On the road to adulthood This is an amazing movie for many reasons. At the time of filming, its creators were little known. Only then, years later, Yuri Ozerov will become the author of monumental film epics dedicated to the Great Patriotic War: Liberation (1972), Soldiers of Freedom (1977), Battle for Moscow (1985). And Tatiana Grigorievna Sytina in a few years will write the script for the magnificent film “The Unable” (1959), in which there will be notes of her first script “Son”. Both Lakes and Sytin during the Great Patriotic War were in the active army. Tatiana Sytina graduated from the Literary Institute named after M. Gorky in Moscow, and Yuri Ozerov – directorial faculty of VGIK. Sytina began literary activity in 1941 under the pseudonym “T. Ox”, and Ozerov in 1953 shot his first film. Tatiana Grigorievna fate let go of only 50 years of life, and Yuri Nikolaevich survived the USSR for 10 years.
The film “Son” was awarded a diploma at the Venice Film Festival in 1955. Thus, film critics noted the successful work of the entire team. The film starred many famous Soviet actors, but there is a key, title figure in it - this is the main character performed by Kharitonov. After school, Leonid entered the law faculty of Leningrad University, but a year later he decided to devote himself to an acting career, which he dreamed of since childhood. The first role in the film “School of Courage” brought Leonid Kharitonov fame. He starred in it as a student in 1954. In the Studio School, there was a strict rule: students acting in films were automatically excluded from this institution. Therefore, before the filming of the film, Kharitonov refused the offer of director Vladimir Basov. But the Studio School received an official letter from the Central Committee of the Komsomol, and the leadership allowed student Leonid Kharitonov to take part in the filming of the film “School of Courage”.
A year later, the film “Soldier Ivan Brovkin” was released on the screens of the country, after which the young actor became the idol of a generation. For several years, about ten films with Kharitonov in the title role were released. He created the image of a new social hero - kind, modest, charming and "slightly unattractive." Characters Kharitonov not only brought up, but also fun, for which the actor loved the audience of all generations. Today it would be called a sex symbol, and then they spoke in another way - an idol. Kharitonov was an iconic actor of his time: for 10 years - 17 films, most of which are inscribed in golden letters in the history of Soviet cinema. But all this will be a little later, and while Leonid Kharitonov, 25 years old, plays the “problematic” tenth grader Andrei Goryachev, an unstable impulsive young man who does not think much about his “adult” life, until a quarrel with a stranger leads him to the police.
Soviet cinema, for all its entertaining appearance, always carried an educational aspect. For this reason, many paintings will not lose relevance as long as moral values are in demand in society. It is about these undying values that the picture tells. It is not easy to resist a young man who “did not smell life” when his best friend offers to “have fun.” People are entertained in different ways: some sing and dance, others eat cognac chocolates. Some of the upcoming new day will meet the bright sun, smile of friends and good mood, and others – a headache, torn clothes and bitter regret. Today, all these contrasts between “good” and “bad” look a little naive. And the strict framework of the film - in accordance with Stalin's wish "Cinema should be easier" - significantly narrow the emotionality of the main character.
Today's viewer some aspects of the picture will be incomprehensible and even unpleasant. For example, an episode when at a youth evening, young builders mocked the “magnificent” Vasya Kozlov (Victor Geraskin) with his styles of styles. Young people in any regime strive for self-expression, so periodically there are different directions that differ in appearance and worldview from all other social groups. There were those in Moscow in the 50s. No one raided them, just the vast majority did not share such a challenge to society, so the reflection in the cinema was appropriate. But there is a moment in the picture that seemed too exaggerated to me - this is an episode with a convolution. In fact, everything that happened was not worth a fucked-up egg, tell Andrei on the spot the whole truth. Although here you can partially justify the hero: a little drunk, and here – the police, and look, the first drive will remember. So I was confused.
As for the episode with “bathing”, which caused the hero to leave the house, I do not consider it excessive. It's not "housebuilding." This is a way to “wash” the young man from the moral dirt in which he bathed himself. After all, we are not talking about the fact that Andrei Goryaev tried to protect the girl, but about the fact that he was drunk and the first to grasp the stone. Had he been sober, the situation would have been different. There would not have been a movie then. Old paintings, like old people, need to be understood. It is not entirely fair to approach them from the height of the mentality of today’s youth. Yeah, it's a lot of pathos. Yeah, he's got too much edification. But all this is presented to the viewer with a sincere participation in the fate of the younger generation, only choosing its life path.