"Write me the whole truth..." The directors approached the topic of border guards differently. People's Artist of the USSR and People's Artist of the Turkmen SSR Alty Karliev found his vision of service on the border. And this vision causes some confusion in me. The beginning is quite consistent with the theme: the draftee Ata Muradov (Ata Alavov) spends the last night in a walk with his beloved Leyla Saryeva (Leyla Abukova). Words of tenderness and loyalty. The oath must wait and wait. In general, a good lyrical beginning, which can later "shadow" the difficulties and hardships of the service of a young border guard. That’s only the share of these “thrusts” accounts for a very small part of the total timekeeping. The plot is based on the beautiful story of Oleg Smirnov “Barkhany”, in which the writer with his inherent passion, love for man and great penetration into the inner world of his heroes tells about the Soviet border guards of our days, about a new generation of soldiers – successors and sons of those who fought the enemy during the Great Patriotic War. However, the screenwriters Alta Karliyev and David Markish considered it necessary to significantly “correct” it, after which almost nothing remained of the original source, except for the story, which is believed with great difficulty. I do not understand why it was necessary to so distort the story, which contained all the necessary elements for a good adventure film: dynamics, bright characters, juicy colorful syllable.
It is enough to read just one paragraph to fully feel the authentic atmosphere of the service in the sands: Watches, secrets, ambushes and everything else - morning and evening, day or night. Watches, secrets, ambushes and everything else under the autumn starry sky, when snakes look for heat and crawl to the outpost; and under the winter rain: the first drops soak up in the sand instantly and without a trace, but after five hours the foamy streams wash up the barkhans; and in the spring storm, turning up the supports of high-voltage transmissions, smoking sand to the horizon, in the good time of the riotous flowering of poppies and tulips - but in the daytime from the moskins to the best of June, others hide in the pigeons, from the brons, in the brons, in the best of the brons, from this month. But in general, nothing exceptional. Just a year of service. Three hundred and sixty five days. Even with a ponytail, plus twelve days, to be exact. Twelve days of the second year of service. I didn't notice. Quite the contrary, I was grateful. For being vigilant. In the meantime, the father's essence has been revealed. Why did you have to throw it all away, sucking cartoon characters out of your finger?
Even more bizarre is the pursuit of an intruder. The viewer is a trusting creature and believes a lot of what he sees on the screen. But it is for this very reason that such tense scenes should be filmed if not as reliable as possible, then at least as minimally plausible. In the story we read: "In the eyepieces - stems of dry grass, folds of terrain. Nothing, no one. But what is it? There are blurred spots. They get clearer. Three horses, three horsemen! Horses are difficult, tirelessly trottering, tight bags on them, riders keep the carbine ready. The outfit misses the unknown, and Dolgov, making sure that no one follows these three, gives the command: - Stop! Hands up! Drop your weapon! The rider who was the last rider instantly turns in the saddle, throws up the carbine, shoots at the sound. The bullet sticks around Dolgov's ear. Aiming, he presses the trigger of the machine. A short queue - and the intruder, waving his hands, flies over the horse's head. The other two also open fire on the outfit - near the ear again sulking. Sweat the horses, try to get away. Lines of soldiers' machine guns overtake horses: dropping bags with teriacs, crushing smugglers under themselves, they fall to the ground. Short! Amko! Effective! What does the director show the viewer? Some incredible chase interspersed with footage of Layla. What is Leila, if the nerves are stretched like strings, and blood pulsates wildly in the temples!
The only thing I can not reproach the screenwriters - they picked up the actors, consonant with the names of the main characters of the story: Ata - Andrei, Leyla - Lilya, Fedya - Fedor. But the movie didn’t get any better...