end”, a lot. Still across the border. But they're ready to cross. And when they do, we should not hope that they are also workers and peasants. Only in uniform. But workers! They cannot fight against the world’s first state of workers and peasants. Your country!
Naive? Maybe. But we understand that. And in order for them to understand this then, it took time. Just a little. Already in July, before receiving a flat bayonet attached to the Mauser rifle in the chest, the mortally wounded Ivan Urin, looking directly into the eyes of the German killing him, asks: “Worker? Or a peasant.”
And we understand what he's asking with mockery. Which he's entitled to. Because the God of War gave Ivan the ultimate happiness of dying, knowing that the enemy had paid the highest price for your life. Your life. Not one.
What if God didn’t bring such happiness? Then what? Who is he? The one who couldn't charge the enemy the proper fee?
And this question is answered by Ivan, after they finally got repulsed with the battle of the Germans weapons, and he, attached once and twice to the trophy flask, makes a remark Doronin:
- What, killed a German and a hero?
- Yes, he did. And a hero! Why?
- And Yurka didn't. Then who is he?!
And Ivan, who immediately disappeared, after a short pause answers:
- Jurka just wasn't lucky...
How many people, in the summer of the 41st, were simply unlucky? And they, without taking a living tribute from the enemy, lay down in their land under a small hill rammed with a small sapper blade with a puff on a nearby pine: “Stephan”. From Kursk. No one knew their last names. Didn't have time to ask. It wasn't. Not before.
It does not matter that the land is Lithuanian. And before that, you, unarmed, were shot from the nearest farm. She's hers anyway. Because, besides those from the farm, there is also this Lithuanian. Joined the detachment cadet of the Vilnius Infantry School. To Ivan’s question, “Why are you with us?” I would have gone home to my own," he replies, "My home is the Soviet power.
And then he, this Lithuanian, together with Nikitin, cutting off the Germans from the main group of the detachment saving the downed pilot, shouts to his partner:
"What are you doing?!" The order was: “A few lines and leave!”
But the wounded Nikitin has a choice. Retreat and become a burden to the squad. Or stay here, on this previously unknown forest edge. And he chooses the second. Breaks with a grenade the dial of the only watches for the whole squad. So that the memory of the repressed father-combrig, to whom this watch was given by Tukhachevsky, remained with him and did not go to the enemy. And the grenade... He'll have time to blow himself up with it. And with myself. But before that, turning to the Lithuanian calmly answer him:
"Come back if you had an order."
But he, seeing a broken watch and a laid grenade, will only be able to throw Nikitina indignantly: How could you think such a thing? ?
And they'll die. Both. And each of them will not care who was next to him Russian. Lithuanian... They were both soldiers. Private soldiers of the Red Army.
Yes, they died. And Nikitin. And Lithuanian. And Petrov. And Stepan from Kursk...
They were not destined to take Koenigsberg and Berlin. They didn't sign the Reichstag. They almost all died. But to the end they fulfilled their military duty and were faithful to their oath. They did not stand aside when their land wriggled in agony and screamed in pain.
They did everything they could. And even a little more than we could. Eternal memory. And famous and unnamed...
