A Russian twist on the American Western, this "Eastern" opens up with a beautiful woman dressed in red walking across an open green field, carrying two pails of water on her shoulders. This woman ends up being almost the heart of the film, even though she has no real part in the movie. Then reality sets in, and the desert by the Caspain sea is seen. The leading man, Red Army soldier Fyodor Sukhov, is about to return home to his lovely wife (our lady in red) after being away at war when he gets in the middle of a fight, and finds himself in charge of the 9 wives of Abdullah. Throughout the rest of the movie he has to help protect the wives, while they believe themselves to be his. However, his wife seems to be the thing that keeps him going through life as he writes to her every day. He has to help keep the wives safe through the rest of the movie, and keep himself safe to return to his wife, to finally get out of the desert. At the end of the Russian Civil War, Red Army soldier Fyodor Sukhov is ordered to guard the harem of a Caspian Sea guerrilla leader. atmosphere of classic western. adventures and drops of humor. values and sacrifice. the war and its hero. and, sure, the spice of propaganda. result - a film who reminds the sensitivity of a period and the charm of a land. because it has the gift to be a travel in time who remains out by propaganda's circle. for the art of a director who knows explore the story, for the actors who are masters of a good job and for the landscapes. for the fight scenes and for the wise manner to explore each detail. a film for entire family. because it is a splendid window to an impressive part of the past. an eastern. and little more. for the courage and art to be more than entertainment. White Sun of the Desert is a very entertaining and bold movie, to put it simply it's a crowd-pleasing movie. This movie is very good at being what it is, so while it doesn't exist in the realms of high art or ground-breaking experiences, it's certainly worth watching to someone wanting to enjoy an action-adventure with some decent comedy throughout.<br/><br/>The hero is a slightly more Russian classic action hero - impossibly competent and reliable, full of charm and wit, trying to get home to his peaceful life and adored wife but is entangled into a mess caused by the villain. A picture of his character can be almost entirely given in two scenes- while he has the villain cornered he nonchalantly releases a rope resulting in a henchman being knocked out on the other side of a wall; and in a scene where he is cornered instead and the enemies ask him if he would prefer a quick death or a torturous one, he naturally and nonchalantly answers that he would prefer torture- and almost immediately afterwards escapes from his captives with his reflexes and good aim.<br/><br/>The villain is of course capable of despicable acts, talks very friendly to the people he is trying to kill, and is bound to lose. There are of course other characters and aspects to the film, but the hero is the driving force to the extent that, much like James Bond or Sherlock Holmes, another setting with him would produce a very similar film. <br/><br/>Other than the conflict between the characters of the hero and villain, another central conflict is the one between cultures of the two. But that conflict is presented through characters and not necessarily philosophy or politics as might be expected from a soviet union film.<br/><br/>Overall this movie is just fun. It's comfortable trading realism for more exciting scenes, and somewhat trading complexity in characters for likability. It's enough to make the audience care for what happens to the characters and their struggles, and its worth watching.
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295 weeks ago