- So that the soul always has sails! Both the director and the screenwriter have their second film job. Valentin Kozachkov managed to shoot a military drama musical “Comrade Song” (1966), and Ivan Ryadchenko – a military film on an extremely rare topic. And the one and the other picture “If there are sails” seem to refer to their previous work: Kazachkov – sailor Uglov (Gennady Yalovych) – “home-grown” opera singer, and Ryadchenko – marine themes. Sometimes it happens that the main character does not like you at all, and the film as a whole causes exceptionally positive emotions. "If there are sails" is such a rare case.
Viktor Semyonov, who performed the captain of the tug "Hercules" Ivan Yelkin, already had experience of seven film projects, and the actor he was held and quite famous. I personally don’t like his character at all. I admit that you can finish school at almost 30 years old, but the point is not even that, but how Yelkin behaves with people. At first glance, it seems that the person he is principled and demanding, but if you dig deeper, you can notice details that do not paint the character at all.
The film is played by brilliant actors, and on their background “dominance” Yelkin is completely invisible. Georgy Yumatov literally several scenes created a deep and in his own way tragic image of Senior Deputy German Georgievich Zharkikh - a man who "erased" life on all sides, but did not lose heart fire. What did Elkin do with his letters? A classic example of the fact that the road to hell is paved with good intentions: do not take on Yelkin an unsolicited “task” – so the Zharkykh would live, cherishing the dream of an unfulfilled dream.
Botsman Mikhail Pugovkin played perfectly. His Timofey Lukyanovich Dudka is the strongest emotional role in the film. How did Elkin treat him? I'm not talking about the barge case (this is perfectly correct), I'm talking about tape recording. A person must be honest with himself in any situation. And here it turns out that in words – “the shirt-boy”, but in fact... In this regard, sensitive to the grief of her husband, Kapitalina Dmitrievna (Nonna Koperzhinskaya) will give such “care” Yelkin 100 points of head start.
The scene with the “staff documentarian” of the tugboat sailor Borsiom Ptashkov, who was beautifully played by Borislav Brondukov, somewhat captivated. After all, he is not an errand boy, and some of the captain's orders can be carried out not so much out of duty as out of respect. I understand perfectly well that the director with funny inserts and scenes of “materialized” rich equipment Yelkin wanted to dilute the topic with humor, but in this case it is not particularly funny.
The relationship with Vika (Taisia Dodina) is unclear. Is this how they treat the relatives of a beloved girl? So it turns out that the actors of the second plan played perfectly, “stirring up” and “leveling” the image of the newly made captain Ivan Yelkin.