An incompetent hack for naive simpletons If you throw aside the veil of patriotism and love for Soviet cinema in general, and look at the film soberly and objectively, the film turned out very weak.
In Soviet times I did not see him.
The source (of the book) is probably much better. And a talentless director can vulgarize any, even the most wonderful work. Which is exactly what happened.
Poor directorial work, unsuccessful selection of the main actors. The story takes place in the northern part of Ukraine.
Here the main actors playing local aborigines - Bronduk (the role of Popelenko) and Fokin (the role of Ivan Kopelyukh) look absolutely alien. There are no locals here!
Just some ' travel ' from Moscow.
The main character (actor Fokin) is absolutely unconvincing, plays some simpleton who alone, openly and without hiding, walks around the village (and its environs) with a carbine (later with a machine gun) and naively extorts information from everyone on bandits, and then sits on a horse and jumps like a Budenovets, (again alone) looking for bandits in the forest. And adventure on your ass, too.
Isn't he an idiot?
Brondukov again plays (as in the film 'Afonya') a simple-minded, cunning, slightly dorky man. It’s a very simple, easy-going role.
But in ' Athos' it was still more organic and interesting.
Other actors who play secondary roles are also unremarkable. It's just a silent herd.
The battle scenes at the end of the film are ridiculous. The main character hits under the bridge with queues from a machine gun (almost point-blank, from a distance of 25-30 meters) on Gorelyom hidden behind a thin log ... and does not get! In return, he does not behave better.
Kindergarten sort of.
The film turned out to be implausible, hulking and stupid ...
Now I understand why it is almost never repeated on TV.